Author
Our authors
In The Philanthropist, proven experts speak out with their opinions, advice and analyses. Their different perspectives contribute to a diverse coverage of the foundation sector.
Christian Hafner is a respected expert in finance and governance. He assists SMEs, families, non-profits and public-sector organisations with finances, succession planning, organisational management, internal audits and general matters relating to transitional phases. He is a sector expert at various institutions, including PIXAS.
Benno Schubiger, art historian and museologist, has spent more than half of his working life in leading positions for or with foundations - in professional activities, as a member of the board of directors of foundation associations or as a member of the foundation board. Today he holds several foundation-related honorary positions and is a partner of SCHUBIGER arts'n'funds.
With an artistic and scientific background, I quickly immersed myself in the management of non-profit companies. For more than five years I was responsible for the patronage of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, a member of the board of a donor foundation and currently director of an operating foundation. I am fortunate to be able to wear several hats: that of responsibility for investing in projects and that of persuading those seeking funds.
16 years of professional experience in foundation management from activities in foundations as well as wealth management in Switzerland, Germany and Japan. Today, she works as managing director of the Max Kohler Foundation and as an independent consultant. MBA from the Berlin School of Economics and MA in Japanese Studies, European and Oriental Art History from the University of Bonn. Honorary board member of the Zurich Roundtable of Philanthropy.
Georges Grivas is a Director of Studies and lecturer at the University of Lucerne. He teaches Digital Business Innovation, Blockchain and IT Management. He is Director of Studies for the CAS Digital Business Innovation programme [link: hslu.ch/casdbi], Switzerland’s first training course on digitalisation, and co-Director of Studies for the CAS Chief Digital Officer course, which targets executives and members of administrative boards and boards of trustees. [Link: hslu.ch/cascdo] In addition, he is head of the Swiss Digital Finance Conference. Before moving into academia, he held a range of managerial roles at international banks and insurance companies. He studied IT at ETH Zurich and wrote his PhD on programming languages.
Gisela Keller is Managing Director of K+A, New York, an international fundraising consultancy. She has worked with leaders of global nonprofits, foundations and private companies across American, European and Latin American markets: with foundations to build the capacity of grantees and devise new strategic initiatives; with nonprofits to build strategic relationships with national and international philanthropies, mobilizing upwards of $35 million between clients; and with companies to create international visibility and media coverage. K+A is one of 12 members of the European fundraising consultancy alliance, the Mira Partnership. Previously, Ms. Keller was Managing Director at Helvetas USA (New York), establishing a sustainable US foothold for the Swiss iNGO Helvetas; Program Officer at the Goldman Sachs Foundation (New York), Head of Public Affairs at Dresdner Bank (Frankfurt), steering corporate philanthropy; Program Director at the Armonk Institute (New York); and Program Officer for International Affairs at the governor’s office in the German federal state of Brandenburg (Potsdam). Ms. Keller holds an M.A. from Freie Universität Berlin in Modern History. She speaks English, German, Spanish and French.
Hansjörg Schmidt heads the Foundations department at Zürcher Kantonalbank. Together with his team, he supports and advises charitable organizations in all aspects of financial management as a banking partner. The specialist team offers comprehensive conceptual solutions, including relevant strategy and governance aspects, especially in the field of asset management, but also for financing and all other banking services.
Isabelle von Jeinsen is an attorney-at-law responsible for the Centre of Excellence for Charitable Foundations at Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG.
Mark Dittli has been a business journalist for 20 years. He spent six years as editor-in-chief at Finanz und Wirtschaft, and five years as a correspondent in New York. He also wrote for the online magazine Republik for a good year. Now, he is CEO and editor-in-chief at The Market, a new digital medium that he launched a year ago. It is targeted at investors, offering gradings, analyses and opinions on what’s happening in the financial markets. The Market is a joint venture between its founding team and the NZZ media group.
Markus Hänggi is an executive trustee for CHARISMA Stiftung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. The charity specialises in sustainable investments and has developed an investment concept for charitable foundations offered at cost price.
Patrick Deicher is head of the consulting division Healthcare and Non-Profit Organisations at BDO Switzerland. He advises organisations on issues of organisation, structure, strategy, cooperation and leadership. Deicher is a historian and business economist and is involved on a voluntary basis as president of the foundation of a museum and on the boards of associations.
Peter Buss is founder and CEO of NonproCons AG, Basel, a firm offering management consulting and fundraising services for non-profit organisations, which he has run since 1992. He launched Philanthropy Services AG, Basel, and the online platform StiftungSchweiz.ch in 2013. He also works as a university lecturer and speaker, and has authored numerous publications, including the seminal work Fundraising – Grundlagen, System und strategische Planung. Buss co-founded Zurich’s Round Table of Philanthropy and the Association Management Companies Schweiz amc.
