Gilbert Achermann is the Chairperson of Straumann, the global leader in implant dentistry; board member of Julius Bär, the private bank, Ypsomed, a selfcare solutions company and Vifor, a pharma company. In addition he is a jury member of Venture Kick and member of the board of the Swiss Medtech association. Gilber is also Chairman of the Audit Committee (AFRC).

Prior to becoming Chairperson, Gilbert served as CFO and CEO at Straumann. His previous positions include Chairperson and Co-CEO of the Vitra Group, a family-owned furniture and shopfitting company. Prior to that he held positions as the Chairperson of Siegfried, a listed pharma service company, and Vice Chairperson of the Moser Group, a privately owned luxury watch company. He began his career at UBS in investment banking.

Gilbert holds an EMBA from IMD and joined IMD in July 2016 as Executive-in-Residence.

Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko started as the President of Marimekko Corporation, the leading Finnish design house renowned for its bold prints and colors, in April 2015. A year later she also became the company's CEO.

Prior to her current role at Marimekko, Tiina acted as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) since August 2014. Since 2011, Tiina also led the company's Marketing Communications and Public Relations until her current role. Her career in this fast internationalizing creative company began some 10 years ago in International PR.

Tiina has a Master of Science in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics, a CEMS Master in International Management from Groupe HEC Paris and Helsinki School of Economics, and she has done further studies at Harvard and IMD Business Schools. She frequents as a guest lecturer and is a member of Aalto University Student Union's (AYY) Honorary Council and Alumni Advisory Board of Aalto University School of Business.

Tiina was elected as the Young Leader of the Year 2015 by the Junior Chamber International Finland and is the patron of the competition in 2018.

Hana Al Rostamani has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. She has recently got the title of Group Head of Personal Banking in FAB and before Head of the Consumer Banking Group at FGB since 2014, leading the consumer bank vision towards customer centricity and digitization.

She was also the chairperson of the board of Aseel Islamic finance, as well as chairperson of Dubai first finance company. Hana served as an independent director in Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (DU) and vice chairperson of the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Services (EIBFS).

Hana has a master's degree in Information Management from the George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA.

Vinita Bali is a global business leader with extensive experience in leading large Companies both in India and overseas. She has worked with eminent multinationals like The Coca-Cola Company and Cadbury Schweppes PLC in a variety of Marketing, General Management and Chief Executive roles in the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, Latin America and the USA, in addition to Britannia Industries Ltd., in India.

Effective April 2014, Vinita moved from a full-time operational role as MD & CEO of Britannia to pursue her wide-ranging interests in the corporate and development sectors. She is a Non-Executive Director on the Global Boards of Smith & Nephew plc, and Bunge Limited; and Chairman of GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), a Swiss Foundation based in Geneva. She also served on the Global Board of Syngenta International AG from April 2012 to June 2017. In India, Vinita serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of CRISIL Ltd and Syngene International Limited; is a Member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore; and an Advisory Board Member of PwC. She brings a global and pragmatic perspective to strategy, marketing, innovation and operations, having worked across countries and continents, with responsibility for global and regional roles.

Vinita was among 27 global leaders appointed by the UN in 2012 to help improve maternal and child health as part of its SUN (Scaling up Nutrition) initiative and completed her term in 2016. She has been recognized in forums nationally and internationally and won several awards for her various contributions to business and society.

Vinita has an under-graduate degree in Economics from the University of Delhi and a Masters in Management from the University of Bombay. She also pursued post-graduate studies in International Business from Michigan State University.

Joan Beets, a Dutch national, currently based in Zürich, is a Partner at Kennedy Fitch, a boutique HR Executive Search & Consulting firm, specialized in HR Consulting and Coaching, Switzerland. She focuses on helping organizations create HR functions that are strategic, agile, data-driven, and value-adding.

With more than 15 years of HR experience within leading organizations in global and regional roles focused on HR Strategy, Organizational Development, Change Management and Transformation, she has been previously Director of HR Strategic Planning and PMO and Director of Talent Mobility & Diversity at The Adecco Group.

She is an active IMD Alumni:
- Since 2012 she manages the continuation of the Welshe Women’s Award for best all‐round female in the MBA class.
- Since 2018 she is a Member of the IMD Alumni Advisory Committee.
- Since 2019 she is a Volunteer Coach for the MBA Alumni Career Services.

Mr. Thomas Buberl holds a Master of Economics degree from WHU Koblenz (Germany), a MBA from Lancaster University (UK) and a PhD in Economics from the University of St.Gallen (Switzerland). In 2008 he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Thomas Buberl worked at the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant for the banking & insurance sector in Germany and abroad. From 2005 to 2008, he had worked for the Winterthur Group as member of the Management Board of Winterthur in Switzerland, first as Chief Operating Officer and then as Chief Marketing and Distribution Officer. Then, he joined Zurich Financial Services where he had been Chief Executive Officer for Switzerland.

From 2012 to April 2016, he was Chief Executive Officer of AXA Konzern AG (Germany). In 2012, he has been member of the AXA Executive Committee. In March 2015, he became Chief Executive Officer of the Global Business Line for the Health Business and joined the AXA Management Committee. In January 2016, Mr. Thomas Buberl was also appointed Chief Executive Officer of the global business line Life & Savings.

From March 21, 2016 to August 31, 2016, Mr. Thomas Buberl was Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Directeur Général Adjoint) of AXA. Since September 1, 2016, Mr. Thomas Buberl has been Chief Executive Officer and director of AXA.

Ronan Cassidy has become Chief Human Resources and Corporate Officer on January 1, 2016. He has become a member of the Executive Committee. He also holds regional responsibility for Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Nigeria), Human Resources, Aircraft, External Relations, Health, Real Estate and Security.

After graduating from Worcester College, Oxford University (United Kingdom) with a BA in Modern History, Mr Cassidy joined Shell in Aberdeen in 1988 in Human Resources.

He has held a variety of human resources positions across the Upstream and Downstream Businesses in the UK, China and The Netherlands. He was VP HR for the Global Retail business (2004 to 2008), Executive Vice President Strategy & Regional Coordination (2008), then Executive Vice President HR Downstream (2009-2013) before taking on the role as Executive Vice President Upstream International from September 1, 2013.

