Dr Alain Gut has been Director Public Affairs at IBM Switzerland since January 2019. Prior to that, he was responsible for the Public Sector for seven years and for three years as a member of the Executive Board for the software business in Switzerland and Austria. Previous employers include Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft Switzerland and UBS.

Alain Gut studied business informatics at the University of Zurich and holds a doctorate. He is involved in numerous commissions and committees, primarily for the topic of IT in education, but also for cyber security, mobility and data policy.

Sara Kaiser combines her cross-disciplinary experience and passion for arts, technology, and education in her current work as Program Director of the Luxembourg Tech School (LTS) and as an advisor for arts & governmental organisations. With a background in Tourism & Economics, she worked for more than 10 years in leading positions in the Arts & Music sector in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

At the Luxembourg Tech School, a new kind of educational program to support the development of future digital leaders, she teaches 12-to 19-year-old students innovative ways to create and build applications with the latest technology.

Through her work, she shows young people the many facets of tech and how empowering and playful it is. However, she also experiences firsthand the struggle of retaining the interest of young girls in technology.

Patricia Widmer studied business administration at the University of Zurich with an emphasis on banking and finance and worked for several years in private banking for a large Swiss bank.

During her subsequent time abroad in the US and Germany, she held leadership positions with several charity organizations.

Patricia has been with the University of St. Gallen since 2014, where she established the English-speaking certificate programme “Women Back to Business” (WBB) as well as the “Women’s Leadership Programme” and is now Programme Director for various Diversity and Management Programmes as well as Vice-Director and member of the senior management team at the Executive School.

Furthermore, she facilitates and moderates workshops as well as presentations about Inclusive Leadership, Diversity and New Work. She wrote her dissertation about “Gender Disparity on Top of Companies”. In addition, she holds several non-executive positions and is founder and managing partner of Aalto AG – fostering organizational and professional happiness.

Engaged teacher, passionate by project-based learning and flipped-classroom related concepts
Project tutor with close collaborations with industrial partners, and experience in industrial development
Motivation driven leader, animating ad-hoc teams to develop materials and events for youth development
Networker, shaping interdisciplinary collaborations for diversity (gender & equity) and STEM promotion

Julia holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Marketing from London Greenwich University. She has over 15 years of international experience in the financial industry and consulting. Before joining SIX she worked in senior leadership positions in Zurich and London. Throughout her career, Julia was always passionate in understanding the customer needs, connecting Business and IT and enabling stakeholders during the digital transformations.

At SIX Julia is responsible for the Public Cloud Competence Center. In this role she also experiences firsthand the struggle of recruiting young women globally.

Darcy has a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering. She has been working at ETH Zürich since 2005. In 2018 she established the 500 Women Scientists’ Zürich Chapter with the aim of promoting and supporting women in science. One of the chapter’s key activities is Kangaroo Goes Science, an annual event that brings 100 teenage girls to ETH for a day. 

Lisa Stähli is a Software Engineer at Esri R&D Center Zurich, developing web-based 3D applications for smart city planning.

She graduated in 2018 from ETH Zurich as a Geomatics Engineer with specifications in cartography, geospatial analysis & urban planning.

Besides her job, she volunteers as the Co-Managing Director & Head of Press for the non-profit organization Girls in Tech Switzerland, a community that aims at increasing diversity in tech.