Gustav is CEO and senior partner at PwC Switzerland, focusing on strategy and operations at Swiss-based and multinational clients. He has extensive experience leading large, complex technology and deals driven transformation programs with a worldwide span.

Prior to joining PwC, Gustav worked as a management consultant with Accenture and later as an investment manager.
Gustav has an MBA in finance and accounting from the University of Zurich.

He is member of the Swiss PwC Management Board, the European and Global Advisory leadership team at PwC.

Chief Executive Officer, Lufthansa Cargo; stars alumnus, Frankfurt, Germany

Ashwin Bhat has been Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Cargo since 15 April 2023. He is also responsible for the company’s Product and Sales divisions.

Ashwin Bhat was elected to the Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. Board of Directors by the Annual General Meeting of February 2023.

After graduating in chemistry from the University of Mumbai, Ashwin Bhat began his professional career with Airline Financial Support Services in India. In 1999 he joined the then Swisscargo, and went on to hold various executive positions in revenue management, transportation management, global area management and more. He became Head of Cargo at Swiss International Air Lines in 2015; and he was appointed to the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board as Chief Commercial Officer in 2021.

Ashwin Bhat was born in 1969. He is married and has two children.

CEO, Circle Economy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

After 25 years at start-ups and scale-ups, in Europe and Southeast Asia, Ivonne chose to apply her knowledge and experience to resolving global environmental and societal issues.

In 2020, she committed to enable a socially just transition to an economic state where the planet and all living beings can thrive.

Ivonne joined Circle Economy, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, because they had uncovered, through rigorous research, that circular economy strategies can reverse planetary boundary overshoots and mitigate climate breakdown. The team at Circle Economy provides data-centred analyses, capacity development, and tools to the private and public sector to enable the implementation of circular strategies, bringing theory into action.

Ivonne's personal ambition is to transform 10000 companies, 1000 cities and 100 nations.

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CEO, Dätwyler IT Infra. AG; stars alumnus, Altdorf, Switzerland

Adrian Bolliger (1975, Swiss) has been CEO of Datwyler IT Infra since October 2023. He was General Manager Europe at Datwyler from September 2019 until September 2023. Before joining Datwyler, he was responsible for the Mobile Business sector for enterprise customers at Swisscom.

Adrian has been with Swisscom since 1996, with a short interruption of two years. Finally he was responsible for the sector Mobile Business Solutions. He was in charge of topics like Enterprise Mobile, Enterprise IoT, Smart City and also 5G. With IoT and Smart City this sector contributes a lot to the future development of Swisscom. Adrian managed to substantially strengthen this portfolio in close cooperation with the customers.

Adrian Bolliger holds Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration as well as in Business Information Technology, plus an Executive MBA in General Management from the University St. Gallen (HSG).

CEO, Anapaya Systems; Member, stars Scientific Board, Zurich, Switzerland

Martin Bosshardt is the CEO of Anapaya Systems and has 20 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience in the SD-WAN network and security space. Until 2019 he served as a CEO of Open Systems, a leading SD-WAN provider with a follow-the-sun operation managing a global footprint in over 180 countries and representative offices in the US, Germany, Austria, the UK and Switzerland. Martin is a member of the board of directors at Open Systems and he is also an active Chairman of Westhive Coworking. He works closely with the Swedish Private Equity company EQT. Furthermore, Martin is a recipient of the SVC Entrepreneurs Award 2020.

Director General Operational Center, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Geneva, Switzerland

Steven Cornish is the Director-General of Médecins Sans Frontières in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously he was the Chief Executive Officer of the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver, following his time as Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders / MSF Canada for over five years including during the challenging Ebola Crisis years. Before that, he was with CARE Canada; then the Canadian Red Cross; MSF Switzerland; and MSF France. His various positions have all had a focus on dealing with immediate operational humanitarian challenges. He has a BA High Honours from Carleton University and a master’s degree in global risk and crisis management from Université Paris-Sorbonne. In addition, he is a board member of Youth Challenge International, honorary board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

President, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Former US Ambassador to NATO; Former Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, Chicago, United States

Ivo H. DAALDER is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Prior to his appointment as ambassador by President Obama, Ivo was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. He also served as director for European affairs on President Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1995-1997. Ivo holds a PhD in political science from MIT and he is the author and editor of 10 books, including “The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership” (2018).

