Switzerland Presents "Tell Awards" for Significant Investment Projects from the U.S.

NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Switzerland will officially recognize IBM, InterMune, KAYAK, Maxwell Technologies and Procter & Gamble with the 2012 "Tell Awards," presented for significant recent inward investment projects from the Americas, reports Daniel Bangser, Director North America for Switzerland Trade & Investment Promotion.

In a program hosted by Bloomberg at its Headquarters in New York on October 30, the awards named for legendary Swiss hero William Tell will be presented to senior executives of the companies by H.E. Manuel Sager, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States. A discussion of projects they are working on and strategies they employ to make them successful will be followed by a cocktail networking reception.

Dating from 2004, the Tell Awards program is sponsored by Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion, the Swiss federal agency that assists companies expanding internationally, including American companies evaluating Switzerland's competitive advantages and navigating the setup process.  Previous Tell Award winners include Abbott, Bombardier, Sigma-Aldrich, Disney Research, Yahoo!, Medtronic, Autodesk, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, eBay, and Google.

"Switzerland continues to attract investment projects due to its attractive overall business climate including high rankings in key investment selection criteria," Mr. Bangser says. "For example, in the World Economic Forum's 2012-13 Global Competitiveness Report Switzerland holds the top position for the 4^th consecutive year. Although the country is not a member of the European Union, Switzerland also outperformed all 27 EU member states in the 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard."

2012 Tell Awards Honorees:

IBM Research (Armonk, NY), for the new Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center for exploratory research, demonstrating the magnitude of innovation and reinvestment in Switzerland (Dr. Matthias Kaiserswerth, Director and Vice President)

InterMune (Brisbane, CA), a biopharmaceutical company that established its European headquarters to prepare and lead the successful launch in Europe of the first approved drug for IPF, a rare lung disease with a prognosis worse than most cancers (Giacomo  Di Nepi, SVP and Managing Director, Europe)

KAYAK (Norwalk, CT), the online travel technology company that acquired a German competitor and consolidated all central functions at a new European Headquarters in Switzerland (Steve Hafner, CEO and Co-Founder)

Maxwell Technologies (San Diego, CA), global leader in energy storage and power delivery solutions, for its new Competence Center consolidating R&D, manufacturing, logistics and marketing  (Mark Rossi, Chairman, Maxwell Technologies, Inc., and Senior Managing Director, Cornerstone Equity Investors, LLC; and Sacha Jenny, General Manager of Maxwell Technologies SA and Vice President of High Tension, Maxwell SA)

Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati, OH), one of the largest US employers in Switzerland, for substantial extension of the Health Care business at their Geneva Headquarters. (Winston Griffin, Vice President P&G Global Operations; Carolyn Brehm, Vice President P&G Global Government Relations and Public Policy; and Frederique Reeb-Landry, Director-General Public Affairs, P&G Switzerland)

For more information on the program and speakers, please visit: www.bloomberglink.com/tellawards.

Follow Switzerland Trade & Investment on Twitter (@CH_Business).

Follow Bloomberg on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (@BBGLINK). The hashtag for this event is #BBTellAwards.

SOURCE Switzerland Trade & Investment Promotion