SPEAKERS 2023
Eugenia Bajet Mestre
Eugenia Bajet Mestre works as a Research Assistant at the Competence Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI). Together with Prof. Jamie Gloor, she studies “non-traditional paths for not-traditional leaders”. With a background in Business Administration (Bachelor level) and Social Psychology (Research Master), she is currently conducting her PhD at HSG with a focus on male allyship.
Prof. Dr. Christa Binswanger
Christa Binswanger is Professor, Senior Lecturer in Gender and Diversity Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS-HSG). She teaches courses on gender, diversity, intersectionality, care, affect, and masculinities and femininities. She is a member of the steering committee of Contextual Studies at the HSG, co-president of the Swiss think tank Gender and Diversity, and a member of the td-net of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. Recent publications include Transitioning to Gender Equality and Intersectionality and Diversity: Same or Different?
Prof. Dr. Stephan Alexander Böhm
Stephan Böhm is Associate Professor for Diversity Management and Leadership and Director of the Center for Disability and Integration at the University of St. Gallen. His research focuses on inclusion, leadership, human resources and diversity management. He advises numerous companies on topics of healthy leadership, digitalisation and the management of demographic change.
Betty Business
Betty Business is a drag artist, loves beautiful PowerPoint presentations and has set herself the goal of bringing more glitter and pink into the business world. She graduated from the University of St.Gallen with a Bachelor in Business Administration and a Master in Business Innovation. During her studies, she explored gender studies and analysed a queer community in her master’s thesis. Betty Business works as a consultant in a management consultancy and runs various side businesses … among other activities, she also performs in bars and nightclubs with her pink Powerpoint slides.
Eva Fasel
After 7 years at a traditional universal bank, a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance, I turned my back on the banking world and joined an exclusive financial boutique as a client manager. I specialise in Swiss private banking and am a financial map architect. Combining and coordinating different financial topics is my speciality, which I can fully exploit when creating financial maps. At the FINMA-regulated financial boutique Brevalia AG, we put the client first and look for solutions to needs rather than selling products. This outside-in approach is what we live and what we stand for.
Reyn ffoulkes
Reyn ffoulkes is an experienced all-rounder with extensive knowledge in integrated communication, sustainability, personal development and diversity & inclusion. He graduated as a Public Relations Specialist from KV Business School in Zurich and holds a degree in Performing Arts. He values uniting people in their diversity and is engaged in promoting positive social change and fostering tolerance, acceptance and understanding. He joined The Coca-Cola Company Switzerland as Communications Manager in June 2018.
Prof. Dr. Jamie Gloor
With 2 decades of experience across 4 continents, Prof. Dr. Jamie Gloor (SOM-HSG) is an award-winning speaker, teacher, and scholar, recently honored with the HSG Latsis Prize and a TEDxZurich talk. Her work has been featured in top academic (e.g., Journal of Applied Psychology) and popular outlets (e.g., Harvard Business Review and Forbes). Currently funded by a 1.2-million CHF grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, she and her team craft sought-after courses, research, workshops, and keynotes spanning psychology and management on the topics of DEI, leadership, humor, and (social) sustainability.
Nicola Glumann
Nicola Glumann, M.Sc., is a research associate at the Center for Disability and Integration at the University of St.Gallen (CDI-HSG). She conducts research on diversity, inclusion and new work. As part of the research project “Inclusion Champions Switzerland”, funded by the Federal Office for the Equality of Persons with Disabilities (EBGB), she is developing effective intervention strategies to promote inclusion in the workplace in cooperation with leading companies.
Theresa Goop
Theresa Goop heads the Wage Centre at the Competence Centre for Diversity & Inclusion and advises companies on the process and method of equal pay analyses. She supports companies on their way to non-discriminatory pay based on objective findings from HR data. In her previous work as an economic consultant, she applied economic models and methods to various problems faced by international companies.
Dr. Ines Hartmann
Ines Hartmann is Co-Director of the Competence Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and is responsible for the St.Gallen Diversity Benchmarking together with Nicole Niedermann. She leads other company-specific projects on inclusive leadership and D&I, such as in-depth D&I analyses (quantitative and qualitative) or the development of D&I strategies. She gives workshops, holds lectures and teaches at universities and other schools on the topic of D&I as well as Strategic Management. She publishes on topics such as diversity management and inclusive organizational culture. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences and a Master’s degree in Strategy and International Management from the University of St. Gallen.
Dr. Anna-Katrin Heydenreich
Anna-Katrin Heydenreich works in the Diversity & Inclusion team and as a lecturer in climate psychology at the University of St. Gallen. She is a socio-economist by training with focus on sustainability and psychology. Her doctorate on stakeholder engagement processes led her to appointments on collaboration and participation processes in Jerusalem and Switzerland. As a Diversity & Inclusion Specialist, she focuses on the social dimension of sustainability and is in charge of, among other things, inclusive language, issues related to the protection of personal integrity and awareness-raising measures to promote a respectful campus culture.