Dr Rita Pikó is a lecturer in Compliance at the ZHAW School of Management and Law and a lawyer at Pikó Uhl Rechtsanwälte AG in Zurich, admitted to the bar in both Switzerland and Germany. She specialises in compliance and the internal investigation of compliance cases, and is head of the CAS Compliance Investigator course.
Roger Staub (*1957) has dedicated more than 30 years of his professional life to HIV prevention and AIDS work, first as co-founder of the Swiss AIDS Federation (1985), in various functions at the Federal Office of Public Health, as head of the STOP AIDS campaign, and as delegate for AIDS issues for the Canton of Zurich. Trained as a secondary teacher phil II at the University of Zurich, he obtained a Master of Public Health from the University of Bern in 1995 and a Master in Applied Ethics from the University of Zurich in 2003. Since 2017 he has been head of the Pro Mente Sana Foundation's office in Zurich.
Silvan Scheerer works in Credit Suisse’s SAA Advisory team and is jointly responsible for advising private and institutional clients on strategy.
MSc in Business and Economics, PhD student and research associate at CEPS. Currently researching the market orientation of NPO.
Senior investment strategist,
responsible for research and development
Barbara Rüttimann is an economist and has a CAS in digital marketing from ZHAW Winterthur. She has run a consultancy for (online) communications and management since 2000. She writes for economic publications and blogs, has written a book and previously worked as a TV presenter. She became Head of Institutional Fundraising & Major Donors at the Synapsis Foundation for Alzheimer’s research in Switzerland in 2020. Prior to this, she served as head of marketing and communications in various industries, including in the charitable sector.
A linguist and social historian, and acted as Managing Director of SwissFoundations, the association for Swiss charities, for 15 years. She founded Eckhardt Consulting GmbH in mid-2020 and now provides consulting for charities and boards of trustees in strategic and operational matters. She is a member of the administrative board of Schauspielhaus Zürich AG and the Bern-based asset management company Invethos AG. She is also a member of the board of the Swiss Society for the Common Good and a trustee of Stapferhaus Lenzburg.
Béatrice Blum is a lawyer with an LL.M. from the University of Zurich and a consultant at Ah & Partner AG, Zurich.
Dominic Lüthi is a lecturer on the ‘Certified administrative board member (SAQ)’ programme at AKAD Business, among other programmes, and at the Digital Board Academy, and is on the board of various organisations. In 2012, he launched the first ever online mediation platform for administrative board members and SMEs in Switzerland. His team later developed a mediation platform for charities and associations to promote better management skills and integration within boards of trustees and advisory and executive boards.
Dominik Meier, postdoc, at the Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) at the University of Basel. He is particularly interested in social preferences and the differences between non-profit and for-profit organisations. In his research, he likes to use innovative methods such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. As co-founder of DataCross, he offers pro bono data science services for nonprofit organisations with the help of volunteers.
Julia von Ah is a professor of economics, a certified tax expert, and owner and managing director of Ah & Partner AG, Zurich.
Is a managing partner at the international consulting group for association management B’VM, which she joined in 2009. She studied psychology and education at the University of Zurich and completed a diploma in association/NGO management at the Institute for Research on Management of Associations, Foundations and Co-operatives (VMI). As an NGO consultant, she finds, evaluates and coaches strategic and operational managers for charities, associations and cooperatives.
Nicola Forster studied law in Zurich, Lausanne and Montpellier. After completing his studies, he founded ‘foraus’, the foreign policy think tank. Today, this organisation is home to around 1,000 volunteer co-thinkers and 15 permanent employees. It generates turnover of 1.4 million Swiss francs and has spin-offs in five countries. Alongside this, he is one of the founders of Operation Libero and staatslabor, as well as being President of the Fondation Science et Cité, plus Co-President of the Green Liberals of the Canton of Zurich. Nicola Forster’s professional endeavours see him offer advice and act as a moderator on innovative formats for foreign ministries, international organisations, administrations and charities both within Switzerland and abroad.
Is co-director of the Institute for Research on Management of Associations, Foundations and Co-operatives (VMI), which provides further education and research specifically for non-profit organisations such as charities. He is responsible, among other things, for the institute’s further education activities, where he ensures a balance of genders among lecturers. His research focuses on entrepreneurial culture and orientation in non-profit organisations, which would not be possible to the same extent without taking diversity into account.
Regula Wolf is co-founder of the new CEPS spin-off Con-Sense. She is an expert on issues related to funding. She can draw on her many years of practical knowledge. She worked for 16 years in institutional funding, first in the federal administration, then at the Migros Culture Percentage, where she was responsible for cultural and social funding. As part of her consulting work, she has assisted numerous large and small funding organisations in the fields of culture, social affairs and education. She has an extensive network in the Swiss foundation sector and knows the public and private funding landscape like no other.