He started his career as an intern at Credit Suisse in Geneva in 1993. For 12 years he held various positions including CFO of the Private Banking division and COO Europe, Middle East and North Africa. In 2006 he joined Bank Julius Baer as its COO and later became CEO of the Investment Solutions division. He was named CEO of Julius Baer Group and Bank in 2009. Boris has spent most of his career abroad, including five years in Asia after working in London and a number of European countries. He was managing partner of the Pictet Group between June 2018 and September 2021.

Boris F.J. Collardi holds the following external mandates:

Member of the Board and the Committee of the Govering Board of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Bankers Association;

Member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne;

Member of the Advisory Board of the Wealth Management Institute of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore;

Honorary Member of the Board of the INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World.

Jo Deblaere is Accenture’s chief operating officer, responsible for leading the company’s business operations globally, executing Accenture’s business strategy and ensuring operational excellence company-wide. Mr. Deblaere is also chief executive—Europe with overall leadership responsibility for Accenture’s business in Europe, covering the company’s presence in more than 20 countries in Europe. In addition, Mr. Deblaere leads enterprise risk management for Accenture, working across the company to identify, assess and actively manage enterprise risks. He is a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee and chairs Accenture’s Capital Committee.

Prior to becoming COO in September 2009, Mr. Deblaere was chief operating officer of Accenture’s outsourcing business globally, a position he held since 2006. In this role he was instrumental in driving operational excellence across Accenture’s $9 billion outsourcing business and in leading Accenture’s outsourcing industrialization agenda.

From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Deblaere led Accenture’s global network of business process outsourcing delivery centers. From 2000 to 2005, he had overall responsibility for Accenture’s work with public-sector clients in Western Europe. Earlier in his career, he worked with numerous clients in a variety of industries including automotive, metals, energy, chemicals, media and entertainment, and public service.

Mr. Deblaere represents the company as part of the BUSINESSEUROPE Corporate Advisory and Support Group. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement–Young Enterprise Europe and a member of the Board of Governors of Junior Achievement Worldwide.

Mr. Deblaere joined Accenture in 1985 and became a partner in 1996. He holds a degree in business administration and information management from KU Leuven in Belgium. Mr. Deblaere is based in Brussels.

Alain Dehaze is CEO of the Adecco Group, the world’s leading workforce solutions partner. Through its international brands Adecco, Modis, Badenoch & Clark, Spring Professional, Lee Hecht Harrison, Pontoon, Adia and YOSS, the Adecco Group is making the future work for everyone.

As a Fortune Global 500 Company, the Adecco Group connects 700,000 job seekers with rewarding employment every day, helps 350’000 people yearly to transition to work, and supports more than 100,000 organizations with the talent, advice and cutting-edge technology they need to succeed in an ever-changing and highly-competitive global economy. With 33,000 full-time team members in 60 countries, the Adecco Group ranked 11th on the 2019 World’s Best Workplaces list, the only workforce solutions company in the top 25.

The 54-year-old Belgian national is graduated as a commercial engineer at the ICHEC Brussels Management School before rising through the ranks at Henkel and ISS. He joined the workforce solutions sector in 2000, when he was appointed Managing Director of Creyf’s Interim in Belgium. His path took him to the CEO position at Solvus, COO of USG People – when the latter took over Solvus – and CEO of the Dutch staffing services company Humares between 2007 and 2009. Alain joined the Adecco Group in 2009 as Member of the Executive Committee, responsible first for Northern Europe, then for the Group’s largest market France before taking on the CEO position in September 2015.

Alain plays an active role shaping the labour markets of tomorrow as member of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work, board member of the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) and as Steward of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Center for the New Economy and Society. Before becoming CEO of The Adecco Group, he also held board positions at sector level with the World Employment Confederation, including the Vice-Presidency of the World Employment Confederation Europe (formerly EUROCIETT).

Henrik Ehrnrooth has been Chief Executive Officer and President of KONE Corporation since 2014. From 2009 Mr. Ehrnrooth served as the company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to KONE, Mr. Ehrnrooth held several positions in the banking industry, last serving as Managing Director of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. He began his career in the early 90s at UBS Limited in London. 

Mr. Ehrnrooth holds a M.Sc. (Econ) degree with a major in finance from the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

Annika Falkengren has been a Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group since August 2017.

Mrs Falkengren holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Stockholm.

She was formerly President and CEO of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), one of the major financial groups in Scandinavia, where she spent her career from 1987 to 2017. She held several positions of responsibility, including Head of Global Trading & Capital Markets, Head of Merchant Banking and Deputy Group Chief Executive, before being appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in 2005.

Mrs Falkengren manages the Group’s Finance & Corporate Tax, Risk Management, Logistics, Marketing and Communication Units. She is responsible for the One Roof Project, which will see Lombard Odier move to its new headquarters in Geneva in 2023, as well as the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.

Mrs Falkengren was a member of the Board of Directors and then Chairman of the Swedish Bankers' Association from 2010 to 2017. She has also been a member of the Boards of Directors of several large international companies.

She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) and a member of the Foundation Board of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

Former Directeur Général Délégué of Areva NP, Bernard Fontana holds a degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées in Paris.

His career began with Groupe SNPE in France. In 1998, he was appointed head of US operations, and from 2001 to 2004 was a member of the Executive Committee. Shortly after joining ArcelorMittal in 2004, he was given responsibility for HR, IT and business development at Flat Carbon. From 2006 to 2007 he was a member of the Executive Committee of ArcelorMittal with responsibility for the Automotive Worldwide Business Unit. In his capacity as Group Management Committee member, he was subsequently responsible for HR and the global alliance with Nippon Steel.

From 2010 until 2011 Bernard Fontana was CEO of Aperam, a Luxembourg-domiciled listed corporate group that was spun off from ArcelorMittal in the fall of 2010. From January 2012 to July 2015, Bernard Fontana has been the CEO of Holcim Ltd.

Harsh Goenka has served as Chairman of RPG Enterprises, which was founded by his father in 1979, since 1988.

Mr Goenka  graduated in economics from the St. Xavier’s College (India) and holds an MBA from IMD. He began his career as Managing Director of CEAT Ltd before taking up his current position.

