Dr Dieter Spaelti studied law at the University of Zurich, obtaining a doctorate in 1989. He began his professional career as a credit officer with Bank of New York in New York, before taking up an appointment as CFO of Tyrolit (Swarovski group), based in Innsbruck and Zurich, in 1991. From 1993 until 2001, he was with McKinsey & Company, ultimately as a partner, and was involved in numerous projects with industrial, financial and technology firms in Europe, the US and Southeast Asia. In July 2002, he co-founded Swiss-based Spectrum Value Management Ltd, which administers the industrial and private investments of the family Thomas Schmidheiny. He joined Spectrum Value Management Ltd. as Managing Partner and at the beginning of 2006 he became CEO. Since his retirement in May 2021, he remains on its Board. In addition, he serves as member of the Board of IHAG Holding, Switzerland, Alcon, USA, and the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. He is a former Board member of Holcim, a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, as well as Rieter, the world’s leading supplier of spinning machines.

In India he was a Board member of the Mumbai based Edelweiss Financial Services.