Franz Adam will hand over the presidency of the ZAR Foundation to Kurt Morgan at the end of 2025, who was elected as his successor at the Foundation Board meeting on 4 December 2025. Dr Christian Schucan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KEZO, was elected as Vice-Chairman of the Foundation Board.
Franz Adam, one of the main initiators and founders of the Foundation “Center for Sustainable Use of Waste and Resources” (ZAR) in 2010, has been with the foundation since its inception. He was also instrumental in enabling the foundation to significantly and noticeably expand its field of activity. After the first competence centre at the site of the Zurich Oberland Waste Utilisation Association (KEZO) in Hinwil, Zurich, which focused on bottom ash from waste to energy (WtE) or so called thermo-recycling plants and mechanical process engineering, two additional centres of competence were established for other environmentally relevant topics in the circular economy. In 2014, the centre of competence for hydrometallurgy was founded in collaboration with the sponsors of KENOVA AG (formerly Kebag AG) at the site in Zuchwil in the canton of Solothurn, and in March 2022, the CO2 centre of competence was founded with the KVA Linth waste to energy plant in Niederurnen in the canton of Glarus.
After 16 years as a member of the Foundation Board, including seven years as President, he is now taking well-deserved retirement from his work for the ZAR Foundation. At its meeting on the 4th of December, the Foundation Board expressed its sincere gratitude to him for his tireless, far-sighted commitment to the Foundation and thus to urban mining and the circular economy.
Kurt Morgan, Managing Director of NEROS Network Mineral Resources Switzerland and a member of the Foundation Board since 2018, is looking forward to his new role and thanks the Foundation Board for the trust it has placed in him.
There will also be a handover at the operational level. Daniel Böni is retiring and will hand over the management of the foundation to Dr Leo Morf on 1 January 2026.
Daniel Böni played a key role in the establishment of the ZAR Foundation on behalf of the Zurich Oberland Waste Utilisation Association (KEZO). Since its inception, he has led the foundation as managing director with a goal-oriented approach and far-sighted and persistent commitment. In collaboration with his employees and innovative industry partners, he has been instrumental in achieving significant technological advances and the associated major environmental benefits in thermal waste treatment (thermo-recycling) over the past 15 years. He is now entering his well-deserved retirement.
The Foundation Board also expressed its sincere gratitude to him for his extraordinary commitment to the ZAR Foundation.
Dr Leo Morf, who has chaired the Technical Advisory Board since the foundation was established and was responsible for thermal waste treatment plants at the Office for Waste, Water, Energy and Air (AWEL) for the Canton of Zurich for 16 years, will take over as Daniel Böni's successor as Managing Director from 1 January 2026.