Mr Goenka is also a Special Invitee of the Indian Merchants Chamber, a member of the National Executive  Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and a board member of India’s  National Gallery of Modern Art. He serves on the Governing Board of India’s  National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) and as a trustee of the  Breach Candy Hospital Trust, and promotes the CEAT cricket ratings for international  and domestic cricket.

Michael Hengartner, a Swiss-Canadian citizen, was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1966 and grew up in Québec City, Canada. He studied biochemistry at the Université Laval in Québec City. After earning his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz, he was head of a research group at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA from 1994 to 2001.

In 2001, he was appointed professor for molecular biology at the newly created Ernst Hadorn Chair at the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich. From 2009 to 2014, he acted as dean of the Faculty of Science and from 2014 to 2020 as rector of the University of Zurich. From 2016 to 2020, he also served as president of swissuniversities.

Michael Hengartner holds an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne and is the recipient of several awards for his groundbreaking research on the molecular basis of apoptosis, among them the Swiss National Latsis Prize. In 2010 he was awarded the Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching at UZH and in 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne University in recognition of his research in molecular biology and his services to society.

Nouria Hernandez performed her thesis research on mRNA splicing with Dr. Walter Keller at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and received her PhD in 1983. She did her postdoctoral studies with Dr. Alan M. Weiner at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, working on 3’ end formation of the U1 small nuclear RNA. She then joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, in 1986 as an Assistant Professor.

She became a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor in 1993 and joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an Associate Investigator in 1994. She became a full Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 1999. In 2005, she joined the faculty of the UNIL as a Professor and as the Director of the Center for Integrative Genomics (CIG).

As of August 2016, she is the Rector of the University of Lausanne.

Karen Huebscher is a Swiss/British citizen, Chairwoman of the audit committee, Tecan Group Ltd, CEO of Solvias AG and Founder and Managing Director of FibulaMedica AG. Karen is an accomplished Board‐level executive with a strong record in the Life Sciences industries.

She has served as CEO of Solvias since 2014. Solvias is a service provider to the Pharmaceutical, Biotech, Generics, Medtech and Cosmetics industries. As CEO of Solvias, managed the turnaround and transformation of the privately held company from 2014 until 2020, achieving a CAGR of 12% in revenue growth and triple-digit EBITDA expansion. In February 2020, the company signed a share purchase agreement with two PE investor groups, Water Street Healthcare and JLL Partners. The deal was closed after achieving all required closing conditions despite the Coronavirus pandemic. Karen remains a significant shareholder in the company.

Karen has also founded and led FibulaMedical AG, a Switzerland‐based developer of MedTech products known for its US patents for a signature surgical bone drill in 2012. Karen’s company also provides consulting to large players in the pharmaceutical industry including AstraZeneca, Boeringher Ingelheim, etc.

Prior to creating FibulaMedical, Karen spent 15+ years at Novartis AG where she held Global top 400 positions in the Group such as Global Head of Investor Relations, Member of divisional Executive Committee and Innovation Board for Vaccines and Diagnostics.

In addition to her executive track‐record, Karen is a committed champion of Swiss excellence in Life Sciences Management: she currently sits on the Board of Tecan Group, a global leader in Life sciences robotics and diagnostics listed in Zurich, and on the Board of SMG, the Swiss Management Association.

As IMD EMBA alumni, Karen also holds a Master’s Degree in Animal Sciences and a PhD in Natural Sciences, both from ETH Zurich.

Ilham Kadri is CEO and President of the Executive Committee of Solvay, a materials, chemicals and solutions company which through its science, innovations and purpose contributes to protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering a better life.

Under her mandate to unleash Solvay’s potential and her purpose‐driven leadership, the group launched its strategy G.R.O.W. to drive growth, cash and returns through distinct business mandates, a unifying operating model and a forceful customer culture; its holistic and bold Solvay One Planet sustainability objectives to drive superior long‐term value creation; as well as Solvay’s Purpose and compass: We bond People, Ideas and Elements to Reinvent Progress with the vision to create sustainable shared value for all.

Dr. Kadri is a world citizen who has worked across four continents with leading chemical and packaging multinationals like Dow and Sealed Air, and in markets ranging from automotive and aerospace to water desalination, hygiene and healthcare. Before Solvay, Ilham Kadri was CEO and President of U.S.‐based hygiene and cleaning solutions provider Diversey, having led its purposeful turnaround and growth, subsequent spin off and divestiture.

Ilham Kadri is an independent board member at A.O. Smith and L’Oréal. She is an Executive Committee member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), steering committee member of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) and a permanent member of the International Business Council (IBC), part of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The common themes in Ilham Kadri’s personal and professional life are education, inclusion and diversity as well as sustainability, topics she strongly advocates to help create more equal opportunities, prosperity and a healthier planet for future generations. She is committed to promoting women in STEM. She’s the founder of the ISSA Hygieia™ Network, a U.S.‐based foundation championing women in the hygiene industry. In 2020, soon after the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, she created the Solvay Solidarity Fund, building followership with employees and shareholders to support Solvay colleagues and their families in need. In a matter of weeks, the Fund collected 12 million euros and the initiative inspired other companies to follow suit.

In 2019, she entered Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in International Business, ranking 21st out of 50.

Dr. Kadri holds a degree in chemical engineering from L’École des Hauts Polymères in Strasbourg and a PhD in macromolecular physico‐chemistry from Strasbourg’s Louis Pasteur University.

Jouko Karvinen is Chairperson of the Supervisory Board for Finnair Plc., and a member of the international advisory board of Komatsu Corporation. He is also a member of the Audit Committee (AFRC).

Prior to becoming Chairperson, Jouko was Vice Chairperson of Finnair from 2016 to 2017. Previously, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Valmet from 2016 to 2018, serving on the Compensation Committee. Prior to that, he was at Nokia, where he served as Vice Chairperson of the Supervisory Board from 2013 to 2016, Chairperson of the Audit Committee from 2012 to 2016, Chairperson of the Nomination and Governance Committee from 2013 to 2014, and a board member from 2011 to 2016.

In addition, Jouko was a member of the Supervisory Board of SKF from 2010 to 2016. He was CEO of Stora Enso Oyj from 2007 to 2014, and CEO of Philips Medical Systems Division from 2002 to 2006. He was a member of Board of Management of Royal Philips Electronics in 2006 and Group Management Committee from 2002 to 2006. Earlier in his career, Jouko held executive and managerial positions at ABB Group Limited, including Executive Vice President, Head of Automation Technology Products Division and Member of the Group Executive Committee.

