Martin Kaufmann was born in Bern, Switzerland. He completed his studies at ETH Zurich as an MSc Engineering MTEC (Management and Technology). Later he took courses at Stanford University and made his AMP studies at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, where he came into contact with colleagues from many nations. He started his professional career as an IT and organizational consultant at IBM. After working in management roles in the textile machinery and aviation / aerospace industries as Head of Corporate Development and as global sales manager he spent over 20 years in strategy consulting. He was Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Vice President at Capgemini / Gemini Consulting. As a member of the leadership teams for the German-speaking and the Swiss market he advised large companies and SMEs. In 1989 he founded Consul Executive Services, specializing in strategy consulting as well as in direct search for top managers and specialists. Today Martin is a member of the leadership team of an HR consultancy and training firm with responsibility for its 8 locations in Switzerland and a Senior Advisor to the startup ARTregards.com. Based on his professional and other activities, he has a very large Swiss and international network.
Currently Dr. Hao Shao works in Ayaltis AG which manages totally about 650 Million USD asset. As Senior Fund Manager, his responsibility is to do investment research, Hedge Fund Selection and portfolio management. The Flagship fund of this company since 2008 Dec interception has generate about 60% net return for their clients. Before he joined Ayaltis AG, he worked in FX and Money Market team of Credit Suisse. Dr. Shao also has some year experience in Swiss Exchange. Dr. Shao hold PhD in Robotics from China and spent 4 years in ETH Zurich as PostDoc. He is also CFA and FRM chart holders.
Dr Thomas Wagner was educated at the University of Zurich and holds advanced degrees in medicine and law. In a distinguished career, he has held a wide range of public and private appointments. He was first elected as a Member of the City Government of Zurich in 1978, later becoming Mayor of Zurich. He has served as President of the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zurich, the Technopark Foundation, the Foundation for Cancer Research and the Stiftung Zürcher Kunsthaus (Zurich Art Museum).Until recently he was a long-standing Member of the Board of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO). Among a range of corporate positions, he served as President of the Nuclear Power Station Goesagen, Hydro Power Station Hinterrhein, Erdgas Zurich and the MCH Messe Schweiz/Zurich. He is a former Member of the Board of Swissair. Since 2002, he has worked as an independent consultant and facilitator with a particular focus on China where his clients have included Daetwyler Cabling Solutions AG; Firmenich, ABB, Holcim and many SMEs (SWISSWATER GmbH and LEP).He was a Member of the steering committees (Switzerland) for the Olympic Games in Beijing (2008) and the World-Expo in Shanghai (2010).He is currently President of the Swiss-Chinese Association, the Swiss Foundation for Epilepsy and the Foundation Gerber-ten Bosch. He is recognized in China as an Honorary Citizen of Kunming (Prov. Yunnan), Dalian (Prov. Liaoning) and Nanchang (Prov. Jiangxi), a “Friendship Ambassador” of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), an Honorary Professor at Tongji University Shanghai and University Kunming and a Senior Economic Advisor to the Municipality of Nanchang (Prov. Jiangxi).
After finishing his thesis on Magnetic Resonance in the group of Richard Ernst in 1981, Dr Peter Brunner joined Bruker Medical GmbH at Karlsruhe, Germany to develop MRI and MRS scanners for research and for diagnostics. After a few years the company sent him back to the Swiss Group Company Spectrospin to build the medical department of Bruker in Switzerland. His responsibility outside of Switzerland has mainly been the development of the Chinese MRI market. In the year 1985 he started to give many introductory lectures on the principles MRI imaging to universities and hospitals ending up in the installation of the first MRI imaging system in a Chinese hospital. Beginning of the year 2000 he has been elected as vice president for sales and marketing at Schmid Telecom, a Swiss company specialized on the development and production of high speed broadband modems and airport tower communication systems. During these years his home has been global. And again, Asia and of course mainly the Chinese market has been his main focus. One of his concerns has always been a healthy and prosperous Swiss Industry. So he joined the technology association SwissT.net which today is one of the most powerful industrial associations of Switzerland. For many years he has been its Vice President. The combination of the two different angles of experiences qualified him for the position of the director of the restructured ETH Alumni Association end of 2002. He has been assigned to revive the nearly 140 years old organization from a near-to-dead situation to a powerful international organization for the support of ETH. He represented ETH Zürich on an internationally and as a member of the board of trustees of CASE he improved his network by the cooperation with universities in any place of the world. Today as a Senior Consultant of Alumni Impact he consults universities who would like to develop their alumni work. But his main tie to his Alma Mater is the support of its students in the very early phase of founding an own company.
Jan has set up his first company in his early 20s and has since founded, co-founded or managed / co-managed about 15 more companies. He was director of a large business angel club for 9 years and has co-founded another one. His current main job is president and CEO of Senozon.com, a spin-off of ETH Zürich and TU Berlin with now 16 employees and offices in Zürich and Berlin. Besides that, he teaches about the practice of entrepreneurship and coaches a number of business owners. He is also a coach for the Climate-KIC and Swiss Innovation Challenge programs.
Houlu Yang is working in the Zurich office of a big four accounting firm. He is a leading expert specialised in tax and succession planning for international private clients with a focus on Chinese UHNWIs and international tax planning with a focus on Chinese multinational companies. He is also facilitating Chinese investors in acquiring Swiss and European companies. Mr Yang is also active in the academic area. He is a visiting professor in China Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) and International Tax Policy Research Center of National Tax Institute, China State Administration of Taxation (SAT). He always thinks out of tax by looking at the macro background and anticipating the change of trends. This owes to his intensive exposure to the Swiss private wealth management industry but with a worldwide focus, and his strong combined background of international tax, PRC tax and legal, both practical and academic. Before Mr Yang came to Switzerland, he was a senior tax lawyer in the Beijing office of a top Chinese law firm, and was ranked several times as Leading Tax Lawyer by Chambers Asia-Pacific. He was also a senior research associate of International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD). He holds a LLM in international taxation from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and master of law from Peking University Law School, China.