Drucker Senior Fellow; Founder and Chairman, Center for the Future of Organization, Drucker School of Management; stars Alumnus, Los Angeles, USA

Roland Deiser is a Drucker Senior Fellow and leads the Center for the Future of Organization (CFFO) at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. His current research focuses on the capability requirements for shaping and leveraging business ecosystems. He is the author of four books and has written numerous articles on 21st century leadership and organization.

Former Professor of International Business; Circular Economy Consultant, Managing Partner MGT OPEN; stars alumna, Grižane, Croatia

Circular Economy Mentor, Trainer and Consultant, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of EntrepreneurCircle.World
Dr Gordana Kierans – author and TEDx Speaker – has over 22 years of business experience at the interface between leading Business Schools and companies. During her career, she has worked with entrepreneurs, SMEs, multinationals, governments and NGOs, in Germany and world-wide. During her time at a global network of universities and multinationals in Brussels, she worked with top academics in the area of the circular economy which inspired her to create a practical hands-on programme with focus on entrepreneurs that can be found on Udemy. Plus, she was invited to deliver a TEDx Talk in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Dr Kierans was born and raised in Croatia, but she lived abroad for three decades (Italy, Germany, Belgium and China). She completed all her studies in Germany, including her PhD. in Business Administration. In addition, Dr Kierans is also an Alumna of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education.

Today, she is back in Croatia where she is a Partner at MGT OPEN and Grounded Press. She is also a Co-Founder of the Membership Platform EntrepreneurCircle.World – a network for circular entrepreneurs.

CEO and Founder of MINIWIZ, Taipei City

• Trained as an engineer, architect from Cornell and Harvard university, and recognized by World Economic Forum as the “technology pioneer” leading in circular economy revolution today with 17 global invention patents granted making decentralized upcycling a reality.
• Completed over 300,000 sqm of circular buildings across 17 major global cities transforming local trash into modular upcycled building products with government, largescale real estate developers and consumer brands like NIKE, Starbucks, PMI, BAT, McDonald in the last 18 years.
• Financial Times Earth Award 2010, Wall Street Journal Innovation award 2012, Bloomberg NYC Venture Fellow 2012, IDEA GOLD award 2013, National Geographic Emerging Explorer 2016, Vatican Award for Science/Ecology/Architecture 2019, Obama Foundation Emerging Leader 2019, IDEAT Vision Award 2019, WDO World Design Impact Prize 2021.

Consulting and Research, Hundertmark, Zurich, Switzerland

Former Group President, GIC; Former Head of Civil Service of Singapore; Member, stars International Board, Singapore

Siong Guan Lim was Group President of GIC from 2007 until the end of 2016, after which he was Advisor to GIC's Group Executive Committee until March 2019. The GIC manages the financial reserves of the Singapore Government. He was Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board from October 2006 to June 2009. The Board is the Singapore government’s lead agency for planning and executing strategies to enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre. Much of its work is attracting international corporations to set up manufacturing and services activities in Singapore as critical links in the global supply chain.

Siong Guan was Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore from 2005–2023, instructing on leadership and change management, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Civil Service College from 2006–2023.

He was the Head of the Singapore Civil Service from September 1999 to March 2005. Siong Guan was the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense (1981-1994), the Prime Minister’s Office (1994-1998), the Ministry of Education (1997-1999) and the Ministry of Finance (1999-2006). In every appointment he introduced innovative policies and practices which enhanced the drive, capacity, capability and performance of the organization. Siong Guan has chaired the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (2004-2006), the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (2004-2006) and the Central Provident Fund Board (1986-1994), and was a board member of many companies including Temasek, the other sovereign wealth fund manager of Singapore.

Founder and CEO, Furaha Africa Holdings; stars Alumna, Johannesburg, South Africa

Matsi is an avid entrepreneur, seasoned chairperson of listed and unlisted companies, with a background in finance, skills development and technology. She is an investor in two African fintech companies, Fin Africa (a leading African fintech company offering credit-led products that drive financial inclusion through innovation in 3 African markets) and Airbuy, an early-stage digital wallet startup. Matsi has recently transitioned into the global climate change space, and is the World Climate Foundation Africa Lead, who has helped establish the Africa Leading initiative within the foundation. Matsi is also the co-founder of Climate FinFind, a tech platform that brokers climate finance for climate projects, products and services. Her focus is bridging the gap between the global north and the global south in the climate innovation and climate investment space and ensuring that Africa has a voice and a seat at the table.

Matsi holds various Non-Executive Directorship and trustee positions in local and international entities (Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), Kuehne + Nagel, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings, SAB Foundation and Agri-Vie Private Equity). Matsi continues to play an instrumental role in advocating for policy reform for high impact, high growth technology startups in South Africa, through her role as the Vice Chairperson of SiMODiSA (PBO) and the Chairperson of the South African Startup Act Movement.