Jouko holds a Master of Science from Tampere University of Technology.

Norwegian, Liselott Kilaas has over twenty years of international top management experience resulting in a proven track record in strategic and operational performance development across a broad spectrum of businesses. The last 10 years Ms Kilaas was working in the healthcare sector and was the CEO of Aleris 2013‐2017.

Ms Kilaas has extensive Non‐Executive Board and Committee experience from 2004 and ranging from central banking, investment funds, telecom, technology, branded consumer goods, healthcare, medical technology, aluminum, media to shipping. The first two board assignments were with the Central Bank of Norway (also responsible for the Norwegian Sovereign Fund), a board position held for 12 years and Telenor a board position held for 10 years.

Ms Kilaas is currently working with companies which are listed, private equity owned and governmental owned. She is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of Norsk Hydro ASA, Orkla ASA, Ambea AB, Peab AB, Nobina AB, Norwegian Sovereign Fund and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coala Life, Implantica AG, Avonova AB.

Education:
1983 M. Sc. Mathematical Statistics, University of Oslo, Norway
1987 Master of Business Administration, IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the LEGO Group from 2004 to 2017. In 2017 he was appointed Executive Chairman of LEGO Brand Group.

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp is a PhD in Business Economics and a board member in LEGO A/S, Merlin Entertainments Group, IMD School of Management and Starbucks.

Prior to joining the LEGO Group in 2001 Jørgen Vig Knudstorp spent three years with McKinsey & Company as a consultant.

Lee is the Group Chief Financial Officer of Sulzer, a Swiss‐listed global fluid engineering company. Prior to her taking the Group CFO role in April 2018, Ms Lee served as a member of the non‐executive Board of Directors of Sulzer for 7 years and had been the Chairwoman of the Audit Committee. Since 2020, she is a non‐executive Director on the Board of Schneider Electric. From 2017 to 2020, Ms Lee was a member of the Supervisory Board of Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting) and Chairwoman of the Audit Committee.

Beginning her executive career in Singapore in 1986, Ms Lee went on to build an international career whereby she spent several years heading CFO functions in China, followed by global strategic positions in Germany and Switzerland.

From 2015 to 2018, she was the Group Senior Vice President and Head of Next Level Program Management of ABB where she led several transformation initiatives. During 2012 to 2014, she was Senior Vice President and CFO for ABB China and North Asia Region. Prior to this, she served as Senior Vice President, Finance Strategy and Investments for Neptune Orient Lines in Singapore (2010 to 2011). She has also held a number of positions with Siemens, including Group Chief Diversity Officer (2008 to 2010), CFO and Senior Executive Vice President of Siemens in China (2004 to 2008), CFO and Senior Vice President of Siemens in Singapore (2000 to 2004) and General Manager for Siemens Electromechanical Components business unit in Singapore (1997 to 2000). In the early years of her career, Ms Lee held finance roles in AT&T and Tyco Electronics in Singapore.

Ms Lee holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from National University of Singapore and an MBA from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is a member on the advisory board of Nanyang Business School in Singapore.

Axel P. Lehmann was appointed President Personal & Corporate Banking of UBS Group AG and President UBS Switzerland as of January 2018, in addition to taking over as President of the Executive Board of UBS Switzerland AG. He became a member of the GEB and was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer of UBS Group AG and UBS AG in January 2016. He was a member of the BoD of UBS AG from 2009 to 2015 and of UBS Group AG from 2014 to 2015 and was a member of both the Risk Committee and the Governance and Nominating Committee. Mr. Lehmann stepped down from his role by January 31st, 2021. He will remain a Member of the Group Executive Board of UBS Group AG / UBS AG until July 31st, 2021.

Mr. Lehmann became a member of Zurich Insurance Group’s (Zurich) Group Executive Committee in 2002, holding various management positions, including CEO for the European and North America businesses. From 2008 to 2015 he was Chief Risk Officer with additional responsibilities for Group IT, Regional Chairman for Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as Chairman for Farmers Group Inc. In 2001, he was appointed CEO for Northern, Central and Eastern Europe and Zurich Group Germany, having served as a member of the company’s Group Management Board since 2000 with responsibility for group-wide business development functions. In 1996, he joined Zurich as a member of the Executive Committee Switzerland and previously, he was head of corporate planning and controlling at SwissLife, Vice President of the Institute of Insurance Economics and a visiting professor at Bocconi University in Milan. Mr. Lehmann holds a PhD and a master’s degree in business administration and economics from the University of St. Gallen. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School.

Other activities and functions

• Co-Chair of the Global Future Council of the Future of Financial and Monetary Systems of WEF
• Adjunct professor and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Insurance Economics at the University of St. Gallen
• Member of the HSG Advisory Board of the University of St. Gallen
• Member of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce Chapter Doing Business in USA

Michel Liès has 40 years’ experience in global insurance and reinsurance, life insurance, and property and casualty insurance. He has held a number of positions in the industry, including Group CEO of Swiss Re. He began his career at the reinsurer in 1978, working first in the life market in Latin America before moving to Europe in 1983, where he held a number of senior positions within Swiss Re’s life businesses.

In 1994 he moved into Swiss Re’s non-life sector, with responsibility for southern Europe and Latin America. From 1998 he served as Swiss Re’s Head of Latin America Division until 2000, when he was appointed Head of the Europe Division of its Property & Casualty Business Group. In 2005 he became Swiss Re’s Head Client Markets with responsibility for client relationships worldwide, and was also appointed as a member of the reinsurer’s Group Executive Committee.

From 2011 to 2012 Mr. Liès served as Swiss Re’s Chairman of Global Partnerships, which works with governments, international development bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to mitigate and address global risks and increase resilience. He was appointed Swiss Re’s Group CEO in February 2012 and served in that role until his retirement from Swiss Re in 2016. He became Chairman of the Board of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd in April 2018.

Committee membership
Governance, Nominations and Sustainability Committee (Chairman), Remuneration Committee

Other directorships within the Group
Zurich Insurance Company Ltd

External appointments
Mr. Liès is chairman of Avenir Suisse, a member of the board of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), and a trustees board member of The Swiss Institute of International Studies. He is also a member of the European Financial Services Round Table and a member of the board of trustees of the Lucerne Festival and a member of the steering committee of the Insurance Development Forum.

