Coaching Swiss Innovation Challenge

Cyril Berger ist CEO und Mitgründer von Code Law, einer Legal Service Company mit Fokus auf Technologie orientierte Startups. Mit viel Leidenschaft arbeitet er an Projekten an der Schnittstelle von Wirtschaft, Technologie und Recht. Cyril Berger besitzt einen Master of Law Abschluss der Universität Zürich. Bereits während seines Studiums interessierte er sich für wirtschafts- und technologiebezogene Rechtsfragen. Nach seinem Anwaltspraktikum bei einer führenden Wirtschaftskanzlei in Zürich war Cyril Berger als Senior Counsel für ein grosses Schweizer ICT-Unternehmen tätig. Er spricht fliessend Deutsch und Englisch.

Robert-Jan Bumbacher has over 25 years of experience of managing consulting and auditing mandates for family-owned businesses, companies listed on the stock exchange and public institutions. He spent eight years developing and managing a service department and field office and three years heading up the Basel branch of an international auditing and consulting firm. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at University Hospital Basel and is also a visiting lecturer at the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Mr Bumbacher studied at the University of St. Gallen and is a qualified auditor.
Key coaching areas: Business and strategic development, developing and implementing a business plan, business management and control, business process analysis, managing succession, financing and project management.

Valérie Can is a technologist and entrepreneur, with over 10 years of experience in innovation and project management, business modeling, customer experience and venture building. Since 2018, she has accompanied numerous startups in strategy definition, monetization of their business models, customer testing up to the development of the MVP. Having successfully built an innovation lab as well as a complete internal innovation management for a Swiss banking group, she knows and understands the world of startups as well as enterprises. Currently, she is a business designer, founder and partner at Raqoon, a business design company that develops and implements digital solutions.

Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia developed Switzerland’s first-ever postgraduate course in e-commerce and online marketing in 2000. She was ahead of her time. She now lectures at the FHNW School of Business and heads up various certificate and diploma programmes on the topic of digital business innovation. Her core expertise covers e-commerce, online marketing and social media. She speaks at conferences and trade fairs and writes on trends and innovations. She is one of the editors for BPX Verlag (IT and business). “You are what you share!” is her motto.

Key coaching areas: E-commerce, online marketing, social media and e-business

After his education, Beat Dobmann passed through various functions up to the level of business manager in international plant engineering and IT. For 8 years he has been the owner of Dobmann Consulting GmbH and advises SMEs on corporate management issues (strategy development, organization, leadership coaching, innovation management). He is accredited by Innosuisse as a mentor, is a consortium member for business models in the NTN Applied Circular Economy, coaches an IT startup on behalf of Genisuisse and is chairman and partner of a technology startup in the photovoltaic sector.

Jan Fülscher has been active in the startup scene for more than 20 years: As a founder, co-founder, investor, coach, mentor and lecturer, he has experienced entrepreneurship from a wide variety of perspectives. He was managing director of the then largest investor club businessangels.ch and co-founder of today's most important club SICTIC.ch. In recent years, Jan has been CEO of a spin-off of ETH Zurich and TU Berlin. He holds an M A from UZH and is an accredited Innosuisse coach and certified systemic coach. He teaches at the Universities of Zurich and Bern as well as at several universities of applied sciences. His main topics are B2B companies with a software component as well as art and cultural projects.

Andrea Gander holds a BA degree in business administration and is a management advisor on strategy, organisation and management. She coaches in communication and presentation techniques and teaches at Bern University of Applied Sciences and at the Hotel Management School Thun. She has many years of experience in the hotel and catering industries and also hosts various symposia and conferences. Andrea Gander has been a member of the Executive Board of Gastrag in Basel for many years.
Key coaching areas: Devising a business plan, communication (summarising your innovation), presentation skills (presenting your innovation).

From freelancer to entrepreneur, Peter Goetsch has been building up specialized consulting companies for the life science industry in Switzerland, Europe and Asia since 2002. After the sale of the group of companies to a globally active consulting firm, he now heads its European and Southeast Asian business. Previously, he held various line and staff management positions with the Swiss tourism leader in Switzerland and abroad. Starting out as a «one man show», he has experienced and lived the various facets and challenges of entrepreneurship in the service and solutions business on a daily basis, learning to balance business and private life in a healthy way.

Marina Hasler is Managing Partner at Impact Hub Basel. Impact Hub Basel promotes startups and SMEs through networking and knowledge transfer around sustainability and innovation. In this role, Marina Hasler is particularly responsible for mandates in the sustainability field as well as internal organizational topics (organizational development, collaboration, HR processes). In addition, Marina Hasler is active as an expert in Innosuisse Startup courses. In the past six years, she built two incubation programs for sustainable startups with the Swiss Sustainability Challenge and Impact Hub Basel Incubator. She holds a Master in International Management with a focus on sustainability management.

