Carl Elsener Sr. (also known as Charles Elsener or Carl Elsener III, born 6 July 1922,

Ibach, Switzerland Ibach is a village in the Schwyz, municipality of Schwyz, itself in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. It lies some to the south of the town centre of Schwyz, at the point where the road from Schwyz to Brunnen bridges the Muota river. A Swiss k ...

† 1 June 2013

Schwyz Schwyz (; ; ) is a town and the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ''Bundesbriefmuseum''. The of ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) was a Swiss

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Life

Carl Elsener was the grandson of Karl Elsener (1860–1918) and the son of . Karl Elsener had opened a factory in Ibach for the production of knives and surgical instruments, from which the knife factory

Victorinox Victorinox () is a knife manufacturer and watchmaker based in the town of Ibach, in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. It is known for its Swiss Army knives. Since its acquisition of rival Wenger in 2005, it has become the sole supplier of mul ...

developed. Carl Elsener led the company initially with his father and his brother Eduard Elsener (b. 1926). After the death of his father in 1950, he took over the management. The Swiss Army Knife is considered to be one of his works. Under the leadership of Carl Elsener Sr., the Messerfabrik became the largest company in the canton of Schwyz. In 1938, Elsener joined the company, which at the time had employed 80 people. At the time of his death, there was well over a thousand employees. Elsener is described as a boss who was able to operate almost all the machines himself, who was traveling in the " Lismerli" or in the blue work coat and who cycled to the factory. He never owned a car. A few years before his death, he felt healthy enough to put in an 80-hour week. In October 2000, Elsner founded together with his brother Eduard Elsener and his son Carl Elsener Jr. as a successor solution, the to ensure the continued existence and further prosperity of the company. The foundation holds 75 percent of the shares of Victorinox AG, another 15 percent belong to the non-profit . The Elsener family owns 10 percent of the shares. After Carl Elsener Sr. died, his son Carl Elsener Jr. (* 1958) has been managing the company since 2007.

Awards

* 2011: Cutlery Hall of Fame Award of Magazine

Blade A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...

References

External links

"Elsener (SZ)"

Historical Dictionary of Switzerland The ''Historical Dictionary of Switzerland'' (Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse; DHS) is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland. It aims to present the history of Switzerland in the form of an encyclopaedia, published both on paper a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsener, Carl Senior Victorinox Swiss businesspeople People from the canton of Schwyz 1922 births 2013 deaths