Barbara Frei

Barbara leads Schneider Electric’s global Industrial Automation Business and has served on the company’s Executive Committee since 2019.

Barbara joined Schneider Electric in 2016 as Country President of Germany, and expanded her scope to Zone President of DACH in 2017 (including Germany, Austria and Switzerland). In 2019, she was appointed Executive Vice President, Europe Operations and a member of the Executive Committee. 

Barbara started her career as a development project manager for motors and drives at ABB Schweiz AG. She held various senior management positions in the ABB Group, including regional responsibility as Country Manager Czech Republic, Regional Manager for the Mediterranean in Italy, and leadership of the worldwide drives business.

Barbara holds a PhD in Electrical Machines from ETH Zurich, and an MBA from IMD Lausanne.