Margherita Fontana is the EMEAI Purchasing Director for Dow Chemical. In her current role she is accountable for the Strategic Sourcing and Procure to Pay Services in the EMEAI region. Additionally, she is responsible for driving stronger partnership with Dow diverse suppliers, in order to unlock value while driving innovation.

In her previous role, Margherita held the Commercial Director for the Dow Construction Chemical Business in EMEAI. In this role, she was responsible for regional Profit & Loss, the EMEAI commercial leadership and growth agenda.

Prior to the appointment to her global role, Margherita held several marketing positions at Dow across different business both globally and regionally. She was awarded the Pinnacle Award for Marketing Excellence in 2012. Before joining Dow in 2011, she worked in various roles for BASF and Ciba Specialty Chemicals.

Margherita is the Chair of the Global Dow Women Inclusion Network (WIN) and has been an active WIN Leader since 2015, leading the advancement of women in Business both at DOW, globally as well as in Switzerland. In 2020 She was recognized as HERoes 100 Women Future Leaders list supported by Yahoo Finance.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD business school and earned her doctorate degree in Natural Sciences from Swiss Institute of Technology, ETH in Zurich, and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Palermo.

Stephanino Isele joined the bank’s Executive Committee on April 1st, 2014 as Head of the
“Institutionals & Multinationals” division. He earned a master’s degree in business economics before gaining his PhD in finance and accounting from the University of Zurich. In 2008 he joined Zürcher Kantonalbank, Switzerland’s leading Cantonal Bank, as Head of Trading, Sales and Capital Market. Prior to working at Zürcher Kantonalbank, he held various roles in Global Markets in New York, Zurich and London at J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, last in London as a Managing Director with global responsibilities in Equity Derivatives.

Stephanino Isele serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Swisscanto Holding Ltd., Zurich; Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Swisscanto Investment Foundations and the Swisscanto Investment Foundations Avant, both in Zurich; Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Swisscanto Swiss Red Cross Charity Fund (SICAV); Member of the Regulatory Board of the SIX Swiss Exchange, Zurich; Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Banking and Finance of the University of Zurich and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Finance Institute, Zurich.

Stephanino Isele is married and has an adult son. He enjoys mountain and water sports, travelling and exploring different cultures, fine arts and occasionally fine dining. He was born in Altdorf, Uri, Switzerland in 1962.

Kenji moved from the UK to Switzerland in 2012 and has spent most of his career working in Financial Messaging IT. He was the Lead Requirements Engineer within the Global Financial Messaging Services at Credit Suisse, this year moving into a Business Transformation role within CS Group Operations. Kenji has been involved in a wide number of topics ranging from platform upgrades, International standard migrations and regulatory items to strategy development.

He lives in Zurich with his partner and his 1.5 year old son Miles and will become a father of two next January! Combining a fulfilling job with family life where both parents contribute as equally as possible (men can’t breastfeed!) is very important to him but still in today’s world it can be challenging.

He holds a Master of Physics from the University of Kent and his main hobbies are mountain biking and music.

Joop, born in the Netherlands, graduated in Rotterdam School of Management, specializing in Human Resources, Culture and Organisation studies.

He has 20 years of experience within HR and Reward, both in corporate and consulting roles. In most recent years, he has been working intensively on the topic of gender equality and equal pay with organizations of different sizes and industries. Joop specializes in the analysis and design of effective HR and reward policies, processes and practices with a specific focus on Inclusion and Diversity.

He has led the development of the PwC client service team specialized in EQUAL-SALARY Certifications and Inclusion & Diversity consulting.

Aris grew up in Zurich and is studying economics at the University of St.Gallen, while currently enjoying an exchange semester in Rome. During his studies, Aris has worked for Deloitte Consulting Switzerland where he supported the Human Capital Practice. He is passionate about exploring the world to connect with different cultures, an enthusiastic skier and a big football fan.