Meet Ups

we are looking forward to seeing you on October 22nd 2019 at Trustsquare.
Find our programme here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-sustainable-fintech-lets-fix-the-leaky-pipeline-tickets-73517399521

Carla Bünger was an experienced Sales & Marketing Manager for consumer goods companies like Nestlé, Lindt and Rivella when she tapped into blockchain technology in the middle of 2016. Always passionate about new technologies and hooked by the possibilities this new terrain offered, she accepted an advisor role at Lykke Corp, the first Swiss exchange platform to trade crypto assets. Subsequently, she took the lead in the Initial Token Offering of Smart Containers Group, a project that has earned respect in the blockchain industry and is viewed as benchmark STO in Switzerland. Today she drives blockchain implementation projects for corporates through her IT company Kore Technologies AG.

Being mother and entrepreneur is a choice. Sometimes it is tough to joggle everything but it is always somehow feasible thanks to a good partnership and a sound infrastructure around oneself.

I’ve always wanted to have it all, but was sceptic if it was possible. Trust me, it is. So there is no excuse to live your potential to the full and create value by starting your own venture.

Therese Faessler is Swiss/American. She has one son and BAs in Mathematics, Economics and Statistics from Rutgers University, NJ USA, and a MA in Quantitative Economics and Finance from the University of St. Gallen. She has over 35 years of experience in IT and economic research. She has worked as a consultant in the insurance and banking industries. She is currently working as a senior research associate at the University of St. Gallen at the Institute for Operations Research and Computational Finance. Her purpose is to correct financial inequality by fostering financial literacy.

My goal is to create a society in which everyone, especially women, can benefit from the growing economy, by fostering financial literacy and lowering the barriers to entry to stock market participation.
My goal is to set up a network of networks of women equity investors, like Tupperware in the 1950s.
I will support SFTL in IT and Finance.

Diversity has become a strategic business element that no longer only concerns women or human resources departments. Enhanced performance resulting from mixed teams will be crucial for the long-term survival of companies worldwide”, says Sandra Chattopadhyay, CMO at GENTWO, a fintech company providing innovative Securitization-as-a-Service. The derivatives specialist holds a German master’s degree and looks back on 15 years of investment banking experience at Société Générale, Barclays, UBS, and Vontobel.

Victoria Yampolsky, CFA, is President and Founder of The Startup Station, a comprehensive resource for modeling and valuing early-stage startups. She specializes in the financial modeling and valuation of pre-revenue companies and evaluates the financial feasibility of business models. After launching The Startup Station’s educational program in 2015, she taught more than 1,000 founders the basics of financial modeling, valuation, and startup financing.
Victoria is also on the Advisory Board of the Computing and Information Science (CIS) Department of Cornell University, her alma mater.

My personal mission and the mission of The Startup Station is to drive and foster global entrepreneurship and innovation. I am especially passionate about women entrepreneurs because they face additional challenges when it comes to financing and growing their ventures. I am excited to partner with and bring my knowledge and resources to Swiss Fintech Ladies.

Mihai Alisie has been actively involved in the blockchain technology space since 2011 when he created with Vitalik Buterin the world’s first Bitcoin Magazine. He served as Editor-in-Chief for the magazine until 2013.

In late 2013 Mihai joined Vitalik Buterin in co-founding the Ethereum project. In the early days of Ethereum, Mihai led the Swiss efforts by articulating the “Crypto Valley” vision while establishing business infrastructure and coordinating the legal framework creation, crucial for the Ethereum crowdfunding campaign.

Following the successful Swiss setup, he supervised the Ethereum operations as Vice-President of the Ethereum Foundation, until late 2015.

After the successful Ethereum blockchain genesis, he initiated the AKASHA Foundation to explore the applications and implications of blockchain in the context of social networks and collective intelligence, for a better home of Mind.

I was approached by Karen Wendt after a presentation in the House of Switzerland as part of the World Economic Forum 2019 event.

I accepted her invitation to participate in this event because I want to nurture diversity of all kinds, by sharing the knowledge and experience I accumulated in my journey through the blockchain space.

Collective Intelligence grows through diversity and we need as much of it as possible, in order to realize our full potential as a free information society powered by open knowledge.

Nicole Beranek Zanon, Executive MBA HSG studied law at the University of Fribourg, Zurich and economics at St. Gallen. She is a founding partner of de la cruz beranek Attorneys-at-law Ltd., a law firm focused on ICT law. She regularly publishes and teaches on data protection topics, blockchain and AI. She is a new technology enthusiast. .

