All the best Thomas and thank you for everything!

January 10, 2022

30 years after Thomas Holenstein founded Generis as a pioneering entrepreneur, after more than 100 accompanied projects and many great successes that are still visible today, our “patron” and entrepreneurial role model has said goodbye to a quieter phase of his life at the end of 2021.

Milestones as an entrepreneur

Thomas was able to develop and build up many projects that will be remembered not only at Generis, but also by our customers or entire regions. One of his greatest successes is the development of the Economic Promotion of the Canton of Schaffhausen, which emerged from an economic crisis, out of a participative development project. As the first economic development agency in Switzerland to be mandated to a private company, Thomas was able to play a decisive and very successful role in shaping the economic development of the Canton of Schaffhausen. The results achieved in the form of several thousand new jobs, hundreds of companies settling in the Canton, as well as a large additional tax substrate flowing to the public purse to this day remain his lasting achievement for the Canton of Schaffhausen.

His early involvement in China from 2003 onwards led to comprehensive China expertise and various mandates at national level from SECO, SDC, BFE, etc., which helped shape development cooperation between Switzerland and China. This was followed by the establishment of the subsidiary in Beijing in 2010 and the successful entry into the Chinese regional development market.
Countless other projects and initiatives by Thomas, which will be felt for a long time to come, have emerged during these 30 years of Generis. At the same time, one of his entrepreneurial successes is the curiosity that has been sustainably anchored in Generis, which has always enabled new developments as a company and which will continue to be nurtured.

Thank you Thomas

With Thomas, we as the Generis team were able to experience a unique time in our company. As an entrepreneurial pioneer, as a mentor for our own development and as a role model in his work, he has significantly shaped us as a team. For several years now, the management of Generis AG has rested on a group of partners who have all been with the company for some time. They will continue to run Generis together with a great team, developing, implementing and operating new entrepreneurial innovations at the interface of politics and business. So that ideas will continue to become realities in the future.

We, as the Generis team, wish Thomas all the best for his future and thank him for all that he has created over the past 30 years and is now handing over into our hands!

Thank you Thomas!