Petra Jantzer is Senior Managing Director at Accenture and CEO of European Pharmaceuticals and Med Tech Business. In her role, she is supporting large Life Science companies in bringing innovative medicines to patients and achieving better health outcomes.

Petra has more than 20 years’ experience in R&D, both as a consultant in the (bio)pharmaceuticals sector and as a researcher. She holds a PhD in Immunology and graduated with an honors degree in molecular biology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.

Before her current position, she was a tenured Partner with McKinsey & Company. In that role, she was a co-founding Board Member of Advance. In 2017, Petra was re-elected to the Board.

With her own career, Petra has been role modelling gender equality in the workplace and beyond and is a strong force in fostering female talents. Petra and her husband live in Zurich with their two sons.

Alkistis Petropaki has joined Advance as General Manager in 2015. She has more than 20 years experience in leading positions in well known FMCG companies like e.g. L’Oreal, Nestlé, Mövenpick and Lindt & Sprüngli. Before joining Advance she was the Country Manager of Yves Rocher in Switzerland. She studied economics and holds a MBA from ESCP-EAP. She also has a Master’s degree in German literature and psychology from the University of Athens.

Alkistis strongly believes in the benefits of mixed-gender teams for society, for organizations as well as for individuals. With her engagement with Advance she is convinced to be able to make an impact in the Swiss economy.

Alkistis is married and has two grown-up children.

Ana Maria Montero (AM) is an international TV, radio and print journalist with 20 years of experience who grew up professionally within the CNN family – from intern to anchor desk – working for CNN International, CNN Español, CNN domestic and HLN, in English and Spanish.

During this time, she hosted Escenario, a Los Angeles-based daily entertainment news show focused on all things arts and entertainment: Hollywood, premieres, celebrity interviews, set visits, film festivals, concerts, etc., including live coverage of the Academy Awards®, Grammys® and other high-profile events around the globe for CNN and TNT. Not to be limited solely to infotainment however, she rounded out her experience as a live news correspondent working out of the Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City Bureaus.

In 2017 AM traded red carpets for stock markets and joined the CNNMoney Switzerland team as an anchor for their flagship business and finance show, The Swiss Pulse. Replacing movie stars and rock legends with CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, bankers, analysts from top global companies, she also became host of the long-format interview show, The Newsmaker. In addition she hosted the show, All Inclusive where she focused on topics of diversity and inclusion as well as Tech Talk, a show about all things tech, with a focus on sustainability, the Swiss start-up scene and women in tech.

When she is not working in front of the camera, AM is speaking, moderating or hosting live and virtual events for a diverse range of conferences, companies, and financial institutions, as well as providing media consulting and training.

The pursuit of her own personal story brought this Cuban, Spanish, American to Zurich, where she lives with her family, chases her writing and obsesses about making the world a better place for her daughters.

From January 2023, 52-year-old Graubünden native Peter Düggeli will have a key journalistic role in the SRF newsroom as an inland planner. 
 
Peter Düggeli studied history and English at the University of Freiburg and graduated in 1999. In addition, he completed his postgraduate studies in journalism at the Swiss journalism school MAZ in Lucerne. Peter worked for SRF from 2010 to 2021: First he worked as a business editor for the “Tagesschau” before moving to the news magazine “10vor10” as an editor in 2012. From the summer of 2015 to early 2021, Peter Düggeli took over the position of TV correspondent in Washington, where he reported on the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, among other things. 
 
In April 2021, he left SRF and took up the position of Head of Communications at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA. At the end of December 2022, Düggeli resigned from office for family reasons.

Simona Scarpaleggia is an innovative, pragmatic and constructive international business leader with a talent for unleashing the potential of both teams and individuals. She is Strategic Advisor and serves as Board Member for different companies including EDGE Strategy AG that measures, accelerates & certifies organisations in Gender & Intersectional Equity. Before, she has acted as Manager of the Global Initiative for the future of our work at IKEA and as CEO for IKEA Switzerland.

She is a passionate campaigner for all issues surrounding women’s empowerment. In 2009, she co-founded “Valore D” in Italy and “Advance Women” in Switzerland in 2013. Both organizations have a mission to boost gender diversity and to increase the share of mixed-gender management teams for the benefit of the customers, companies, economies and societies. She is author of the book “The Other Half” which has been published in July 2019.

