Our Chairs
Are carefully selected, former Senior/Executive Business Leaders/Board Members/Entrepreneurs, motivated by giving back, through sharing their experience and supporting those who influence so many others.
They will help you, to shift your mindset towards growth and entrepreneur mentality, and also build a sustainable change within yourself and your company
Leading innovation within your team/company while working on your daily challenges with like-minded peers -> is a new way of learning about your personal and professional growth.
Elisabeth Drzaic-Lang
Elisabeth
Drzaic-Lang
My true believe is, that a community of the right people, with passion, sharing different perspectives under a clear purpose will make an impact and learn, grow and inspire each other – this is how Innovators Serendiptiy was born. Together with Frank and Costas we remain on a journey, together with amazing people and working on innovating for a better, brighter future.
Anna Schmidt
Anna
Schmidt
organizational, solution-focused psychologist, labor market expert, certified coach, and mediator, CEO of one of the branches’ of one of the world’s largest career management companies Career Partners International. 24 years’ experience in business (L’Oreal, P&G) and organizational psychology brings a deep understanding of human behavior in organizations.
From offices in Warsaw, Toronto, and Zurich, she supports international clients in relational outplacement, leadership development, managing change, developing intuition, and shaping professional identity.
Federica D’Armento
Federica
D’Armeto
has extensive experience in marketing and sales, she went from traditional to digital advertising and joined the “client” side of business after being almost 5 years with Google, at their EMEA HQ in Dublin. From Italy to the UK, from Ireland to Switzerland she developed a valuable business acumen together with a strong passion for people development, which led her to become a certified coach (ACC) by ICF (International Coaching Federation).
Rachael Waldinger
Rachael
Waldinger
first recognized her passion while studying Human and Organizational Development more than 20 years ago at Vanderbilt University in the U.S. As a healthcare technology business leader, she’s managed technical project teams, devised strategic business objectives, led organizational change initiatives, and sold a successful healthcare company.
Rachael is currently a coach accredited by the Academy of Executive Coaching. She co-facilitates an AoEC coaching diploma course, and conducts coaching programs with individuals, teams, and organizations through her own company called Cambium Coaching.
Lecturers
Are world class faculty members, creating inspiring learning environments by building trust and a safe space , by using their expertise, experience and global mindset. Through the design of our learning modules, programs and materials they are able to engage and envolve with clients needs, to provide the best outcome and drive transformational learnings. Their committment to continously challenge and innovate our learning materials and design of teaching material will allow, continuous reinvention and innovation. They are strong team-players committed to embodying our vision/mission and organizational values.
Tatiana Duvanskaya
Tatiana
Duvanskaya
is a senior executive and business advisor on category & innovation growth strategy, commercial capabilities and change management.
Furthermore a guest lecturer at the ESADE, Business School, Faculty of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Barcelona
Her life philosophy is “It always looks impossible until it is done” (Nelson Mandela). She is passionate to enable businesses & individuals to transform and perform to their full potential.
Her global expertise in brand´s growth strategy, end-to end innovation, change management, organisational capabilities have been shaped by 25+ years of international marketing experience within major
corporations like Motorola, Coca-Cola, BAT, and SABMiller. This and her experience of living and working in Moscow, Vienna, Zurich, London and Barcelona has broadend her perspectives of how to build trust
accross cultures, professional backgrounds, inspiring and mobilising international stakeholders to challenge the „status quo“ and make impossible happen. Proud to have her as our lecturer on „advanced innovation“.
Uli Haist
Uli
Haist
is a senior executive and business advisor on branding management & innovation growth strategy, commercial capabilities and mindset.
Furthermore a guest lecturer at the DHBW, Faculty of Tourism & Service Marketing, Ravensburg.
His is passionate about helping brands and individuals grow and his life philosophy is “if you can dream it, you can do it” (Walt Disney).
His global expertise in brand´s growth strategy, end-to end innovation, marketing and branding have been shaped by 20+ years of international marketing experience within major corporations like Procter & Gamble, Wrigley, Scottish & Newcastle Breweries, Cadbury and Mondelez.
Currently he is the Head of Strategy and Innovation at Logic Design Switzerland, one of Europe’s leading Branding agencies.
Uli’s ambition is to identify winning ideas for tomorrows needs and he never gets tired of challenging the status quo. Proud to have him as our lecturer on „Innovation Essentials “.
Our Experts
Being world class authorities and subject matter experts in a lot of fields, our experts will be brought into sessions, where we need their specific know-how.
Like this we can provide the best support on answering specific topics.
Pauline Lindwall
Pauline
Lindwall
is currently Board Director of Swedish Match AB, Duni AB (Sweden) and McKesson Europe AG (Germany). Prior she was Board Director of Lantmännen (Sweden). She is also working as Senior Advisor for Ernst&Young.
