Recipes for success for the Swiss economy

After studying at the HSG in St. Gallen, Peter Spuhler took over Stadler in 1989 with 18 employees at the time. Under his leadership as Group CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, the company grew to become a leading provider of intercity, regional and commuter trains as well as trams, followed by a successful IPO in 2019.
In addition to his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stadler Rail AG and various companies in the Stadler Rail Group, PCS Holding AG and Aebi Schmidt Holding AG, he is also a member of the Board of Directors of Rieter AG, Allreal Holding AG and other companies. From 1999 to 2012, Peter Spuhler was a parliamentary group spokesman for the SVP Thurgau in the National Council and was spokesman for the Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxatio

Tomas Prenosil was born in Prague. He attended grammar school in Zurich and graduated with a federal baccalaureate. He then studied at the Faculty of Law in Zurich and successfully completed his studies with a licentiate. After 9 years as Head of Production, Quality and Development, he was promoted to CEO of Confiserie Sprüngli. He describes himself as a creative doer who loves challenges and change. Respect and appreciation are values that he upholds.

Roland Siegwart is professor for autonomous mobile robots at ETH Zurich, founding co-director of the technology transfer center Wyss Zurich and board member of multiple companies, including Komax and NZZ. He studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich, spent ten years as professor at EPFL Lausanne (1996 – 2006), held visiting positions at Stanford University and NASA Ames and was Vice President of ETH Zurich (2010 -2014). He is IEEE Fellow and recipient of the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award, IEEE RAS Inaba Technical Award and the Ernst-Blickle-Preis. He is among the most cited scientist in robots world-wide, co-founder of more than half a dozen spin-off companies and a strong promoter of innovation and entrepreneurship in Switzerland.
His interests are in the design, control and navigation of flying, wheeled and walking robots operating in complex and highly dynamical environments.

Diana Gutjahr is co-owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ernst Fischer AG and SVP National Councillor for the Canton of Thurgau. In her youth, she played top-class sport and took part in national and international tennis tournaments before ending her sporting career in favour of her professional training. After completing her basic training in business administration, Gutjahr went on to study International Management at the FHS University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Business, in St. Gallen. Diana Gutjahr began her professional career as an auditing assistant at BDO. She joined the family business Ernst Fischer AG in Romanshorn in 2008 and became Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the steel and metal construction company in 2023. Parallel to her professional career, Diana Gutjahr has been involved in numerous economic and political functions. From 2012 to 2017, she was an SVP cantonal councillor in the canton of Thurgau. In November 2017, she was elected to Parliament as a National Councillor for the canton of Thurgau and is currently a member of the Social Security and Health Committee (SGK). Diana Gutjahr is also a board member of the Swiss Trade Association, President of metal.suisse and a board member of the Swiss Conference of Colleges of Higher Education K-HF.

Andri Silberschmidt has been an FDP National Councillor since 2019, Vice President of the FDP.die Liberalen Schweiz and a catering entrepreneur from Zurich. After completing his banking apprenticeship with a vocational baccalaureate, he worked for Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) as a fund manager for seven years. From 2013 to 2019, Andri Silberschmidt studied business administration part-time and graduated with a Master's degree in Global Finance from Bayes Business School in London. Andri Silberschmidt is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of kaisin. - a catering company with branches in the cities of Zurich, Basel and Zug. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Andri Silberschmidt is also Secretary of the Board of Directors of Planzer Transport AG and a member of the Board of Directors of Jucker Farm AG.