Peter Herrmann Peter completed his studies of pharmacy in Basel in 1984. After completing his doctoral thesis in the field of immunology at Sandoz AG, he worked first as a post-doctoral fellow and then as a laboratory manager in the preclinical immunology research department at Sandoz AG. Since 1993 he held various positions in the regulatory affairs departments of Johnson & Johnson and F. Hoffmann-La Roche. In 1998 he became Roche's media spokesman. In 1999 he joined the newly founded Actelion AG as Head of Regulatory Affairs. In 2004 he lived with his family in Japan to support the development of the local subsidiary. After his return he took over the newly established Corporate Affairs and Compliance department. In 2009 he was appointed Group Compliance Officer of Actelion. After the acquisition of Actelion by Johnson and John-son in 2017, he was a member of the global integration team. Since October 2019 he has been CEO of PharmaCons GmbH.

Virginia is the founder and CEO of Dedomena, a data analytics platform that helps investors, banks and insurance companies make better real estate investment decisions, with social considerations in mind. She has already won several competitions, securing part of the funding for her startup. Microsoft Switzerland has accepted the young company into its exclusive program, giving it many advantages. Virginia is well connected in the startup scene and understands the challenges of young entrepreneurs. She wants to share her knowledge and network with new entrepreneurs. She has been coaching entrepreneurs for years, especially in the areas of business development and finance. She is also a guest lecturer in entrepreneurship at the Institute of Entrepreneurship at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW. Virginia also serves as a jury member for startup competitions in the Basel region, such as the Impact Hub. She holds a master's degree in business management from the University of Basel and has completed various continuing education programs in business development, entrepreneurship, and finance.

Andreas Lucco is a marketing and market research expert and has been a lecturer for marketing, branding and CRM at the University of Basel, the ZHAW Winterthur and the SAWI in Dübendorf for 15 years. He has accompanied numerous start-ups in the development of their own brand and communication strategies and has worked as a strategy and management consultant for Deutsche Telekom AG and as an SME managing director. Today he is Head of Marketing, PR & Communication at the Sinfonieorchester Basel.

Daniel Maier studied physics at the ETH Zürich and started his career in research at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Würenlingen and software developer, project manager and consultant for several international telecommunications companies. 20 years ago, he joined the family business euromaier AG focused on coaching start-ups and SMEs concerning their Intellectual Property (IP). He founded a sister consulting company in the United States and has a vast experience concerning IP strategies for monitoring, filing and protecting patents, trademarks and designs in over 100 countries worldwide.

Markus Müller studied business administration (Bachelor of Business Administration), specialising in marketing. He holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies in sports psychology and mental training from Zurich University of Applied Sciences and a Master of Advanced Studies in systemic solution-oriented coaching from the FHNW. He specialises in innovation management, strategic business development and change management. Over the past 15 years, he has helped establish and get several (internet-based) start-ups off the ground. He is a guest lecturer at various universities across Switzerland and has written a number of specialist articles and books.
Key coaching areas: Marketing, innovation, business and organisational development, change management, start-up support and site innovation.

Marc K. Peter currently works at the FHNW School of Business as Head of the Centre for Digital Transformation and Marketing. He previously worked for LexisNexis (RELX) UK & Ireland, London as Director of Sales & Marketing, for LexisNexis (RELX) Asia-Pacific, Sydney as General Manager and COO, for E*TRADE, Sydney as Senior Brand Marketing Manager and for eBay International, Bern as Head of Marketing.
Key coaching areas: Digital marketing, digital transformation, business development, B2B sales, global expansion

Stefan Philippi holds a Master of Arts degree in Social Sciences and an executive master’s in business administration. He is the operative head of the Swiss Start-up and Swiss Innovation Challenge for several years. In this context, he coached and supervised numerous start-ups and accompanied them on their way to independence. Stefan Philippi is also a lecturer for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Institute of Management at the FHNW.

Rolf-Dieter Reineke is a professor at the Institute of Management at the FHNW School of Business, where he heads up the Swiss Innovation Challenge competitions in Switzerland and Asia as well as the Swiss Next Challenge. He is also a member of the boards of directors of several international service companies. He previously held various positions at universities in Switzerland and abroad and at international consulting firms, where he gained consulting and training experience in more than 40 countries and advised on strategy, organisation and internationalisation in particular. He has written a number of specialist articles and books. Rolf-Dieter Reineke completed a PhD in international mergers and acquisitions at the University of Münster.
Key coaching areas: Internationalisation strategies and company succession.

Patrick A. Scarpelli is a managing partner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of cctm Holding AG, Chairman of the Board of Directors of FrehsCo AG and a member of the Audit Committee of Weleda AG. He has over 20 years of consulting experience at national and international level and was Group Chief Financial Officer for an industrial company. He completed a PhD at the University of St. Gallen and lectured for over ten years at Bern University of Applied Science, primarily on the subject of business planning and turnaround management.
Key coaching areas: Devising business strategies, developing and reviewing business plans, establishing a multi-project management approach at private and public institutions, conducting business and brand evaluations, developing operating concepts.

Isabelle Siegrist has been helping to build up companies across Switzerland since 2014, first for 2 years at Startups.ch as CIO and then with her own company builder Sandborn. She supports entrepreneurs and corporates from various industries in scaling (from idea validation, product/service development, market entry to growth financing). She was recognized as one of the TOP 100 Businesswomen in Switzerland 2018, 2019 and 2020 and is a Forbes 30 under 30 Alumna (2019), studied Business Innovation at HSG and majored in Social Entrepreneurship at ESCP Europe. She is a coach at Innosuisse and regularly teaches at various colleges and universities on entrepreneurship topics.