FinTech Forum 2026 EN

Rodrigo Alvarez is Global Financial Services Lead at Accenture Song and a senior advisor on large-scale banking transformation. With more than 20 years of experience, he works with leading financial institutions across Europe and Latin America on growth strategy, digital business models, data, AI, and customer-centric transformation. Prior to his current role, he held senior leadership positions across Accenture’s consulting and Data & AI businesses, leading large international teams, and major transformation portfolios. Rodrigo is known for helping banks turn innovation into measurable business outcomes, ranging from accelerating digital sales, to launching new growth platforms, as well as scaling AI-enabled transformation.

Alexandra Arni has been actively involved in establishing the Swiss FS-CSC association from the very beginning. She has played—and continues to play—a key role in protecting the Swiss and Liechtenstein financial centers against cyber risks through a close public-private partnership with the federal government. At the Swiss Bankers Association, she oversees IT developments and the digitalization of the financial sector, driving forward initiatives specifically related to IT security. Her deep expertise makes her a highly sought-after expert for cybersecurity issues in the financial industry, both on a national and international level.

Pieter Brouwer has been Chief Operating Officer of UBS Personal & Corporate Banking, Region Switzerland and UBS Switzerland AG since March 2026. Prior to his current role, he spent most of his career in Technology and Operations, including a range of senior leadership positions at UBS since 2017. Before joining UBS, he held senior roles at Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and KPMG. He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering & Management Science from TU Eindhoven.

Jan De Schepper is a visionary leader with over two decades of experience in brand strategy, marketing, and commercial business management across international consumer goods and financial services markets. Prior to joining Swissquote, he honed his expertise at Saatchi & Saatchi and McDonald’s, where he was responsible for digital customer experiences, promotional and product initiatives, and driving sustainable growth. In 2015, he took over the marketing leadership at Swissquote, quickly and decisively strengthening the bank’s brand presence and strategic market positioning. In 2019, he was named «Advertiser of the Year» for his industry-shaping work and was appointed Chief Marketing Officer that same year, overseeing Marketing, Product Management, and Customer Care. As President of the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA), he actively helps shape the future of brand management and marketing excellence in Switzerland.

Bettina Hein is a CEO and serial software entrepreneur that has built multiple AI-driven companies in Europe and the U.S. Currently chairwoman of digital health startup juli, she also founded video advertising specialist Pixability and SVOX, a speech tech company acquired for $125 million by Nuance/Microsoft. She has received recognitions such as Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year, WEF Young Global Leader and L’Oreal NEXT Generation Award. She’s been an investor/judge on the Swiss version of Shark Tank for 8 seasons. Bettina holds degrees from MIT, Georgia Tech, the University of Konstanz and the University of St. Gallen.

Dr. Simon Kauth has over 30 years of experience in the Swiss banking and financial technology sector. He is Head of the Technology & Services Department and a Member of the Executive Board at Luzerner Kantonalbank. Previously, he served as Chief Product Officer at Finnova AG and held senior management positions at the Avaloq Group and Bank Vontobel. In these roles, he led large international technology and product organizations, was responsible for business-critical banking systems, and played a key role in shaping strategic transformation and innovation projects. Dr. Kauth holds a PhD in Economics from the University of St. Gallen. He stands for strategic leadership, solid governance, and sustainable value creation in the financial industry.

Jonathan is an interactive entertainment executive who has worked in the computer and video game industry for over 25 years, beginning as a Producer at Activision, and having worked as an Executive Producer or Studio Head at major publishers including EA, Zynga, and Warner Bros. Interactive. He has been a business and/or creative leader on a number of major game franchises, including The Sims, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, The Simpsons Game, FarmVille, Words With Friends, Wolfenstein, and DC Comics. At EA, he was the creative force behind the blockbuster game Dante’s Inferno, overseeing the game’s story, development, and trans-media projects. Jonathan lives in California, and is currently SVP and Head of Games for The New York Times, operating and empowering the team that brings daily joy to tens of millions of puzzle solvers, with games like Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and the legendary New York Times Crossword.

Max Piehl is Fraud Initiative Lead at UBS and is responsible for developing and implementing the fraud strategy and anti-fraud measures. Prior to this, he held various positions in segment management and strategy at UBS. Before joining UBS, he worked in management consultancy, specialising in transformation and post-merger projects. Max Piehl holds a Master of Science in International Management from ESB Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Risk & Bank Management.

Romano Ramanti works as an Ethical Hacker at Zürcher Kantonalbank, where he is dedicated to protecting clients and electronic customer channels. His responsibilities include Cyber Threat Intelligence, identifying and defending against cyberattacks, and analyzing current threat landscapes on the dark web. As a representative of Swiss financial institutions at the European Payments Council, he is committed to combating fraud on a European level and actively promotes cross-border collaboration.

Philipp Rickenbacher is Chairman of CV VC, an early-stage VC and accelerator based in Zug. As an advisor and investor, as well as a Senior Advisor for McKinsey & Co., he supports startups and established companies at the intersection of finance and technology. Previously, Philipp Rickenbacher served as CEO of Julius Baer and spent over 20 years holding various leadership positions in the financial industry. He holds a degree in Biotechnology from ETH Zurich and is an alumnus of the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard.