From 2016 to 2018 she co-chaired the UN High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment in the context of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. She serves in several boards both of listed and non-listed companies and in the Advisory Boards of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Zurich, the Research Institute for International Management at the University of St. Gallen (FIM-HSG), and of ZHdK.

Simona Scarpaleggia holds a degree in political science and an MBA from SDA Bocconi School of Management. She also holds a Doctorate Honoris causa from the International University in Geneva. In 2022 she received the Career Award of the Swiss Economic Forum. She is an Italian citizen, is married and has three children.

Malvika Singh is the founding partner of IMPACT, an international consulting and leadership development firm with offices in Switzerland and the U.S.A. She has over thirty years of experience as a successful leader in a multicultural environment. She works with Boards, CEOs, senior executives and top leadership teams in the areas of organization and leadership development. Her work focuses on the creation of innovation by design, and she specializes in working with individuals and organizations to create breakthrough results.

Malvika earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The University of Pennsylvania, an M.B.A. in Finance and International Business from New York University, and Organizational Gestalt Diploma from Metanoia Institute. She is a member of Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board (WLB), a lecturer at the Lorange Institute of Business, and was formerly affiliated with Ashridge University and CCL.

Malvika is passionate about advancing the cause of women. She is a champion and advocate of women getting a fair share representation in the corporate world. She is the initiator and co-founder of Advance and is an honorary board member.

Malvika is married with two children.

Tanja Vainio is Country President for Schneider Electric Switzerland and part of Schneider Electric’s DACH executive management team since March 2022. Ms Vainio also serves as Member of the Board of Directors at Franke Group as well as Aspen Organization Central Eastern Europe.

Tanja Vainio has more than 20 years’ Industry experience. She joined Schneider Electric from ABB, where she held various local and global leadership roles with increasing responsibility, most recently as Managing Director Business Line Automotive Supply Chain at Robotics & Discrete Automation Business.

Ms Vainio holds a Master of Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) & Tampere University of Technology, as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from MIT.

Andreas Staubli was borne in 1968. In 1993, Andreas graduated from the University of St. Gallen in Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG).

Subsequently, he began his career as an international tax counsel with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich. In 1998, he qualified as a Swiss Certified Tax Expert.

From 1999 to 2000, Andreas worked in the International Structuring Planning Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. In 2000, Andreas became a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Switzerland.

Andreas has over 25 years’ experience in domestic and international corporate structuring, financial services taxation, mergers and acquisition as well as post deal integration, IPOs, tax governance and worldwide compliance engagements. He advises Swiss and international companies and is the global senior client partner of several multinational clients.

Andreas led the Tax, Legal and HR Services practice of PwC Switzerland and was a member of the Management Board of PricewaterhouseCoopers Switzerland for eight years. Since 1 July 2018, Andreas acts as CEO for PwC Switzerland.

Andreas is married and father of two grown-up sons. He is a passionate skier and diver and loves to travel to foreign countries.

Marion Leslie is Head Financial Information at SIX and a member of the SIX Executive Board. She is also a member of the BME Board of Directors. As Head Financial Information, Marion leads the SIX global data business, serving financial institutions worldwide with critical data and insights to support their clients.

The British-Australian dual citizen brings a strong industry knowledge and more than 25 years of experience in developing and operating successful businesses in the Financial Information space. She holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in French and German from the University of Cambridge.

Marion was included in the World Federation of Exchanges “Women Leaders List 2021” and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in European Finance by Financial News in 2020. In 2017, she was nominated in the Cranfield University Female FTSE 100 Women to Watch Board Report and in 2014 was the winner of the Award for Achievement at the Women in Banking and Finance Awards.

In addition to this, she has been a Non-executive Director of the Board for the UK Hydrographic Office, since 2015 and a Trustee at Prostate Cancer UK since 2016.

Marion Leslie and her husband moved to Switzerland with their two children in January 2020.

Martin Jara, Dr. oec. HSG, joined Winterthur Group in 2002 after working as an academic assistant at the Institute of Insurance Economics at the University of St Gallen. At Suva he was the responsible manager for one of the regions in Eastern Switzerland and for the nationwide improvement of Risk & Underwriting processes.
In 2008, Martin Jara started at Allianz Suisse as head of the Swiss Broker Business. In 2010 he joined the Allianz Board of Management. At first he was responsible for Market Management & Corporate Development (2010-2014) and later on as Chief Sales Officer for all sales channels of the company.
In May 2020 Martin joined Helvetia Insurance as CEO Switzerland and member of the Group Executive Board.