Pierre Hemmer was an electronics and computer ETS engineer. In 1975, he worked for Brown, Boveri & Cie. From 1976 to 1979, he was employed by Landis+Gyr then from 1979 to 1988 by Falma-Control Buser AG, as technical director and project manager. From 1988 to 1990, going independent, he participated in the creation of the CIM Centre of Western Switzerland. He became technical director. On January 3, 1995, Pierre Hemmer founded MC Management et Communications SA., a company resulting from the privatization of the telecommunications and information management activities of the Swiss CIM Action Program This company provides internet access to the general public, mainly in the Canton of Fribourg and in neighboring regions. After joining the American group Via Net.Works in October 1999, in 2001, MC Management and Communications SA became Via Net.Works Switzerland SA and extended its coverage. In 2001, Pierre Hemmer founded the firm hemmer.ch SA in Fribourg; he managed it until 2005. Engaged in May 2006 by the Federal Chancellery as Head of Development, and then from April 2008 by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs as Head of eGovernment Services Development, Pierre Hemmer was responsible for initiating a first harmonization of Internet-based government services to all cantons and communes of Switzerland.
Projects and initiatives
In December 1991, Hemmer organized with the CIM Center of Western Switzerland a meeting of international scientific experts regarding cooperation on new production technologies, as part of an Intelligent Manufacturing Systems research program, aiming to "combine resources from Western countries to jointly develop the most advanced production techniques". In May 1995, he launched three initiatives: to create a regional communications network in the canton of Fribourg, with new lines in the field; to create a regional platform for the exchange of marketing information and interactive advertising on the Internet; and to create a training program and didactic support. On June 27, 1995, Hemmer and his company M&Cnet brought on-line the first cyber cafe in French-speaking Switzerland. On January 24, 1997, he and Didier Bordon created Formation-Conseil SA, a company dedicated to training unemployed people. In October 1997, Hemmer and his company M&Cnet connected the Services industriels bullois cable network to the Internet, offering the public on-line services via their televisions, including live radio reception on the web and Internet-based home automation applications. In September 2000, as director of M&Cnet, Hemmer signed a partnership agreement with three other companies - the Entreprises électriques fribourgeoises, Business Computer Dimension in Givisiez, and the Centre informatique des sociétés électriques romandes - aimed at offering their customers a global solution in the fields of telecommunications, Internet and business networks. In October 2000, Hemmer handed over to the State of Fribourg the domain names fribourg.ch, sarine.ch, gruyere.ch, singine.ch, glane.ch, broye.ch and veveyse.ch.
Family
Pierre Hemmer's family was from Rodemack, Lorraine, but acquired Swiss nationality, and citizenship of Romont, in the canton of Fribourg, in 1923. He is the tenth child of François Marie Pierre Hemmer, regent in Orsonnens and Fribourg and teacher at the boys' secondary school in Fribourg, and Madeleine Marie Jambé, born in Châtel-St-Denis, housewife. Cousin of Albert Lebrun, who was President of France from 1932 to 1940, his paternal grandfather Pierre Marie Joseph Hemmer was naturalized Swiss on 15 February 1924 and worked as an engineer for Brown, Boveri. Through his maternal grandmother Françoise Laure Théraulaz, he is the great-grandson of the Swiss politician and a cousin of the architect. On July 24, 1976, Pierre Hemmer married Rose-Marie Hemmer, nėe Sallin, a secretary and housewife, with whom he had four children. She is the sister of the theater director.
