Dr. Ulrich Kissling was born in Zurich. He studied Machine Engineering at the Swiss Technical University (ETH). He continued his academic career with a doctorate. In 1981, he started his professional career as calculation engineer in a Gearbox Manufacturing Company in Zurich, continued then as Technical Manager and Managing Director.

As calculation engineer for gearbox design, he started to develop software for gear, bearing and shaft layout. In 1985, he named this software KISSsoft and started to market it. In 1986 the first license was sold. In 1998, he founded his own company, KISSsoft AG, to take care of the software activities. Since then, the staff of KISSsoft AG is growing constantly from three people in 1998 to over 40 in 2022. Today the software is the leading drive train design software, used by more than 3500 companies on all continents.

As a gear expert Dr. Kissling is actively participating in different Work Groups of ISO for the development of international standards.