As a vice president of SFTL, it is an honor and a duty to promote more women not only in the financial industry but also in technology industry and even more in its combination. DTL technologies give rise to high opportunities for equality. However, the women also must really want it to take, such opportunity.

Jodi is an experienced global Human Capital Leader. Jodi brings a wealth of experience in defining human capital strategies, and mapping and scaling Culture/HR growth. Jodi also coaches and mentors across all levels, including CEOs.
Jodi brings 20 years global experience working closely with C-Suite executives. In recent years her focus has been on bringing her expertise to growth companies, with an emphasis on Talent Management, Coaching and Change Management. She has proven success in helping start-ups though early growing pains and guiding them as they grow globally scale; including growth through M&A activities.
Most recently Jodi has been advising growth companies, across industries – situated around the world.
Jodi’s experience is founded in time spent with corporate leaders such as Deloitte, Blackberry, and Cisco.

Jodi believes that true impact can be achieved through bringing focus, skill-building and attention to the culture and scaling activities within FinTech.

Bernadette Leuzinger is the COO of Crypto Fund AG. With Crypto Fund’s leading position as the first regulated asset manager for crypto assets authorised by FINMA under CISA, she guides the Fund’s development as the digital asset markets evolve. Prior to joining Crypto Fund AG, Bernadette worked in various positions in banking, IT, and insurance. Bernadette started to educate herself about crypto assets during her free time, and has been following the developments and opportunities in this fascinating field for several years now.

Women are still underrepresented in the finance and tech industry. Therefore, it is important to build connections among like-minded women, raise awareness for what we do, and encourage everyone to do what they are best at.

Lidia has extensive experience in blockchain-based investment areas. She was involved in establishing vision&, Switzerland’s first asset manager for blockchain investment and acts as Chief Strategic Officer at CROWDLITOKEN. She was also the managing partner of a consulting boutique for quantitative financial affairs and has worked for major financial institutions in Zurich, London and Hong Kong. Lidia graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a PhD in asset management.

Katie Richards is Co-Head Digital Assets and Head Process Management at Falcon Private Bank. She has 28 years of experience in financial services, corporate and digital environments. Her record of accomplishment includes senior positions in a number of the worlds’ leading institutions, including Salomon Brothers, IBM, Credit Suisse and UBS and dynamic digital strategy companies like FairWinds Partners. At Falcon, she is charged with responsibilities related to product development and operations for digital assets and services, as well as process management and governance.

Katie holds degrees from McGill University (BComm), Cass Business School (MSc.) and University of Cambridge (MPhil). She also holds a number of professional certificates including Financial Risk Manager (FRM from GARP), Professional Consultant (IBM), Introduction to Digital Currencies (UNIC) and Digital Strategies for Business (Emeritus Institute of Management & Columbia Business School).

Andrea Buss is an expert for Organizational and Personal Development who has a deep understanding of Digital Transformation. Currently, she supports startup companies as an external CHRO and as interim manager. Her professional track during the last 10 years shows different global roles as Head of Talent, Leadership, Culture, Learning and Development, integrated with Organizational and People Development. Her involvement extended to foster diversity, transformation, automatization, digitalization and leadership 4.0.
Andrea holds a PhD in Sociology and Economics. Some of her research areas relate to social consequences or radical change in the Swiss banking field.

The digital transformation enables to set up totally new ways of working, new functions and new business ideas. To date, vast opportunities are unknown to many of us. SwissFinTechLadies invites the ecosystem to move forward together and to build up knowledge to become leading actors in this new business world. Beside the technical knowledge, leaders need social competencies, to listen to each other and to collaborate. That’s exactly the area where women are strong. So …just go for it!

Karen Wendt is the president of SwissFinTechLadies and editor of the Sustainable Finance Series with Springer Science Publishing. She merges 20 years investment banking with digitalization, blockchain, leadership 4.0, design thinking and ideation. Karen is a frequent speaker at events, in radio and TV and the CEO of Eccos Impact GmbH. She won with peers the Financial Times Sustainability Award in 2007 for the introduction of an extra-financial risk management framework in investment banking.

Today we need intermediaries for many transactions for verification of identity (notary publics, financial intermediaries). Blockchain allows transaction without intermediaries. This is an issue of disruption. What does that mean for your career soul, your money soul and your growth path. What can you contribute as a woman. Let us discuss at our event in October.