Educational background
Mr. Liès holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH).

After a degree in economics from the University of Geneva, Thierry Lombard, representing the 6th generation, joined Lombard Odier in 1972 for a career of 42 years. He became Managing Partner in 1982 and held the position of Senior Partner from 1995 to 2008 and retired in 2014.

During his career, Thierry Lombard was involved in the institutional and private banking activities, human resources, pension funds, and he was more specifically interested by the thematic of investment strategy.

In addition, he was the instigator and co-author of several books addressing the issues of succession, wealth, philanthropy and investment. He also has been close to domains linked with innovation, entrepreneurship, including a long-term relationship with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne.

As a strong supporter of family business, Thierry Lombard chairs the board of a worldwide association, the Family Business Network International, which gathers more than 8000 family business members, including the young generation.

He is an Honorary member of the Assembly of the ICRC (the International Committee of the Red Cross) and was very active in various medical and humanitarian foundations.

He was a founding member of the Fondation Lombard Odier and Fondation Philanthropia. He co-chair with his wife the Foundation du Domaine de Villette.

Christoph Loos assumed CEO responsibilities in January 2014. He has been a member of the Executive Board since 2007. During the first four years of this tenure he was responsible for Finance, Human Resources, IT and Group Strategy. From 2011 to 2013 he was in charge of the Emerging Markets and the global Energy & Industry units. 

After finishing his business administration studies at the University of St. Gallen and earning his doctorate he worked for an international management consultancy in Germany and China. Upon joining Hilti in 2001 he first led the Corporate Development team and then established the Strategic Marketing unit. At the end of 2003 he moved to Germany, first as a Regional Sales Director and then, starting in 2005, as General Manager of Hilti Germany.

Christoph Loos is a member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Gallen Foundation for International Studies.

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus has been Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Louis Dreyfus Holding B.V. since March 2011 and has served on this Board since September 2007. She has also been a Member of the Supervisory Board of Louis Dreyfus Commodities Holdings B.V. since April 2011 and was appointed Deputy Chairperson of this company in 2013. Furthermore, she is founder and President of the Paris-based Louis Dreyfus Foundation, founder of the MOVEO Foundation and a member of the Weidenfeld Scholarships Advisory Board at Oxford University.

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus was married to Robert Louis-Dreyfus from 1992 to 2009, when he passed away. She is the mother of three children. She has held a number of positions in accountancy, sales and marketing and graduated with a Diploma in Accounting from St Petersburg School of Commerce in 1981.

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus comes from St. Petersburg, Russia, where she spent her childhood and went to school. She currently lives in Switzerland.

Jean-François Manzoni is the President of IMD, where he also serves as the Nestlé Professor and as a member of the Audit Committe (AFRC).

His research, teaching, and consulting activities are focused on leadership, the development of high-performance organizations and corporate governance.

At the organisational level, Professor Manzoni studies the content of change (including the use of levers such as strategy, structure and systems), the management of the change process and the role of leaders therein.  His work in this area has appeared in several books, articles and over 30 cases, four of which received Case of the Year Awards from the European Foundation for Management Development or the European Case Clearing House. He also acted as content expert in the development of a ground-breaking computer-based change management simulation, the Change Pro Simulation®.

At the individual level, Professor Manzoni studies how leaders can create a high-performance work environment and what they can do to modify their leadership style in that direction. This stream of research has led to several articles and a book entitled The Set-Up to Fail Syndrome: How good managers cause great people to fail (with Jean-Louis Barsoux). This book, which built on Manzoni’s and Barsoux’s initial Harvard Business Review article introducing the term “set-up-to-fail syndrome”, received two Book of the Year awards and is being discussed in undergraduate, MBA and executive development programs all over the world.

On the corporate governance side, Professor Manzoni focuses on interpersonal dynamics within the Boardroom and between management and the Board.  Ongoing research examining the impact of interpersonal dynamics on increasingly diverse Boards of Directors received the Research Award on Leadership & Corporate Governance from the Association of Executive Search Consultants.  A Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors, Professor Manzoni is currently serving on the Board of Keppel Corp., an international diversified group listed on the Singapore stock exchange, and previously served on the Boards of Singapore’s Civil Service College and of AACSB International, the world’s largest business education alliance.

A citizen of Canada and France, Professor Manzoni received his Doctorate from Harvard Business School. He had earlier graduated from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montréal and worked with Ernst and Young in Montreal before receiving an MBA from McGill University.

Prior to re-joining IMD in 2016, Professor Manzoni had served on the IMD faculty between 2004 and 2010. He also previously served on the faculty of INSEAD, in Singapore and in Fontainebleau.  While at INSEAD he founded and directed for four years the PwC Research Initiative on High Performance Organizations.  He later directed the Global Leadership Centre supporting the school’s leadership-related coaching, teaching and research activities throughout the world.

The recipient of several awards for excellence in teaching, Professor Manzoni is a frequent keynote speaker. He also performed consulting, top management team support and leadership development work for several international organisations, which has led him to work in more than thirty countries over the years.

He currently serves or served on several International Advisory Panels, including Digital Switzerland, Singapore’s Public Service Division and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

Geraldine Matchett (1972, British; French; Swiss) is Co‐Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Managing Board of Royal DSM. She was appointed as Co‐CEO on 15 February 2020. Geraldine joined DSM’s Managing Board in August 2014 and became Chief Financial Officer on 1 December 2014.

Before joining DSM, Geraldine worked with the SGS Group from 2004 where she held various positions including Corporate Finance Manager and Senior Vice President Group Financial Controller, before being appointed Global Chief Financial Officer in March 2010. In this role, she was voted CFO of the year in Switzerland for large companies in 2014.

Before joining SGS she worked for Deloitte in Switzerland and for KPMG in the UK, obtaining her Chartered Accountant qualification while working in London. Geraldine holds a bachelor's degree in Physical & Human Geography from Reading University (UK) and a master's degree in Sustainable Development from Cambridge University.