She has worked with some of the most recognized Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands in the world at Nestlé and Mondelez, and has international experience in Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Indonesia, Germany and Switzerland.
Chiara Covone
Chiara
Covone
has an extensive experience in Innovation Strategy & Management, Consumer Insights and Planning. For instance, Chiara has been instrumental for the development and the launch of IQOS for Philip Morris International, when she worked for PMI. Chiara has proven success in operating in complex matrix organisations across geographies, cultures and functions.
From Italy to Switzerland, from Austria to Sweden, Chiara has worked for both B2C and B2B enterprises. Fluent in 5 languages, she has developed a strong passion for coaching and grooming people for success. Chiara has experience as a mentor and as a coach.
Günther Dobrauz
Günther
Dobrauz
Günther is a VC, lawyer, exponential technologies-enthusiast and circular economy activist. As a serial entrepreneur and Partner and business leader at a global professional services firm,
his aim has always been to disrupt the status quo and to build sustainable value as part of amazing teams.
He is the author of several books and more than 100 publications in expert journals and has been speaking at more than 200 conferences worldwide
Frank Pagano
Frank
Pagano
with 20 years of experience in FMCG and Fashion, gained between EMEA and the Americas. He is passionate about innovation, brand management and communication. He is always up for irresistible product concepts, the ultimate integrated communication gig and, more important than anything else listed here, great Italian food and wine.
Why did we create Innovators Serendipity? This is Frank’s take. How it works, most often than not, is that you actually stumble upon new ideas. This is at the heart of what we call leadership. We usually associate leadership with vision, sometimes with perfect execution, knowledge and growth via continuous feedback. All true. What if the starting point of leadership was also conscious ignorance, namely having no idea whatsoever how to solve an issue. What if leadership was also asking people from completely different fields how they crack a problem, and stealing from them, with pride. Innovators Serendipity creates that forum, and allows Frank to egoistically steal from random encounters, totally in line with his relaxed, lazy persona.
Rowena Samarashine
Rowena
Samarashine
With well over a decade of dedicated experience in the sports industry, initially in football with the majority in athletics and other Olympic sports, as well as prior experience in motorsports
whilst employed by a top ten London law firm, Rowena brings an amazing mix of significant experience in event operations, right acquisitions and sales, tender processes and bid evaluation.
She was admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales on 1 March 2006, holds an MBA in International Sports Management and is part of Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist: Switzerland (2018) and Legal 500 “Next Generation Partner” – Sport (2020)
Costas Papaikonomu
Costas
Papaikonomu
Surviving over two decades in innovation and still smiling
Two words for Costas: Mildly rebellious
In more words
Costas is one of the founding partners of the Happen Group and since 1996 has worked across the globe in many areas of innovation, from strategy to design, from commercialization to manufacturing. He has continuously pursued the balance between technology, consumer need and business relevance, driving for the innovative leap to achieve all three.
Costas has led insight-led projects across cultures and categories on all continents (including the Antarctic), for clients such as Mondelez, MARS, Beiersdorf, AB-InBev, Sanofi, InterContinental Hotels, SC Johnson, HSBC, Reckitt Benckiser and many more – helping them create evolutionary and revolutionary breakthroughs that grow revenue through smart execution.
He is an acclaimed satirist and author on the topic of business & innovation.
And Yes why did he join Innovators Serendipity? His simple answer: Because of Elisabeth
Maria Bettencourt Tavares
Maria
Bettencourt
Tavares
Comes with 10+ years experience in Innovation leadership, working to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Experience in public, non-for profit and corporate business environments.
Strong skills in leading strategic projects with multinational and multidisciplinary teams. Global business development experience. Able to identify and connect the necessary skills and profiles,
within complex tangled hierarchical matrixes, to create and manage high performance teams.
Expert in liaising and managing collaborations across the value chain, from raw material providers, to contract manufacturers, internal and external stakeholders, Universities, Spinouts as well and most importantly, our customers.
She was part of the board of the MasChallenge in CH and holds a PhD Summa Cum Laude from the Medical School of Lisbon, Portugal and is an Awarded Number 1. MBA student from the Seville Chamber of Commerce, Spain
Stewart Bewley
Stewart
Bewley
Stewart founded Amplify in 2011 believing that if you unlocked people’s stories you could unlock their success.
Since he began on that journey he has coached over 10,000 people, worked with Microsoft and Google, trained 350 startups to raise over $3 billion all whilst searching for the perfect Flat White Coffee!
Since Covid19 he has taken Amplify fully online and is about to launch the amplifyme.app that will scale his training to entire companies, unleashing an army of story-telling heroes to transform their businesses!