Sungjoo Group was founded in 1990 and has earned a reputation as Korea’s fashion leader having launched the prominent brands including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Sonia Rykiel and Marks & Spencer. In 2005, Sungjoo Group acquired MCM, a German luxury fashion brand founded in Munich in 1976. Ms. Kim served as the President of the Korean Red Cross for three years from 2014. She was awarded an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2015 for her contribution to strengthening bilateral ties between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. Ms. Kim became the first female entrepreneur to be appointed as a member of ABAC, representing the Korean business community at APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in 2013 and served in this post for 4 years. She holds three honorary doctorate degrees, from Amherst College (Mass., USA), Business School Lausanne (Chavannes, Switzerland) and University of the Arts London (London, UK).
She was selected as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997 and received the Ethics in Business Award from the EU government in 2009. In 2012, she was listed in Forbes’ Top 50 Asian Business Women, selected as one of Asia’s 25 Hottest CEOs by Fortune and invited by the United Nations be part of “Innovation 101” at the Decide Now Act summit. Ms. Kim is a passionate philanthropist and works with several non-profit organizations, including Asia House as a trustee member, the Global Summit of Women (GSW) as an International Planning Committee member, and numerous other humanitarian initiatives.

Luca Santarelli founded VectivBio, another extremely successful biotech company that is listed on the NASDAQ. VectivBio focuses on the discovery and development of therapies for serious rare diseases. Previously, he was CEO and co-founder of Therachon AG, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2019. Prior to Therachon, he spent 11 years at Roche as Head of Research in neuroscience, rare diseases, ophthalmology and small molecules, during which time he brought more than 20 NMEs into the clinic and several NMEs into pivotal trials. Luca Santarelli completed his medical degree and residency in psychiatry at the University of Turin in 1994 and obtained his doctorate there. Following his time as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University 1998-2003, he co-founded BrainCells Inc, a company focused on the discovery of new antidepressants. Luca Santarelli has received various awards for his research work. In 2023, he received the ‘EY Entrepreneur Of The Year’ Award.

State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda has been director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) since 2022. Prior to that, she was Switzerland’s ambassador in Bangkok, Thailand, with additional accreditations to Cambodia and Laos. Until 2019, she held the same position in Pretoria, South Africa, with cross-accreditations to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritius and Namibia. From 2008 to 2015, Helene Budliger Artieda was head of the Directorate for Resources at the FDFA. In this capacity, she was advisor to the Head of Department on resource matters and a member of the FDFA Management Board. She graduated from the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá (Colombia) with a Master of Business Administration (MBA). After graduating from commercial school in Zurich with a Federal VET Diploma in Commerce, she completed internal training at the FDFA as a consular officer.

Monika Rühl has been Chairwoman of the Executive Board of economiesuisse since September 1, 2014. The umbrella organization of the Swiss economy represents the interests of the business community in the political process and advocates for optimal framework conditions. Its members include 100 industry associations, 20 cantonal chambers of commerce and a number of individual companies. In total, economiesuisse represents 100,000 Swiss companies from all sectors with 2 million jobs in Switzerland.
After studying Romance languages and literature (French and Italian) at the University of Zurich, Monika Rühl trained as a diplomat in Bern, Brussels and Geneva. After working in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, including at the Swiss Mission to the United Nations in New York, she was a personal assistant to Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss (2002 in the FDFA, 2003-2006 in the Federal Department of Economic Affairs FDEA) and then Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO with the title of Ambassador and as a member of the Executive Board. In 2008, she was appointed Delegate of the Federal Council for Trade Agreements. From 2011-2014, she headed the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER.

Dario Cologna made his debut in the cross-country skiing World Cup at the end of the 2006/07 season. The distance expert achieved his first top 10 result in Rybinsk in the 2007/08 season over 30 km in the free technique. Further top 10 results followed and paved the way for an unprecedented career. In the 2008/09 season, Dario Cologna became the first Swiss ever to win the overall cross-country skiing World Cup and went on to secure the overall title three more times. Cologna was crowned Olympic champion at three consecutive Winter Olympics in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and won gold four times in total. In his 285 World Cup starts, Dario Cologna has stood on the podium 73 times and has won the Tour de Ski four times. He became world champion in 2013 and won silver twice at world championships. Thanks to his successes and his role model function, Dario Cologna has also succeeded in raising Swiss cross-country skiing to a new level in both elite and popular sport.