Other current positions:
- Non‐Executive Director of ABB, and member of the Finance, Audit and Compliance Committee
- Co‐Chair of HRH the Prince of Wales’ A4S (Accounting for Sustainability) CFO Leadership Network Europe
- Executive Committee member of WBCSD
- Board member of FCLTGlobal
- Board member of Catalyst Europe

Professor Michel's major research interests are in customer-focused marketing strategy, service innovation and pricing.

At IMD, he is the Dean of our Executive MBA program and the faculty representative at the IMD foundation board. He teaches in the Executive MBA, Strategic Marketing Program, the Foundation for Business Leadership Program, the MBA program, the Orchestrating Winning Performance program as well as in many partnership programs for world-leading companies.

Stefan is the author of two online courses at IMD, Pricing Excellence in Tough B2B markets and Marketing Management. A Value-Based Approach.

He has written eight books, eight book chapters, and more than 42 newspaper articles on these subjects, as well as many academic articles that have appeared in journals including Harvard Business Review, California Management Review and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He won the Emerald Literati Award by the Journal of Service Management for the best paper of the year in 2009, and again in 2010, and his work was recognized with additional international research awards.

Prior to joining IMD, Professor Michel was Tenured Professor of Global Marketing at Thunderbird School of Global Management (USA), where he taught in the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as in customized corporate learning programs for European, Korean and Chinese companies. He introduced various successful teaching innovations and received several awards for excellence in teaching. He is an invited Global Faculty at the Center for Service Leadership, Arizona State University (USA). He works internationally with clients such as GE (New York), NCC (Scandinavia), Visa Europe, Credit Suisse, Maersk, and UBS and he ran his family's hotel business as chairman of the board. He is a non-executive board member at Bossard (SIX:BOS), where he is the chairman of the compensation committee and the President of the Foundation Board of GfM Gesellschaft für Marketing (Swiss Marketing Association).

Professor Michel holds an MBA and a DBA from the University of Zurich, both summa cum laude. He received the 1997 Best Dissertation Award, granted by the Swiss Society for Market and Social Research.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Stefan Michel (2014) “Capture more value: Innovation isn't worth much if you don't get paid for it,” Harvard Business Review. Vol. 92, no. 10, October (2014), pp. 78-85.

Stefan Michel, Stephen W. Brown, Andrew S. Gallan (2008) "An Expanded and Strategic View of Discontinuous Innovations: Deploying a Service-Dominant Logic", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol 36(1), 54-66.

Stefan Michel, Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch (2008) "Reconfiguration of the Conceptual Landscape: A Tribute to the Service Logic of Richard Normann", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol 36(1), 152-55.

Stefan Michel's Google Scholar Profile

Christian Mumenthaler has been Group Chief Executive Officer at Swiss Re since 1 July 2016. Prior to taking on the Group CEO role, he successfully led the Reinsurance Business Unit, maintaining underwriting outperformance in Property & Casualty while improving profitability in Life & Health. From January to October 2011, he served as Chief Marketing Officer for Reinsurance.  He was Head of Life & Health between 2007 and 2010 and served as Group Chief Risk Officer between 2005 and 2007.

In 2002, Christian Mumenthaler established a new unit, Group Retro and Syndication, with the aim to optimise the Group's risk and capital base through retrocession and securitisation. Between 1999 and 2002 he was responsible for a number of key company projects at Swiss Re. He started his professional career in 1997 as an associate with the Boston Consulting Group.

Christian Mumenthaler is Chairman of Insurance Europe’s Reinsurance Advisory board, co-chair of the WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, Vice Chairman of the Geneva Association and board member of economiesuisse and of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Pan-European Insurance Forum, the Global Reinsurance Forum, the Steering Board Insurance Development Forum and is on the Board of Trustees of Avenir Suisse and the St Gallen Foundation for International Studies.

Christian Mumenthaler was born in 1969 and is a Swiss citizen. He holds a PhD from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

Bernhard Nuesser, a German national, is a global executive at Essilor Luxottica. Based in Singapore, he serves both as President of AMERA (Asia, Middle East, and Africa) and as President Digital. Bernhard joined Essilor in 2013 and was promoted President of Essilor Europe and President of Global Instruments in 2014. In 2016, Bernhard was mandated with the acceleration of the group’s digital agenda comprising both global e‐commerce activities and the development and implementation of the group’s digital transformation roadmap.

Bernhard started his career in commercial and investment banking, working in several European countries for UBS. After his MBA from IMD in 1998, he joined the Executive Committee of GrandVision, a global leader in optical retailing, where he held various CEO positions, including CEO of Vision Express in the UK from 2003‐2008. Subsequently, Bernhard became CEO and Investor at Mondottica Ltd, a global, fast‐growing Hong Kong based eyewear company.

Bernhard serves on the Board of several high‐profile joint‐ventures of the Essilor‐Luxottica group, such as Nikon‐Essilor in Japan and MJS, China’s fastest growing optical franchise. From 2015‐2018 he served as President of EUROM1, the European Federation of the Optical Industry.

Damien O'Brien recently retired as Chairman of Egon Zehnder. He joined the firm in Sydney in 1988. During his career he was based in China, Sydney, Paris, London, and Zurich. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Egon Zehnder in June 2008 and was elected Chairperson in June 2010, a position he held until his retirement in 2018.

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder International, Damien worked as an Associate with McKinsey in Australia and before that held various management positions in a family-owned group of companies in Australia.

Damien holds an MBA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales. He also has a Diploma in Theology and Philosophy from Saint Columban's College in Sydney, which entailed two years of study and community work in Mindanao, the Philippines.

Adolfo Orive is president and CEO of the Tetra Pak Group, the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Tetra Pak is a privately-owned company based in more than 85 countries with global revenues of €11.2 billion in 2018.

Adolfo brings 26 years of international experience at Tetra Pak to his current leadership role. Most recently he served as Cluster Vice President of North, Central & South America. Prior to this, he served as Cluster Vice President of Europe & Central Asia, and earlier on, as Managing Director of Tetra Pak Iberia and Managing Director of Tetra Pak Colombia. Adolfo joined Tetra Pak in 1993 as a Commercial Director in Mexico.

Originally from Mexico, Adolfo holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana and a master’s degree in business administration from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico.

Sami Rahal was a Key Account Audit Associate and Co-founded and developed the M&A Transaction Services line of a another Big 4 firm before joining Deloitte in 2006 where he advised industrial and service groups and investment funds on their M&A issues.