Dr. Tanja Kirn
Dr Tanja Kirn is Assistant Professor of Public Finance at the University of Liechtenstein. She develops microsimulation models and analyses the effects of tax and social policies on employment behaviour and on labour and transfer incomes. A particular focus is the simulation of retirement income (AHV and pension funds) in Switzerland. She analyses how employment behaviour, in particular part-time work, and gender wage differentials affect the retirement incomes of men and women. Currently, she is investigating the effects of the reforms of the 1st and 2nd pillars on future pension incomes.
Annika Koller
Annika Koller has been working as a project manager for many years and also advises companies on their way into “New Work” world in her role as Transformation Consultant at the digital agency Unic. Here, she can draw on her own experience in self-organisation, as Unic has been organised holocratically since 2016. In her role as Diversity & Inclusion Advocate, she is committed to diversity and inclusion within Unic.
Florian Krause
Florian Krause is senior research fellow and lecturer at the Institute for Business Ethics at the University of St.Gallen and at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Work and Employment Studies at Leibniz Universität Hanover. With philosophical and economic perspectives, he is particularly concerned with ethical challenges of digital transformation processes, sustainability, and questions of diversity and identity.
Josef Kruckenberg
Josef Kruckenberg has worked at the intersection of traditional companies and self-organising teams since 2014. He currently works as Product Owner, Drupalista at Liip, where he helps customers implement e-commerce solutions based on open-source tools. As Diversity & Inclusion Advocate, Josef supports Liip in the People Circle with strategy and implementation to further evolve our workplace to inclusive for everyone.
Stephan Lendi
Stephan Lendi is an experienced speaker and moderator. He hosts from TV shows and international events to corporate podcasts in German, English and French. He is particularly interested in complex topics and people with unusual stories. In communications coachings and on-camera media trainings, Stephan prepares executives of international companies in their appearances in front of an audience, on-camera and behind the microphone.
“It is of the highest importance to me that the speakers on stage or in front of the camera and their content make a true difference to the viewers and listeners. It is my job to ensure that this content is of the greatest possible emotional and rational benefit to the audience.” Stephan Lendi
Carmen Lopes Sway
I had the great fortune to grow up in two cultures at once. My father – a passionate singer from Switzerland – gave me music at an early age. My Brazilian mother made sure that even my first steps were dancing ones. As a child, my dream was to become an actress and a nurse. At first glance, the professions don’t seem to go together, but if you look closely, both are about people, their inner being, their well-being.
Prof. Dr. Julia Nentwich
Prof. Dr Julia Nentwich is an associate professor for psychology. In her research she is interested in questions of inclusion, identity and change. Together with Dr. Gaby Schambach, she supports companies in the inclusion of male managers with “Leaders for Equality”. At the Research Institute for Organisational Psychology she leads the research area on gender and diversity. She has many years of experience in interdisciplinary research in organizational research and especially with qualitative research methods.
Sandro Niederer
Sandro Niederer (he/they) is the senior manager of the Transgender Network Switzerland and a former biologist. A science enthusiast, they believe that only inclusive science is good and helpful science.
Nicole Niedermann
Nicole Niedermann is a member of the CCDI Management Team. She is co-leader of the annual St.Gallen Diversity Benchmarking study and is responsible for customized D&I projects with companies. She holds a Master’s degree in Work and Organisational Psychology and Business Administration from the University of Fribourg. She has been working in the field of Diversity & Inclusion for more than ten years, of which she was responsible for the topic in a global function for several years. Today she advises and accompanies companies, publishes on D&I topics, gives workshops and has in-depth experience in the areas of D&I strategy development and analysis, gender and generational diversity, managing unconscious bias, inclusive leadership and designing inclusive HR processes.
Alkistis Petropaki
Alkistis Petropaki has been the Managing Director of Advance Women in Swiss Business since 2015. She has more than 20 years of management experience with international consumer goods companies such as L’Oréal, Nestlé, Mövenpick and Lindt. Before joining Advance, she was Country Manager Switzerland at Yves Rocher. With her involvement at Advance, she wants to support women in becoming the architects of their own careers. Alkistis holds a Master’s degree in Management from ESCP-Europe and a degree in German and Psychology from the University of Athens.
CHRISTIAN PIERCE
Christian Pierce is Project Manager at the CCDI. At the same time, he is doing his PhD in organisational studies and cultural theory at the University of St. Gallen. His research focuses on anti-racism in multinational companies from a human rights perspective. He graduated from the United States Military Academy with a degree in Economics and holds an M.Sc. in Business from the COPPEAD Graduate School of Business at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with a qualitative thesis on cultural diversity. He has consulted to several organisations in the US, Latin America and Europe on D&I, specialising in ethnic equality.
Karin Ricklin-Etter und Stephanie Briner
Karin Ricklin-Etter and Stephanie Briner co-lead WEshare1, the contact point for job and topsharing. Karin Ricklin-Etter (left) is a trained HR manager and has many years of HR experience in various industries. She studied psychology at the University of Zurich and is a member of the Sustainability Council with a focus on diversity & equal opportunities at Thurgauer Kantonalbank. Stephanie Briner (right) is a part-time executive and branch manager and member of the management team at Jörg Lienert AG. Previously, she worked for several years in the field of digital communications. Stephanie Briner studied communication sciences at the University of Fribourg.
