Branco Weiss

Branco Weiss (23 April 1929 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia – 31 October 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland) was a Swiss entrepreneur and patron.

Weiss was born into a Jewish family from the Austrian province Burgenland which had settled in Croatia. After his father's death at the hand of the fascists in 1943, Weiss fled with his mother to Italy and later to Switzerland. While growing up in a town on the shore of Lake Constance, he studied literature, art and history and developed an interest in natural sciences. He obtained his high-school diploma in Glarisegg in 1947. Subsequently, he enrolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and graduated there with a degree in chemical engineering in 1951. During his studies he worked part-time as a lab technician. Weiss wrote a thesis on the cost-benefit analysis in the field of Filter (chemistry).

Weiss has established several national and international high-tech companies. Kontron, a company he founded in 1959, was acquired by Hoffmann-La Roche in 1974. He was also the founder of Esec, a provider of semiconductor components that BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. acquired from OC Oerlikon in 2009. These companies were amongst the pioneers of the computer industry. Weiss was the founder and past president of the Swiss Venture Capital Association.

Weiss was a frequent lecturer on innovation and high-tech entrepreneurships. He held lectures at the ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1994 on "Technological Strategies" and on "Management of New Companies". He was a board member and honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Science, an honorary member of the Swiss Engineers and Architects Society as well as the Alumni Association of ETH.

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