AS revealed in yesterday’s Daily Echo, Markus Liebherr is a member of one of Europe’s top family business dynasties.

He is a son of the late Hans Liebherr, who started the company – one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction machinery – 60 years ago in Germany.

Markus was given equal shares in the German holding company in the 1980s when the business moved its management headquarters to Switzerland.

He later handed most of his shares back to his family, and he has been running his own group of companies, the Mali Group, since 1994.

In his higher education career, Markus studied engineering with an agricultural focus The Mali group contains five independent businesses, all belonging to the MALI Markus Liebherr International group whose head offices are in Fribourg, Switzerland.

● One of the companies is CRT Common Rail Technologies AG based in Beringen, Switzerland – a business concerning the ‘research and design of common rail systems’.

● Another of his companies is Mali Motan AG, also based in Beringen and concerning the ‘manufacturing and sales of CVT transmissions and common rail systems.”

● A third company is the German-based BSG Bodensee Steuergeräte – its primary business being the ‘research, design, manufacturing and sales of electronic control units for common rail injection and transmissions.”

● MALI Spezialfahrzeuge GmbH based in Eberhardzell, Germany, concerns ‘research and design transmission technology.’ ● MALI Spezialfahrzeugbau GmbH, based in Elbe, Germany, deals with ‘research, design, manufacture and sale’ of offroad vehicles.

The group’s website says: “Our ideology is dealing with the development of leading-edge products oriented at the market that follow technologically new ways and show ecologically a large potential.”