Michel Rudin
Michel Rudin is a qualified communications expert with long experience in D&I and sustainability. He unfolds this interest also as founder of Swiss Diversity. In 2021, Michel founded AGON Partners Public Affairs AG, where he is a member of the Board of Directors.
Prof. Dr. Gudrun Sander
Gudrun Sander is a titular professor of business administration with a special focus on diversity management, co-director of the Forschungsstelle für Internationales Management and director of the Competence Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. She researches diversity and inclusion from a strategy, leadership and corporate culture perspective, leads the national diversity benchmarking and is an academic expert in various international and national committees.
Dr. Gabriele Schambach
Dr Gabriele Schambach is co-leader of the project “Leadership for Equality” at the University of St. Gallen (www.leaders4equality.ch). She works as a consultant, trainer and speaker at Genderworks (www.genderworks.de). For more than twenty years she has been working on gender and diversity for more equal opportunities in companies. As a trained industrial clerk and political scientist with a doctorate, she combines her knowledge of systemic organisational development and transactional analysis with scientific findings and corporate practice.
Magdalena Schertler
Magdalena Schertler, MA MSc, studied psychology and applied ethics in Graz. Since 2021, she has been a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Center for Disability and Integration at the University of St. Gallen (CDI-HSG). There, she conducts research on the topic of diversity and inclusion in today’s working world. Within the projects «Inclusion Champions Switzerland» (funded by the EBGB) and «SafeSpace», she works together with leading companies on effective measures to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace.
Dr. Svenja Schmidt
Svenja Schmidt, Dr. oec. HSG, has many years of experience in the insurance industry and occupational benefits (Beruflichen Vorsorge), including at the Baloise Group and Helvetia. She was also Head of Pensions and Deputy Managing Director of Profond Vorsorgeeinrichtung and previously headed the Swisscanto Vested Benefits Foundation and Swisscanto Supra Collective Foundation as Managing Director. Svenja Schmidt is a member of the board of directors and executive committee of various organisations. In addition to her doctorate, she holds diplomas in business administration and business psychology, which she obtained in the course of her studies at the universities of Aachen, Hagen, Reims, Reykjavik and Yale.
DR. MIHWA SEONG
Mihwa Seong is a postdoctoral researcher at the Competence Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI), working with Prof. Jamie Gloor and Prof. Amanda Shantz. Her research interests include issues of gender/intersectionality in business leadership. Prior to joining CCDI, she completed her PhD in Entrepreneurship at Western University’s Ivey Business School in Canada. In her dissertation, she used a series of experiments to examine the disproportionate impact of gendered language on women’s evaluations of the attractiveness of participating in business start-ups.
RAPHAEL SUMMERMATTER
Raphael Summermatter is Project Manager at the Competence Centre for Diversity & Inclusion. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of St. Gallen. During his studies, he was able to acquire valuable software skills, which he can now apply to various company projects. His work at CCDI focuses on projects concerning equal pay between women and men.
Prof. Dr. Jelena Tosic
Jelena Tosic is Assistant Professor for Transcultural Studies at the University of St.Gallen. In her on-going research she develops an ethnographic / historical anthropological perspective on borderlands in Southeast Europe through the lens of (forced) migration. She is currently exploring patterns of moralizing and culturalizing inequality / (Un) deservingness (Tosic & Streinzer 2021, PI SNF Project “Europe’s Un/Deserving: Moralizations of Inequality in Comparative Perspective”) as well as the role of (teacher) education in the contemporary contexts of (forced) migration, populism and digital transformation. She was co-coordinator of the Regional Working Group Europe of the German Anthropological Association (2013-2020). She is co-editor of the EASA Book Series with Berghahn since 2021.
Marisa Tschopp
Marisa Tschopp is a researcher at scip AG, and Research Officer at Women in AI NPO, and Co-Chair of the IEEE Trust and Agency in AI Systems committee. She researches AI from a psychological perspective, addressing a variety of questions about psychological phenomena with a particular interest in ethical implications. Her research focuses on trust, performance measurement of conversational AI (A-IQ), agency, leadership, and issues of gender equality in AI. As an organizational psychologist, she has experience in social and educational settings with a particular passion for digital teaching and learning trends. She has published various media articles, book chapters and essays and is a frequent speaker at conferences and events (including TEDx) worldwide. As an associate researcher in the Social Processes Lab at the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), she investigates the perceived relationships between humans and machines.
Prof. Dr. Isabelle Wildhaber
Prof. Isabelle Wildhaber is a Full Professor for Private and Commercial Law with a special focus on Labour Law at the University of St. Gallen. She is also the managing director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research at the University of St. Gallen (FAA-HSG). She is the President of the Equal Opportunities Commission and Delegate of the Rectorate for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at the University of St. Gallen.