Dr. Thomas Bähler

Thomas Bähler is an experienced attorney with a strong business background who provides close and comprehensive personal support to his clients in all corporate phases and through all challenges, often as an “external legal service” and a board member. Thanks to his entrepreneurial experience and insight into various industries and companies as well as his quick, straightforward and active support, he and his team meet the current demands and expectations of dedicated entrepreneurs, SMEs and listed companies. In addition to general business and contract law, he advises his clients in all matters relating to corporate law and legal compliance/corporate housekeeping, as well as in M&A transactions and succession solutions. His work focuses on supporting his clients’ business models (procurement, production, distribution and licensing law, market impact/growth, communication, digital transformation) as well as on cross-border/international legal issues. Thomas Bähler is also active in commercial administrative law as part of his trade association activities, with a further focus on start-ups, technology and financing, hospitality, events and entertainment.

Member of the board of directors of SCG Legal in Washington DC/USA, a global network of 123 independent law firms with more than 12,000 attorneys in 63 countries.

For 25 years, Thomas Bähler has played an active role as chairman, vice-chairman, member or secretary of various boards of directors, including the listed companies Feintool International Holding Ltd. (until 2008) and Biella-Neher Holding Ltd. (until 2015). As Chairman of the Board of Directors, he led the Bernese Oberland Hospital Group Spital STS Ltd. from 2012 to 2021, and the Energy Utility Group Energie Service Biel ESB from 2012 to 2024.

Speaker on business and legal topics, lecturer in commercial law at the University of Bern (2001–2009), lecturer in the program “CAS in Entrepreneurial Leadership” at the University of Bern and at the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine (sitem-insel).

Co-initiator of the Swiss Economic Forum in 1998 and responsible for the Swiss Economic Award for 23 years, member of the Jury. During this time, Thomas Bähler got to know several thousand young Swiss companies, analyzing and assessing more than a thousand business plans in depth. In 2020, he co-founded and became the chairman of the board of the Sitem Startup Club, which runs the Bern MedTech Hub and the MedTech Booster program, among other projects. Member of the Advisory Board of the Swiss startup days, expert at STAGE UP (entrepreneurship center at the University of Bern) and President of the Jury of YOUNGSTERS.

Alongside his professional activities as a lawyer, Thomas Bähler is also the Managing director of national trade associations (recycling and trade) by mandate.