ICT FOCUS 2023

Hugues Abriel, MD Ph.D., is a biologist and physician. He completed his Ph.D. in medicine and life sciences at the University of Lausanne in 1995. Since 2009, Hugues Abriel has been a Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Bern. From 2015 until 2022, he was the director of the SNSF-funded NCCR TransCure. He is since 2022 one of the members (vice-rector for research) of the executive board of the University of Bern.

Since 2019 Adriano Barenco is Head of IT Department at the University Lausanne. Before joining University of Lausanne, Adriano acted as Senior Director in a large international software and cloud provider in tools and process innovation. His background covers areas from business intelligence and data mining to program manager for reporting and distribution platform as well as manager for back-office support processes and sales organization.

Rui Brandao has more than 25 years of experience in various IT functions and more than 18 years in management positions with up to 1’400 headcounts. He is experienced in managing large IT organizations and programs, especially in application development, offshoring and in transforming global IT organizations (testing, application support, IT infrastructure). Furthermore, he has solid knowledge in information security: Focus of higher education (doctorate and master) and 7 years of experience as consultant in information security, information risk management and IT audit.

Cord Fündeling is the Head of Central ICT Services at the University of Berne and in this position responsible for implementing the digitalization strategy of the University by providing the necessary digital infrastructure. During 15 years, he held various positions in process and IT consulting as well as in IT management in the private sector. He holds a diploma in Industrial Engineering of the Technical University of Karlsruhe (Germany), obtained a doctorate in Operations Research at the same place and completed the Program for Executive Development at IMD Lausanne.

Christian Gassner is responsible for the central information and communication infrastructure of the ZHAW. In 2019, he changed the setup of the ICT department into a product centric lean agile IT-organization in order to facilitate the digitalization and digital transformation. Before joining ZHAW, he led large scale projects and held senior positions in facility management as well as business process and quality management in insurance companies in Switzerland and Japan. He holds a PhD. and a Master in Information Management.

Visho Jesudasan is the Head of SAO and is responsible for the internal IT, the CIO Office and the Cloud Solutions. He has over 18 years of IT experience in different roles. Before joining SWITCH, he worked at Swisscom for 11 years. Visho led a tribe of 120 software engineers and DevOps engineers. He holds a MSc in Business psychology and a BSc in Business IT.

Tom Kleiber is the managing director of SWITCH. He has devoted himself to the ICT industry and the education community for 30 years. As an entrepreneur and digitalisation consultant, he held positions as the CEO and founding member of Zetamind AG as well as various leadership positions in large corporations such as Microsoft, Siemens and Alcatel.

After studying at ETH Zurich, Martin Leuthold worked in a number of security functions in Switzerland and abroad, including CISO of a multinational industrial conglomerate. As a member of the Management Board, Martin Leuthold has been Head of the Data, Security and Network Division at Switch since February 2016.

As Head of Community Management at SWITCH, Claudia Lienert has been responsible for developing business relationships with the Swiss education, research and innovation community since March 2023. Prior to that, she held various management positions in the IT and transport industry and completed an Executive Master of Business Administration at the University of Strathclyde.

Athina Tzovara is an assistant professor at the Institute of Computer Science as well as the Department of Neurology of the University of Bern, Switzerland. She received a diploma in electrical and computer engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 2009, and a PhD in neuroscience from the University Hospital Centre of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012. Before joining the University of Bern, she worked as a researcher at the University of Zurich, University College London and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Her research combines modeling and machine learning techniques with invasive and non invasive recordings of neural activity in humans, to study the neural mechanisms that support human cognition.

Sebastian Wörwag is Rector of Bern University of Applied Sciences and Chair of the Board of Governors of Thurgau University of Teacher Education. Since 2020, he has represented Switzerland in the European University Association’s Research and Innovation Strategy Group. He previously headed St. Gallen University of Applied Sciences. With a doctorate in economics, he also co-founded the PHW Business School and was co-owner of the KS Group, a private educational institution. His research over the years has focused on New Work Transition, Digitalisation, Work culture and Workspaces.