Matsi has travelled around the world and has an extensive local, continental, and global network of people through being a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Shapers community and Young Presidents Organization (YPO), North Star Integrator Chapter. Matsi holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (B.Comm) from the University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa and completed the Harvard YPO President’s executive programme, in Boston Massachusetts.

Member of the Executive Board - Property & Casualty, Hannover Re; stars alumna, Hannover, Germany

Career

• From Jan. 2023
  Hannover Re, Hannover
  Member of the Executive Board
• 2020 – 2022 Swiss Re
  Managing Director Client Markets
  Head of Australia & New Zealand
  Country President & Chief Executive of Swiss Re Australia
• 2017 – 2020 Swiss Re
  Managing Director Products
  Head of P&C Underwriting Asia Pacific
• 2012 – 2017 Swiss Re
  Managing Director Client Markets
  Country President & Chief Executive of Swiss Re Singapore
  Country President of South East Asia, India, Korea, Hong Kong & Taiwan
• 2008 – 2012 Swiss Re
  Director Client Markets
• 2006 – 2008 Swiss Re
  Director Property & Specialty
• 2001 – 2006 GE Insurance Solutions, Singapore Branch
  Assistant General Manager
• 1997 – 2001 General Re
  Property & Casualty Underwriter (SEA)
• 1995 – 1997 OCBC Bank, Singapore
  Business Process Reengineering/ Risk Management

Education

• 1991 – 1995 National University of Singapore
  Bachelor of Science (Hons), Cell and Molecular Biology

Managing Director, I.J. Martin & Co Pte Ltd, Zurich, Switzerland

Marlene UETZ coaches and mentors senior leaders in a variety of sectors. She is on the boards of I.J. Martin & Co Ltd Global based in Zurich and its sister company in Singapore. She is also an Advisory Board Member of an economic development organisation and a former board member of a bilateral trade body. Marlene has lived, studied and worked in Europe, Asia and the Americas and worked for European, US and Asian multinationals. She is a double-MBA Graduate and Chartered Marketer.

Beatriz SANCHEZ, Chair Americas, Bank Julius Baer, Zurich, Switzerland

Beatriz Sanchez joins from Goldman Sachs & Co. where she held various senior positions with a focus on Latin America over the past nine years, lately as Managing Director & Chairwoman, Private Wealth Management, Latin America. Prior to that, she had worked for HSBC in Geneva as Member of the Private Bank Executive Committee & Global Head of Private Banking/Latin America. She started her career in wealth management with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York as Vice-President Private Banking before she joined Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) SA in Geneva as Head of Hispanic Latin America. Beatriz Sanchez earned her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami in 1979. She is a Swiss and American citizen.

Professional Career

• Since March 2023
  Chief Executive Officer Roche Group
• January 2023-February 2023
  Ad interim CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals
• August 2019-December 2022
  CEO Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland
• January 2018-July 2019
  Global Head of Roche Diagnostics Centralized and Point of Care Solutions, Rotkreuz
• 2013-2017
  General Manager of Roche Diagnostics Germany, Mannheim, and Roche Holding Germany, Grenzach
• 2011-2013
  Lifecycle Leader Sequencing Solutions, Roche Diagnostics Branford and Madison
• 2008-2011
  General Manager Roche Diagnostics, Sweden, Stockholm
• 2005-2008
  Head of Marketing and Sales, Roche Diagnostics Austria, Vienna
• 2003-2005
  Roche Management Development Program “Perspectives”, Roche Singapore, Basel, Vienna, and Mannheim

Studies

• Genetics at University Salzburg, B.A., 1997
• Molecular Biology at New York University, M.S., 2000
• Doctorate in Molecular Biology at New York University, Ph.D., 2003

Executive Chairman, stars Foundation, Weinfelden, Switzerland

• 2014 – present: Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of the stars Foundation Board, Weinfelden, Switzerland
• 2008 – 2014: Chairman and Co-Founder of the stars Foundation Board, Weinfelden, Switzerland
• 1994 – 2016: Member of the Board of UBS Wolfsberg and Congress Hotel Seepark AG
• 1994 – 2014: CEO, UBS Wolfsberg. Emphasis on Business Development, i.e. initiating, supervising, and conducting UBS Briefings, UBS Health Forum, UBS Arts Forum, UBS Study Trips, UBS Think Tanks, Wolfsberg Podium (www.wolfsberg.com)
• 1981 – 1994: Various responsibilities for UBS Management and Executive Development, Member and Chairman of the Board of UBS Art Collection
• Concurrently: Member of the Board of various companies and foundations in Switzerland

Assistant Professor, Dublin City University; Director, Ireland India Institute; stars Alumna, Dublin, Ireland

Dr Jivanta Schoettli is Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland and Director of the Ireland India Institute at DCU. Earlier, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), Singapore and prior to that, interim professor for Indian politics at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University in Germany.

