Andreas Meyer passed his Matura type B at the Gymnasium Muttenz in 1980. He then studied law at the Universities of Basel and Fribourg. The son of a railwayman worked as a car cleaner at SBB during his studies. In 1989, he completed and passed his lawyer's exams in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft and in 1995 he received an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau. He began his career as a legal consultant at ABB in 1990, and later as an assistant to the management and project manager at the SBB subsidiary, W + E Environment Technology in Zürich. From 1996 to 1997, he worked as managing director at the German plant construction company, Deutsche Babcock in Oberhausen and Bitterfeld. From 1997 to 2006, Andreas Meyer worked in various positions at Deutsche Bahn AG. He joined DB Energie as Managing Director and became Chairman of the Management Board in 2000. In 1997, he was entrusted with the task of selling the Energy Saving Party. Through renovations, he was able to convince the concern group of a long-term preservation of the Energy Division of the DB Group. In 2004, he became Chairman of the Management Board of DB Stadtverkehr. At the same time, he was also a member of the Executive Board of DB Personenverkehr. From 2005, Meyer was also a member of the Deutsche Bahn AG‘s Executive Board. On 23 June 2006, Meyer, with effect from 1 January 2007, was unanimously elected by SBB's Board of Directors, from 30 candidates, to succeed Benedikt Weibel. Ten of the candidates had extensive interviews. In the 2014 fiscal year, he received a fixed salary of CHF 580,000, as well as a performance-related share of CHF 492,000. With a total of around CHF 1.1 million as income, Meyer is therefore the highest paid employee in a company owned by the Swiss Confederation. In 1996, the total income for SBB CEO Benedikt Weibel was CHF 300,000. On 4 September 2019, Meyer announced his resignation from the top management of SBB by the end of 2020 at the latest.
Controversy
As a result of Meyers's change of position from Deutsche Bahn to SBB, there was controversy about his income in 2008. Within SBB's 2007 annual report, it was shown that Meyer had received an additional bonus on top of his bonus and an extraordinary contribution to the pension fund: SBB Immobilien acquired Meyers German residence and organized its sale to facilitate his change of location. In addition to the media and public debates surrounding this decision, a parliamentary inquiry was initiated by the member of National CouncilJosef Zisyadis.
Family
Andreas Meyer is married, a father of three children and lives in Muri bei Bern. He grew up together with his brother in a railroad family in Birsfelden in Basel.
