The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has appointed Urs Lehmann, former ski racer and head of Swiss Ski, as its first CEO. Lehmann will report to Johan Eliasch, the President and majority shareholder of FIS, who was also the former CEO of the ski equipment manufacturer Head.
Lehmann will leave his post as president of Swiss Ski, the winter sports federation for Switzerland, at the end of September.
Lehmann was an active ski racer until 1997, with the 1993 downhill world championship title in Morioka as the highlight of his career. A Doctor of Economics, he was elected president of Swiss-Ski in 2008. Lehmann was a member of the FIS Council from 2021 to 2024. From 2009 to 2024, he served as CEO of Similasan, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and has since 2024 been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Similasan Group.
The Swiss official will assume the newly created role at FIS during the FIS Technical Committee Autumn Meetings, scheduled for September 23–27. FIS, formerly known as the International Ski Federation until 2022, is the international governing body for skiing and snowboarding.
The announcements came on Friday, August 15, in statements from FIS and Swiss-Ski.
“I’m really looking forward to this new challenge,” Lehmann said in the Swiss Ski press release. “After the very positive development of our collaboration with FIS President Johan Eliasch over the past few months, we now want to lead FIS into the future with our combined strengths – together with Secretary General Michel Vion, the entire FIS team, and the member federations. I want to be a bridge builder.”
“Urs Lehmann’s vision of making Switzerland the number one skiing nation again has become reality,” said Swiss-Ski co-president Peter Barandun. “The Swiss-Ski family is extraordinarily grateful to Urs for everything he has done for Swiss snow sports. We are already looking forward to working together in the new constellation.”
“We are delighted that Urs will join the FIS leadership,” said Eliasch and FIS Secretary General Michel Vion in the FIS statement.
Eliasch continued, “Strengthening our leadership with Urs is an important step to ensure we are best positioned to meet the major challenges of the coming years.”
Images courtesy FIS/Urs Lehmann
