Swiss media is reporting that Marenco Swisshelicopter founder and CEO Martin Stucki is leaving the company, and has been replaced. The company, now flying the second prototype of the single-turbine SKYe SH09 helicopter is lagging behind on its delivery schedule and is not expected to make first customer deliveries until 2018. Air Zermatt has been named as a customer.

Marenco has 150 employees at Pfäffikon and Mollis, as well as smaller units in Germany and South Africa.  The company is reportedly funded by the Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut. He is represented on the board of directors of Marenco Swisshelicopter by Marina Grönberg.

The new CEO is named by several sources as Andreas Loewenstein. Although born in Germany and educated there with a Law degree, he then gained a Law masters degree in Canada, followed by an MBA in France. Loewenstein holds French citizenship, and worked for various EADS organisations from 1991 to 2010 in Strategic Analysis and Planning roles. Of particular note, he joined Eurocopter in 1994 as Group VP Strategy & Business Development, with responsibilities covering alliances, mergers and acquisitions.  As part of that, he was closely involved in the integration of the various units to form the single global brand we know today as Airbus Helicopters.

In 2010 Loewenstein moved to French naval systems company DCNS as Executive VP Strategy & Development, where he was in charge of the deployment of the growth strategy of the company. He is also the lead for the Renewable Marine Energy incubator, a DCNS operational business unit.

The one aspect which is unclear at present is the ongoing links with the departed Martin Stucki.  Marenco Swisshelicopter shares its headquarters and design office with sister company Marenco SwissEngineering, fully owned by Stucki.  These offices are located within a converted cider factory that belonged to the Stucki family

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com