Chief Executive Officer, Swissnex

Prior to his position as CEO of swissnex, Dr. Christian Simm spent twenty years in San Francisco where he launched various initiatives to foster high-level exchanges between Switzerland and North America, in research, education, innovation, and at the intersection of art and science & technology. With partnerships in both the private and public sectors, he grew the one-man operation into a team of about 25 people today. Under his leadership and vision « from foresight to insight to action », swissnex San Francisco, as the office is known, established sophisticated scouting practices and a knowledge exchange platform comprising, among other activities: regular visits from academics, innovators, designers, and scientists; a series of highly successful events that encourage networking and collaboration between Switzerland and North America; mandates for a diverse set of clients, from startups to Fortune 500s to universities to cantons; and a stimulating office-sharing community that brings startups, established companies, and university outposts under one roof to further connect the dots.

Before swissnex, Christian was the director of CAST (now Alliance), the Industrial Liaison Office at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and was influential in fostering Swiss participation in several European initiatives including the Comett and Leonardo programs. He also worked as a research project leader at INRS-Energie in Montréal, Canada, and co-founded a process management company.

Christian is author of numerous articles, an individual member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, and was for several years on the board of Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. He holds a doctorate in physics from EPFL and postgraduate management degrees from IMD and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He was nominated in 2010 “Une des 100 personnalités qui font la Suisse Romande”. He is fluent in French, German, Swiss-German and English