MSc Arch.ETH Head of Continuing Education & Knowledge Transfer Ceps During 20 years of business management of various NPOs Current focus of work: analytical models, knowledge management, political work of NPO.
Roger Tinner has been Director of Swissfundraising for almost 13 years. In addition, he is the owner and CEO of alea iacta ag, a communications agency focusing on integrated and strategic communication. He is also a keen blogger, and uses ‘Digiimmi’ to provide reports and information on digital issues relating to day-to-day life.
Dr. Theresa Gehringer has conducted research on corporate philanthropy at the Center for Philanthropy Studies and has developed important foundations for a deeper understanding of corporate foundations. She studied Business Administration and Sustainable Development at the Universities of Bayreuth and Basel. She is co-president of the Association of Young Foundation Experts, on the advisory board of the Board for Good Foundation and involved in the human rights organization Libereco - Partnership for Human Rights.
Andreas Beller is Senior Vice President Global Payments at StoneX. There, he is jointly responsible for the expansion of the German branch in Frankfurt, with a focus on banks and financial service providers. After studying economics, he held positions at various companies and banks, including the Australian investment bank Macquarie, Solvians IT-Solutions GmbH and most recently Commerzbank AG.
Claudia Dutli diplomierte 1998 an der EHL, Hotelfachschule Passugg GR. Neben ihrer langjährigen Tätigkeit als Kommunikationsverantwortliche in einer Genfer Privatbank absolvierte sie die Fortbildung zur Public Relations Beraterin. Als Verlagsleiterin leitet sie The Philanthropist und erweiterte 2019 ihr Fachwissen durch den Intensiv-Lehrgang Stiftungsmanagement am Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS), Basel.
Béatrice Hirzel Corte ist Leiterin Stiftungen bei der Globalance AG. Sie verfügt über ein Lizenziat der Wirtschaftswissenschaften (lic. oec. publ.) der Universität Zürich und absolvierte die AZEK (Certified European Financial Analyst). Sie ist ausserdem Mitglied des Verwaltungsrates des VPS Verlages. Nebenberuflich engagiert sich Béatrice Hirzel Corte als Stiftungsrätin im Zoo Zürich und verantwortet als Co-Präsidentin die grösste Wohltätigkeits-Gala der Schweiz zugunsten des Zoos. Als Mitglied des Soroptimist International setzt sie sich für diverse regionale, nationale und internationale Charity Projekte ein.
Cornelia Hürzeler ist Soziologin und verfügt über eine langjährige Berufserfahrung in den Bereichen Zivilgesellschaft, Demographie, Arbeitsintegration, Nachbarschaft und Quartierentwicklung. Als Projektleiterin Soziales des Migros-Kulturprozent hat sie zahlreiche nationale Programme und Projekte entwickelt und umgesetzt sowie Studien lanciert. Sie verantwortet die Förderbeiträge des Geschäftsbereichs Soziales bei der Direktion Kultur und Soziales im Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund.
Dr. Christoph Degen ist Rechtsanwalt und Partner bei DUFOUR Advokatur AG. Er ist Gründungsmitglied und Geschäftsführer von proFonds, dem schweizerischen Dachverband gemeinnütziger Stiftungen und Vereine, Mitstifter der Stiftung Laurenz für das Kind sowie Organmitglied und Berater diverser gemeinnütziger Organisationen.
Dr Elisa Bortoluzzi Dubach is a foundation and sponsorship consultant (BR SPRV) and has authored books as well as various specialist articles in newspapers, journals and compendia. She also lectures in sponsorship at various universities in Switzerland and abroad.
Dr. phil. Elisabeth Hasse ist Leiterin Weiterbildung am Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) an der Universität Basel. Neben Themen des lebenslangen Lernens im Allgemeinen liegen ihre Interessen besonders im Bereich von Wissens- und Kulturtransfer.
Cofounder and WISE’s managing partner, Etienne is an expert in high impact philanthropy as he has been working directly with families and foundations. Before creating WISE, he collaborated with the Foundation Avina for the social entrepreneurship and supported the development of the Schwab Foundation. He also is the cofounder of Sustainable Finance Geneva. Today, he serve as the chairman of the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, co-author of the Family Philanthropy Navigator and as a member of the advisory board of the Debiopharm Chair on Family Philanthropy in the IMD.
Davide Rodogno ist Professor für Internationale Geschichte am IHEID. Er ist ausserdem Direktor des Executive Certificate "Advocacy in international affairs" und Fakultätsmitglied des Zentrums für Konflikt, Entwicklung und Friedenskonsolidierung. Er hat am Graduate Institute of International Studies und an der Universität Genf promoviert.
