Dr Marcel Berni took over as a lecturer in Strategic Studies at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich in March 2025. He studied history, political science and ecology at the University of Bern. In 2019, he completed his doctorate at the University of Hamburg with a thesis on communist prisoners in the Vietnam War. The study, which was published in revised form in autumn 2020, won the André Corvisier Prize for the best military history dissertation.
Main areas of research:
Marcel Berni conducts research on current wars, conflicts and crises from a strategic perspective. He focuses on current armed conflicts and their global interactions. Building on this, his research focuses on strategy and violence, military doctrine, irregular warfare, the development of armed forces and captivity. Marcel Berni follows the war against Ukraine in detail and comments on the military situation in the media.
Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General of the US Army in Europe, is now Senior Advisor at Human Rights First, a non-profit, non-partisan international human rights organisation based in New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.
Prior to joining Human Rights First, he held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). General Hodges is a senior NATO logistics mentor, advises several companies on issues relating to Europe, NATO and the European Union, and is co-author of the book "Future War. The Threat and Defence of Europe" (Langen-Müller, 2022).
Dr. Andreas Schwab has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2004.
Born in 1973, he studied law at the University of Freiburg and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and obtained an L.L.M. from the University of Wales in 2000.
He worked as a consultant for the European Convention in the Department of European Affairs of the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry while obtaining a doctorate in law in 2002 and completing his second state law exam in 2003.
He is the EPP Group Coordinator in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, a substitute Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Chair of the Delegation for Northern cooperation and for relations with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and the EEA, a member of the Bureau of the EPP Group as well as Chairman of the CDU Südbaden. He has been steering key legislation on competition policy, consumer rights, services and cybersecurity
Since 2019, Simone Wyss Fedele has been CEO of Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), the official Swiss organisation for export promotion and location promotion.
As a private consulting and platform organisation commissioned by the federal government and cantons with over 2,000 members, around 200 employees and more than 3,000 partners worldwide, S-GE supports over 6,500 customers in Switzerland and around 130 countries in their international business development.
Simone Wyss Fedele holds a doctorate in international economics and has a proven track record Simone Wyss Fedele has a doctorate in international economics and has proven management and board experience.
She worked in the life science, tech and insurance industries for over 20 years. Either in the core business or at the interface with business associations, authorities and politics.
Most recently, she was Chief Economist and Head of Public Affairs at Novartis International in Switzerland and was part of the Swiss Country Executive Team. She joined Novartis from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she was Commercial Lead and Head Market Access for Europe and Canada.
Simone Wyss Fedele is a member of the Board of Directors of Bachem and a member of various advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum, the International Trade Centre and the Swiss National Bank.
Alexandra Schwarzkopf has studied law, literature and history at the Universities of Heidelberg, Geneva and Frankfurt.
Thereafter, she became a scholarship member of an International Graduate Program from the German Research Foundation. Within this program she wrote her joint PhD in Political Communication at the Universities of Frankfurt and Trento.
In 2012, she founded “Schwarzkopf Consulting“, focusing on consulting international executives in questions of German history and culture, as well as current political debates.
Furthermore, she organizes events to promote the dialogue between politics, industry, the military and representatives of the cultural sector.
Dr, Stefan Legge is an economist by training.
As a lecturer in economics and business education, he supports students & managers in understanding macroeconomics, international trade, and corporate strategy in a global business environment.
In various roles, he shares his expertise with decision-makers in politics, business, and media.
At the University of St.Gallen, he serves as Head of Tax & Trade Policy and Vice Director at the Institute for Law & Economics. In addition, he serves as a Global Future Council Fellow at the World Economic Forum, and a Founding Partner at trendEcon.
Before joining Dassault Systèmes in June 2024, she served as Vice President, Digital and IT Sales and Marketing at Mercedes-Benz in Germany.
Her career began at the BMW Group, progressing to General Manager Marketing of Central Eastern Europe. Following this, she held the roles of Chief Customer Officer at PSA Group, Director of the Citroën Brand in China, and Vice Managing Director of the DongFeng Motors - Citroën joint venture in China, where she became the first female CEO of an automotive company in the country.
Besides her corporate roles, she serves on supervisory boards for Messer SE in Germany and Planet First Partners in the UK. She is a passionate advocate and role-model for women in STEM and IT.
Mr Kohl studied political economy in Heidelberg and holds a Master's degree in economics from the University of Glasgow. He began his career as an economist at Salomon Brothers in Frankfurt. He has worked for Bank Julius Baer since 1997, where he was appointed Deputy Chief Economist in 2007 and Chief Economist Germany in 2010. He has been Chief Economist of Bank Julius Bär since 2020.
Thierry Held has been appointed to the role of chief finance officer for Culina Group in April 2025. Before he held senior roles across the finance, mining and logistics sectors, most recently as CFO Europe for Kuehne and Nagel.
As an independent management consultant, entrepreneur, advisory board member of medium-sized industrial companies and lecturer in scenario planning, I have the privilege of shedding light on typical issues faced by companies from different industries from various perspectives.
My many years of experience in the strategic development and transformation of companies - first at Monitor Deloitte in Zurich and then as Head Corporate Development & New Business at VP Bank in Vaduz - help me to do this.
In my various positions, I have led projects with a methodological focus on strategy, strategic foresight (especially scenario planning), business model design, operating model design, innovation management and M&A. My industry focus is on private banking, asset management and universal banking.
Programmleiterin HBM Unternehmerschule