He was the Managing Partner of the Financial Advisory business (from 2010 to 2017), EMEA M&A TS Leader, HR Director and Chief Strategy Officer before taking up his duties as President of Deloitte France and French-speaking Africa on 1 June 2017.

Philipp Rickenbacher is CEO of Julius Bär, a group that he joined in 2004 from McKinsey & Company. Julius Bär is a leading Swiss wealth management group with presence in over 60 locations worldwide. Before his appointment as CEO, Philipp was Head of Intermediaries & Global Custody of Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd, and prior to that, Head Advisory Solutions for two years, responsible for the development of the Bank’s innovative advisory approach and of holistic wealth management solutions.

Philipp holds a Master of Science in biotechnology from ETH Zurich. The long-term trends in technology and society – such as digital disruption, artificial intelligence, humanity’s need for healthcare, the rise of emerging markets and the quest for a more sustainable economy, remain his greatest interests.

Urs Rohner has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group AG since 2011 and was its Vice Chairman from 2009 until 2011. In 2004 he was appointed a member of the Executive Board of the Group and served as General Counsel and as COO.

Mr. Rohner graduated with a law degree from the University of Zurich. He is admitted to the bars of the Canton of Zurich and the State of New York. He started his career as an attorney with the law firm Lenz & Staehelin in Zurich, where he was a partner from 1992 until 1999 and worked for Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.

Between 2000 and 2004, Mr. Rohner served as Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of ProSieben and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.

Mr. Rohner is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Credit Suisse Research Institute and the Credit Suisse Foundation, and a board member of Economiesuisse, the Institute of International Finance, the Institute International d'Etudes Bancaires, the European Financial Services Round Table and the European Banking Group. He is the co-chair of the International Advisory Board of the Moscow International Finance Center and serves on the International Business Leaders Advisory Council of the Mayor of Beijing. He is also the chairman of the Advisory Board of the University of Zurich's Department of Economics and a board member of the Zurich Opera House, the Alfred Escher Foundation and the Lucerne Festival.

Urs Schaeppi, CEO of Swisscom since 2013, one of the top telecommunications companies in Switzerland. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Fastweb, the number two telecommunications firm in Italy. Previously he headed Corporate Business and Swisscom Switzerland since October 2013.

Prior to his current post, Schaeppi headed a number of the firm’s business divisions and has held executive board roles there since the 1990s. Before joining Swisscom, he held various management positions at Iveco, Ascom AG and the Biberist paper mill.  

Urs Schaeppi qualified as a certified engineer (dipl. Ing.) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and also holds a degree in business administration and marketing (lic. oec.) from the University of St. Gallen.

A Swiss national born in 1945, Thomas Schmidheiny has been a Member of the Board of Directors of Lafargeholcim Ltd until 2018. In recognition of his many years of service to LafargeHolcim, the Board of Directors has decided to name Thomas Schmidheiny Honorary Chairman of the Group. He was elected to the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim Ltd (then “Holderbank Financière Glaris Ltd”, later “Holcim Ltd”) in 1978.

He studied mechanical engineering at the ETH Zurich and complemented his studies with an MBA from the IMD Lausanne in 1972. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his services in the field of sustainable development from Tufts University, Massachusetts.

He began his career in 1970 as technical director with Cementos Apasco and in 1976 was appointed to the Executive Committee of Holcim Ltd, where he held the office of Chairman from 1978 until 2001. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holcim Ltd from 1984 until 2003 and a Member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee of Holcim Ltd until 2015. His other mandates include that he is a Chairman of the Board of Directors of Spectrum Value Management Ltd and of Schweizerische Cement-Industrie-Aktiengesellschaft, both in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Mark Schneider has served as CEO of Nestlé since January 2017. He joined the company in September 2016.

Before joining Nestlé, Mark Schneider was CEO of the Fresenius Group, a position he held from 2003 to 2016. He joined Fresenius in 2001 as CFO of Fresenius Medical Care. Between 1989 and 2001, Schneider held several senior executive positions with the Haniel Group, a privately-held, diversified German multinational company.

Mark Schneider has a graduate degree in Finance and Accounting and a doctoral degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He also holds an MBA from Harvard University.

Schneider was born and raised in Germany, and became a U.S. citizen in 2003.

Schneider co-chairs the Board of Directors of Cereal Partners Worldwide. He is a member of the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum and is on the Advisory Board of the Swiss Innovation Park.

Severin Schwan has served as CEO of the Roche Group since March 2008.

After obtaining a degree in economics from the University of Innsbruck (Austria), University of York (UK) and University of Oxford (UK), a degree in law from the University of Innsbruck, and a PhD in law from the University of Innsbruck, Dr Schwan joined Roche Basel in 1993 as a finance officer.

Since then he has held various management positions: Head Finance  & Administration at Roche Brussels (1995-1998), Head Finance & Informatics at Roche Grenzach, Germany and Member of the Executive Board of Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH (1998-2000), Head Global Finance & Services,  Roche Diagnostics, Basel (2000-2004) and Head Region Asia Pacific, Roche Diagnostics Singapore (2004-2006). Prior to his current position, Dr Schwan  was CEO of Roche Diagnostics (2006-2008).

Dr Ulrike Schwarz-Runer is a Managing Director and Senior Partner of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and holds the role of the Global General Counsel of the firm. She is based in London. As a member of the BCG Executive Committee as well as of all other core committees and company boards, Ulrike is involved in the firm's critical business priorities including assessing new markets and arenas the firm enters.

Prior to joining BCG, Ulrike was General Counsel and a Board Director of Grosvenor, one of the largest family-owned businesses in the UK. Ulrike also served as General Counsel of a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East and as executive director at Goldman Sachs advising ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family-owned businesses. Earlier in her career, Ulrike was a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Vienna and at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York. Ulrike held non-executive director roles in the financial services industry.

Ulrike holds a Doctor of Law and a Master of Arts in Political Science and Public Communications from the University of Salzburg, Austria, and a Master of Law in International Taxation from New York University School of Law. She is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, New York, and Austria.

Feike Sijbesma has served as CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors at DSM from 2007 till 2020.

