Head of Innovation Management, SICPA

Passionate about what makes innovations successful and the intersection between the realms of Technology and Business development, Aurélien has been at SICPA for close to 20 years. In this period, he has led strategic activities stretching across multiple functional, business and technology areas, all converging towards Innovation Strategy, Management and Execution in the Economy of Trust.

Aurélien holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde and an Executive MBA from ESCP Business School. Located on the Unlimitrust Campus, his current areas of focus are Innovation Portfolio Management to maximize sustainable growth, and Open Innovation. He also leads the Innovation Board of SICPA.

VP, CSEM

Bahaa Roustoum is the Vice President, Marketing & Business Development at CSEM.

Before joining CSEM, Bahaa had more than 7 years of industrial innovation management experience with business leaders (Swatch Group/Belenos Clean Power Holding), where he oversaw several projects related to new venture creation and R&D projects in the sustainable energy domain.

Bahaa holds a Master’s in Chemical Engineering from the Ecole Européenne d’Ingénieurs de Chimie, Polymères et Matériaux (ECPM)’of Strasbourg, France and a PhD in Electrochemical Engineering with a Post-Doc fellowship, from EPFL in 2006. Besides these degrees, Bahaa has pursued a full range of business courses including an Executive MBA in Management and Corporate Finance from ‘HEC Lausanne’ in 2012, and a Certificate of Leading Digital Business Transformation from ‘IMD’ in 2019.

Group Leader Micro-Nano Optics, CSEM

Guillaume Basset is an expert in document security, micro-optics, diffractive and subwavelength optics and micro-nano structuration.

He graduated from INP Grenoble, Politecnico di Torino and EPFL in nanotechnologies for semiconductors. While working as a project manager at CSEM, he has managed various development projects of security features for banknotes, ID documents and brand protection as well as developed new types of micro and nano optics components. These have been integrated into a wide variety of industrial use-cases in partnership with start-ups up to large Fortune 100 companies. G. Basset is now leading the group Micro Nano Optics at CSEM.

CSEM, a private technology and research organization located in Switzerland, is developing new micro and nano optics solutions for a large variety of industries, continuing more than 40 years of expertise in this field.

Tech4Growth Founder & Program Chair, EPFL Innovation Park

Lan Zuo Gillet is the Deputy Managing Director and Head of start-up training, incubation, acceleration and expert program of EPFL Innovation Park. She is also an Expert of Innosuisse – the Swiss Innovation Agency.  She is the founder of several flagship programs at EPFl Innovation Park (Tech4Growth, Tech4Eva, Tech4trust etc.) in partnership with large corporates. She is the Program Chair of the current conference.

Head of innovation strategy and Venture Building, Romande Energie SA (RE Ventures)

Laurent Botaya leverages 15 years in engineering, business, and sustainability, he has launched ventures, grown companies, and developed impactful strategies across tech, healthcare, transportation, and energy.

Currently, he leads a team at Romande Energie that incubates, accelerates, and provides strategic guidance to cleantech ventures.

CEO & Co-Founder, Exnaton

Liliane Ableitner⁠ is the co-founder and CEO of ⁠Exnaton⁠, a software provider for energy communities, allowing neighbors to trade renewable energy amongst each other. Before starting Exnaton, Liliane was a Doctoral Researcher at the Bits of Energy Lab at ETH Zurich.

She met her two co-founders, Arne Meeuw and Anselma Würner, during her work on the research project “Quartierstrom“, funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The project resonated well with all stakeholders involved and the three PhD students decided to spin it out into an independent company in 2019. In December 2020, they won the Investor’s Choice award at Energy Startup Days, which helped the company to gain exposure amongst relevant stakeholders.

Lead Women’s Healthcare & Marketing Lead, Bayer Switzerland AG

Marco Gierten is a transformational leader with more than 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry – he has worked on global, regional and local levels across different therapeutic areas.

He is motivated by achieving business growth through bold innovation and the creation of a high-performance team culture with shared visions.

He leads Bayer’s Women’s Healthcare business in Switzerland, realizing a digital-first go-to-market model.

Renewable Energy Project Manager, Romande Energie

Marie Chenais is a Renewable Energy Project Manager at Romande Energie. She develops photovoltaic projects financed by Romande Energie that enable its customers to reduce their electricity bill. In this context, she also implements agrivoltaic projects for which photovoltaic systems are placed on top of agricultural crops.

CEO & Co-Founder, Aspivix

Mathieu Horras is co-founder and CEO of ASPIVIX SA. He has over ten years of experience in the development and commercial management of medical devices.

He brings a strong track record of building and leading diverse and cross-functional teams for both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies in the life sciences and medical device sector at ASPIVIX and Danaher.

With ASPIVIX, he is a pioneer in FemTech – innovative gynecological devices – and has raised more than US$10 million in dilutive and non-dilutive financing rounds.

Mathieu holds several master’s degrees in mechanics from Paris Tech in France, Cranfield University in the UK, and IFP School in France, as well as an MBA from INSEAD/Wharton, France-Singapore-Philadelphia.

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CEO & Co-Founder, Pi Imaging

Ivan Michel Antolović is CEO & Co-Founder of Pi Imaging since 2019. He received the M.S. degree (cum laude) from the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree from TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands, in 2018. He has held a post-doctoral position at EPFL, Switzerland, from 2018 to 2021. His research focused on large-format photon counting single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) imagers and small-format time-correlated SPAD imagers for microscopy applications. 

Managing Director (SPEI), State of Vaud

Raphaël Conz, after studying business administration at the University of Neuchâtel, began his career as a marketing specialist at the Federal Office for Agriculture. He then joined FELCO SA, where he held various marketing and sales positions, including involvement in the launch of an Australian subsidiary. In 2002, he joined the Vaud Economic Development Agency as a project manager, eventually becoming the head of a unit focused on supporting innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry. He also served as deputy director for an organization responsible for attracting foreign companies in French-speaking Switzerland. Mr. Conz, with a DAS in entrepreneurship and business development, briefly assumed the position of head of the Department for the Promotion of the Economy and Innovation in 2018. Additionally, he represents the State of Vaud in various entities within the Vaud economic promotion network. Recently, the State Council of the Canton of Vaud appointed Raphaël Conz as the Head of the Department for the Promotion of the Economy and Innovation, effective from April 1, 2023.

Co-Founder & CEO, Rayform – THE RAYY

Romain is the co-founder and CEO of the EPFL spin-off Rayform. During his computer-science master in Lausanne, he worked on the development of the computational caustics technology which lead to founding the startup in 2016. Passionate about the intersection of computer-science, numerical fabrication and design, he drives the application of the light-shaping technology to domains such as banknotes, jewelry, art installations, and more.

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Tobias Henz brings together corporates and start-ups around digitization and the use of data – from strategy to implementation and across industries and functions. Works on value creation for individual start-ups and investors.

Tobias is a core member of McKinsey Advanced Industries Sector with extensive experience in Mobility (people and goods) and other ecosystem-focused business models. He co-leads McKinsey’s work around corporate-startup collaboration globally, and start-ups more broadly in Germany.