Jivanta conducts research on India’s maritime diplomacy, contributions to maritime governance in the Indian Ocean and strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific.

Her publications include Maritime Governance in South Asia (Ed.) World Scientific, Singapore, 2018 and Power, Politics and Maritime Governance in the Indian Ocean (ed) Routledge, London 2014. Her 2012 book, Vision and Strategy in Indian Politics. Jawaharlal Nehru’s Policy Choices and the Designing of Political Institutions, published by Routledge, London, analysed the position taken by India’s first prime minister on key national debates about secularism, economic development and foreign policy and the implications of his policy choices.

Jivanta has written articles for Asian Survey, India Review, ISAS, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region and Irish Studies in International Affairs.

She holds a PhD (Summa cum Laude) from Heidelberg University, Germany, and an MSc in Economic History and a BSc in International Relations and History, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Head of Research and Innovation Node, Balgrist University Hospital; stars Alumna, Zurich, Switzerland

• 2021 - today: Head, Research and Innovation Node, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2020 - 2021: Marketing Project Manager, Amgen Europe, Rotkreuz, Switzerland
• 2016 - 2019: Project Portfolio Manager, Wyss Zurich - ETH Zurich/University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2015 - 2016: Scientific Coordinator, SystemsX.ch, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2010 - 2014: Research Associate/PhD Candidate, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

President Emeritus, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC); Member of the Board, Robert Bosch Internationale Beteiligungen; Member, stars International Board, Beijing, China

Joerg WUTTKE is Chief Representative of BASF China as well as former three-term President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), based in Beijing. He also serves as Chairman of the China Task Force of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. Since joining BASF in 1997, Joerg has been responsible for helping guide the company’s investment strategies for China, negotiation of large projects and government relations. Before joining BASF, he worked with ABB for 11 years. Joerg is also a Member of the stars International Board

In January 2011 the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), a Paris based body of major business associations that lobbies the OECD, named him to become Chairman of the BIAC China Task Force.

Since its establishment in 2013, Joerg is member of the Advisory Board of Germany’s foremost Think Tank on China, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), in Berlin.

From 2013 to 2016, he was Vice Chairman of the CPCIF International Cooperation Committee, a group representing Multinational Companies in China’s Chemical Association.

Wuttke holds a BA in Business Administration and Economics from Mannheim and he studied Chinese in Shanghai 1982 and Taipei 1984-85. A frequent speaker on business and industry issues in China, he co-authored:

• “The Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry in China” Springer Publishing Trust (2005)
• “Energy Resources Security” Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (2006)
• “My 30 years in China” ACA Publishing (2008)
• “Gelebte Geschichte - 40 Erfahungen” CBT China Book Trading (2012)
• “The Handbook of Chinese Organizational Behavior: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice” Edgar Elgar Publishing (2012)
• “Peter Tichauer; Perspektivenwechsel” OWC (2015)
• “The Dark Side of China’s Economic Rise” in "Europe and the World: Global Insecurity and Power Shifts; Helmut K. Anheier and Robert Falkner (eds.); University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (2017)

Dr Yu Jie is senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, focusing on the decision-making process of Chinese foreign policy as well as China’s economic diplomacy.

She frequently comments in major media outlets such as BBC News and the Financial Times and regularly briefs senior policy practitioners from the G7 member governments and the Silk Road Fund in Beijing. She also advises major FTSE 100 corporates and leading European financial institutions on China’s political landscape.

Yu Jie has testified on China’s foreign affairs at various UK Parliament committees. She was previously head of China Foresight at LSE IDEAS and remains as an associate fellow.

Prior to LSE, she was a management consultant, specializing in Chinese state-owned enterprises investments in Europe and Chinese market entry strategies for European conglomerates at the London office of Roland Berger.

LSE recognized her as one of its ‘Leading Women’ in 2018 for her contribution in teaching and engaging the public debates on China’s foreign affairs.

She is also a Young Leader for the Asian Security Summit Shangri-La Dialogue.