Mr Sijbesma studied medical biology at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) and business administration at Erasmus University (The Netherlands). In 1987, he joined Gist-brocades, where he was responsible for strategic planning and business development in the Industrial Pharmaceuticals Division. He went on to hold various management positions within the company: Marketing and Sales Director, Industrial Pharmaceuticals Division (1990-1993), Director Savoury Ingredients, Food Specialties Division (1993-1995) and Director Food Specialties Division (1995-1998). Following the acquisition of Gist-brocades by DSM in 1998, he became Director of the DSM Food Specialties business group, and joined DSM’s Managing Board of Directors in 2000.

Since early 2020, Feike Sijbesma transitioned to the role of Honorary Chairman of Royal DSM. Feike sits on the Boards of Philips, Unilever and Dutch Central Bank. He co-chairs the Global Centre for Adaptation, with former UN SG Ban Ki-moon. Feike is member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. Feike is an advocate for business tackling climate change in several roles. Feike also steers the expansion of Africa Improved Foods, addressing malnutrition by resilient local food production.

Woods Staton is the Executive Chairperson of Arcos Dorados  (NYSE: ARCO), the world's largest independent McDonald's franchisee. Arcos Dorados operates or franchises more than 2,200 restaurants, with over 100,000 employees and greater than US$3 billion in revenue, across 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean. Often recognized as one of the best companies to work for in Latin America, every year Arcos Dorados generates first-time, formal employment opportunities for tens of thousands of young people in the region.

Born in Medellín, Colombia, Woods’ business life has focused on consumer goods in Latin America. His grandfather founded Panamco, which became the largest Coca/Cola bottler in the world with operations in seven Latin American countries. After many years in the family business, Woodsbranched out, starting his own entrepreneurial career as McDonald's joint venture partner in Argentina. He later served as President of McDonald’s South Latin America Division. He founded Arcos Dorados in 2007, when he led a consortium of investors in the purchase of McDonald’s Corporation’s operations in Latin America. In April of 2011, Arcos Dorados executed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Woods is actively involved in several non-profit organizations. He is co-founder of Endeavor Argentina, promoting entrepreneurship as well as a founding partner of Ashoka Argentina, a global organization committed to investing in innovative solutions through social entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Chairman’s International Advisory Council of the Council of the Americas and currently serves as the Chair for the Latin American Program's Advisory Board at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Woods holds an MBA from IMD.

Robert has for long had a keen interest in shipping and seamanship. During his military service he eventually became a Sergeant of the Swedish Amphibious Battalion, working as an instructor in manoeuvring and navigating the Navy's high speed combat vessels, which were based in the Swedish archipelagos. 

After a brief stint in the finance industry, Robert joined the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group in 2004. During 2004 - 2006, Robert was highly involved in the Group's M&A activities, acquiring as well as selling companies.

Thereafter he took on the role of Managing Director of Maersk Line's activities in the Arabian Gulf for three years, where he was responsible for approximately 200 employees and USD 1 billion in revenue. 

At the end of 2009, with the tanker markets in shambles, Robert became the Managing Director of Brostrom. The company operated approximately 75 intermediate and small product tankers in Europe as well as Asia. During this period, Robert and his colleagues in Maersk Tankers worked diligently to create a truly integrated company with significant synergies, improve customer offering and a better safety record. Brostrom is today an integral part of Maersk Tankers, with the same safety system, technical management, flag strategy and commercial objectives.

In May 2012 Robert became the CEO of SVITZER with approximately 400 vessels in 100 locations and 4,000 employees.

In March 2014, Robert joined the Board of Directors at A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S.

From September 2016, Robert has been appointed CEO of A.P. Møller Holding A/S

Robert holds a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Stockholm School of Economics, with exchange studies at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, and has pursued executive education at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and IMD.

He is married to Paola and has five kids.

Martin Vetterli received the EE degree from ETHZ in 1981, the MS from Stanford University in 1982, and the Doctorate from EPFL in 1986.

He was an Assistant/Associate Professor in EE at Columbia University, and then an Associate/Full Professor in EECS at the UC Berkeley. In 1995, he joined the EPFL as a Full Professor. He held several positions at EPFL, including Chair of Communication Systems and founding director of NCCR-MICS. From 2004 to 2011 he was VP of EPFL for international affairs, and from 2011 to 2012, he was the Dean of IC. Since January 2013 he is President of the NRC of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In January 2017, he will be President of EPFL elected to this position on February 24th, 2016.

He works in the areas of electrical engineering, computer sciences and applied mathematics and this led to about 170 journals papers, as well as about 30 patents that led to technology transfer to high-tech companies and the creation of several start-ups.

He is the co-author of 3 textbooks, «Wavelets and Subband Coding" (with J. Kovacevic, 1995), "Signal Processing for Communications" (P. Prandoni, 2008) and "Foundations of Signal Processing" (with J. Kovacevic and V. Goyal, 2014). The books are available in open access, and his research group follows the reproducible research philosophy.

His prizes include best paper awards from EURASIP in 1984 and of the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 1991, 1996 and 2006, the Swiss National Latsis Prize in 1996, the SPIE Presidential award in 1999, the IEEE SP Technical Achievement Award in 2001 and the IEEE SP Society Award in 2010. He is a Fellow of IEEE, of ACM, ISI highly cited researcher and a foreign member of the NAE.

Penelope Warne is The Senior Partner, UK Chair of global law firm CMS and head of the firm's global energy practice.

Ms Warne graduated in law from Bristol University (UK). Qualified as both a solicitor of England, Wales and Scotland, she joined CMS in 1993 and established the Aberdeen office. She has built a global oil and gas practice and established offices in Edinburgh, Rio, Dubai and Mexico.

Ms Warne is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at Dundee University and member of the Vice Chancellors Circle of Oxford University.

Poul Weihrauch is Global President PetCare of Mars Inc.

He began his career with Stimorol chewing gum in Denmark before joining Nestle where he held positions in Denmark, Belgium and Switzerland. He joined Mars in 2000 in the UK and was General Manager of European sugar (2002-2005, based Czech republic), European President Food (2005-2008, based The Netherlands), European President of Wrigley chewing gum post the acquisition between 2008-2011, Global President Food, Drinks & Multi-Sales between 2011-2014. Since 2011, he is member of the Mars leadership team.

Poul Weihrauch is also vice-chairman of AIM (association international des marques) as well as supervisory board member of Beiersdorf. Poul is married with three children and resides in Brussels.