Waldkirch/Germany - Gisela Sick passed away last Friday on November 1st, 2024, at the age of 101. From the very beginning, in 1946 in Vaterstetten near Munich, she supported the company SICK until it became the global group it is today.
“Gisela Sick was an impressive personality,” says Dr. Mats Gökstorp, Chairman of the Executive Board at SICK, “and we have so much to thank her for. From day one of our company, she is and remains inseparably linked with our culture, our long-term orientation, and our sustainable success. She was a woman of great courage, creativity and vision, one who paved the way to SICK becoming a global group. We think of her with the greatest respect and will cherish her memory. Our deepest sympathies go to Gisela Sick’s daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.”
When Dr. Erwin Sick received the license for an engineering office from the American military government in a barrack in Vaterstetten near Munich in 1946, Gisela Sick organized both the newly founded company and family life in just 20 square meters of the barrack. She managed the bookkeeping and wrote the first patent applications on her typewriter. In 1954, the family moved to Oberkirch (Baden) to have more space for production. Two years later, they relocated to Waldkirch in the “Bürgerhaus An der Allee.” Products were developed and produced on the lower floors, while the family lived upstairs.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, a second development site was established in Munich. During this time, the family lived in Waldkirch and in Munich.
In the 1970s, the groundwork was laid for the current company headquarters in Waldkirch, and for SICK’s internationalization. Gisela Sick also personally accompanied the founding of subsidiaries, for example in the USA and Japan.
When Dr. Erwin Sick died in 1988, Gisela Sick did not hesitate for a minute to keep the company SICK independent and gave the management and the many long-serving employees decisive support for the growing business development. As a member of the Advisory Board that was established, from 1994 onwards of the Supervisory Board of SICK AG and from 1999 onwards as Honorary Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, she supported all fundamental decisions on the way to becoming a global company. The Executive Board could always depend on her to back the company and its independence and support even bold decisions.
Cultural legacy
To this day, SICK’s employees all rely on the same guiding principle and a foundation of values: developing SICK products for the benefit of people, a goal that Gisela and Erwin Sick proclaimed after the Second World War.
Gisela Sick was passionately dedicated to ensuring the wellbeing of her employees. She represented corporate vision by e.g. supporting training and continuing education, both within the company and outside. To this end, she also founded the Gisela and Erwin Sick Foundation. A host of initiatives to facilitate a healthy work-life balance, particularly through childcare options, and support young people are the direct results of Gisela Sick’s efforts. With the Gisela Sick House of Education (Bildungshaus) in Waldkirch, she publicly underlined her commitment to education and music and gave the town an impressive institution.
According to the laudatory speech held at the awards ceremony for her Federal Cross of Merit on November 13, 2012: “High-quality sensors are valuable in engineering, but also in society. SICK stands for both: for high-performance sensors, but also for empathy. The unique culture and respectful collaboration within the company are to your credit, Mrs. Sick. […] Artistic vision can spur on commerce and technological research. Through your efforts, you bridge the gaps between these fields.”
Gisela Sick maintained close ties to the company to the end, and for many of the ca. 12,000 employees, her personality was at the very core of its identity. With untiring personal interest and love for detail, Gisela Sick accompanied SICK on its way toward a future full of innovation. At the reception to mark her 100th birthday in November 2022, she even took a seat at the grand piano and played for her guests.
Gisela Sick leaves behind a significant legacy, one that the younger generations of the founding family, Senior Management, and staff will honor and build upon. As she said during the company’s 75th anniversary celebrations in the summer of 2021: “For the future, our goal is to spread from our home base in Waldkirch, taking SICK’s intelligent sensors to the rest of the world.” Dr. Mats Gökstorp has taken this challenge to heart: “We will do our utmost to make her wish come true.”
Dr. Robert Bauer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at SICK: "We are losing a great personality in Gisela Sick. Through her natural authority combined with a great social aspiration, Gisela Sick had an impact far beyond the company. Her modest matter-of-factness, with which she lived her values, is a legacy and underlines her impressive life's work. My sincere condolences go out to the Sick family."
Extensive civic engagement and awards
1993 Honorary Pin in Gold, awarded by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce
1995 Award for decades of personal support for vocational training options
2002 Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Business, awarded by the State of Baden-Württemberg
2002 Creation of the Gisela and Erwin Sick Foundation
2009 Service Medal, awarded by the State of Baden-Württemberg
2011 Named an honorary citizen by the City of Waldkirch
2012 Awarded the Federal Cross of Merit
2017 Opening of the Gisela Sick House of Education
SICK is one of the world’s leading solutions providers for sensor-based applications in the industrial sector. Founded in 1946 by Dr.-Ing. e. h. Erwin Sick, the company with headquarters in Waldkirch im Breisgau near Freiburg ranks among the technological market leaders. With 60 subsidiaries and equity investments as well as numerous agencies, SICK maintains a presence around the globe. SICK has more than 12,000 employees worldwide and generated a group revenue of EUR 2.3 billion in the 2023 fiscal year. Additional information about SICK is available at www.sick.com