Jörg Schönhärl is an internationally experienced expert in developing and implementing digitalization strategies, identifying new business areas, and establishing innovation management systems for SMEs and large corporations. Prior to his time at Horváth & Partners, he served as Managing Director and Partner at various consulting firms. Among other achievements, he founded and successfully sold a consulting boutique specializing in innovation and technology management in collaboration with an ETH spin-off.

Damien Martin has been writing for «Finanz und Wirtschaft» as an editor in the Markets department since April 2024, and is also responsible for all editorial supplements. Following several years in foreign exchange and money market trading at a Swiss universal bank, he transitioned to the communications sector. Prior to joining the FuW editorial team, he advised national and international asset managers and banks on their market positioning. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Corporate Communications from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW).

Alexander Trentin is an editor in the Markets department at «Finanz und Wirtschaft». He covers topics related to investment strategy, financial markets, and economics. Prior to joining FuW, he worked as a risk analyst at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel. He studied economics at the University of Mannheim in Germany and at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok (Thailand). Alexander Trentin holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certifications.

Rodrigo Alvarez is Global Financial Services Lead at Accenture Song and a senior advisor on large-scale banking transformation. With more than 20 years of experience, he works with leading financial institutions across Europe and Latin America on growth strategy, digital business models, data, AI, and customer-centric transformation. Prior to his current role, he held senior leadership positions across Accenture’s consulting and Data & AI businesses, leading large international teams, and major transformation portfolios. Rodrigo is known for helping banks turn innovation into measurable business outcomes, ranging from accelerating digital sales, to launching new growth platforms, as well as scaling AI-enabled transformation.

Andrew Boswell is Head of IT and Director at Swissquote, the Swiss online banking and trading group headquartered in Gland. With over 13 years at the company, he has progressed from IT Operations to senior leadership roles. He previously led Swissquote’s Site Reliability Engineering teams, focusing on scalable infrastructure, hybrid cloud compute and platform reliability. Today, he oversees the bank’s IT strategy and the underlying technology supporting Swissquote’s global digital banking, trading and sovereign AI platforms, including critical initiatives in cybersecurity, platform resilience and fraud prevention. Andrew brings deep expertise in large-scale financial technology systems and the infrastructure behind modern online trading.

Frédéric is a Director at Simon-Kucher, based in the Geneva office. He specializes in digital transformation, corporate strategy, and AI-driven innovation, with a strong focus on financial services and technology-enabled industries. He advises leading banks and technology players on digital offerings, strategic pricing, monetization, and large-scale transformation programs, leveraging AI and GenAI to enhance pricing capabilities, develop AI-powered solutions, and improve operational efficiency. Frédéric studied Physics at EPFL with a minor in Financial Engineering and completed an executive program in AI Strategy and Implementation at IMD.

Enrico is a Partner at Simon-Kucher, based in the Geneva office. He is a member of the Financial Services sector. He advises leading private banks on product offering, pricing, and sales excellence topics and has extensive project experience in the fields of growth, strategic positioning, pricing, and profitability management with a large number of financial service providers. Enrico holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, a PhD in nanotechnologies from the Université Grenoble Alpes and an MBA from Business School Lausanne.

Denise is passionate about innovation and seamlessly combines industry expertise with technological vision. As Head of the Banking Innovation Board at Swisscom, she identifies fresh trends and ideas for the Innovation Lab and drives their implementation. Previously, she spent several years as a trend scout at the Swisscom Think Tank and worked in the banking sector at IBM. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Innovation from the University of St. Gallen, began her career with a traditional banking apprenticeship, and has gained international experience working for Swiss corporations in Asia.

Carolin Jung Gutiérrez is a senior leader at Accenture with a strong focus on marketing strategy, digital transformation and customer‑centric growth. She supports organizations across financial services, redefining how they engage customers through data‑driven marketing, digital ecosystems and end‑to‑end experience transformation. With deep expertise at the intersection of strategy, technology and creativity, Carolin helps organizations turn customer insight, personalization and innovation into measurable business value.

Holger heads the Swisscom Banking Innovation Lab, combining technical and strategic expertise at the intersection of business and technology. Following his studies in Information Technology and a PhD in pattern recognition from ETH Zurich, he earned an Executive MBA in Business Engineering from the University of St. Gallen (HSG). He focuses on the market readiness of technological innovations and brings extensive experience in driving transformation within Swiss banks. Currently, his main priority is advancing AI Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) to ensure that innovation is both secure and regulatory compliant.

René Kohler heads up Contovista and the Data Driven Banking division at Finnova. He has many years of leadership experience at the intersection of banking, technology and digitalisation. In various CIO, CEO and management roles, he has overseen complex transformation and digitalisation programmes, including the migration of 45 banks and BPO providers to the Finnova platform. Today, he supports banks in making targeted use of data and artificial intelligence to enhance customer value, develop new business models and create sustainable competitive advantages. He combines strategic vision with a deep understanding of technology and extensive experience in implementing change within regulated environments.

Peter Lang, CIIA, is Head of AI Factory at Finnova and drives the practical industrialisation of artificial intelligence in the banking sector. He has over 30 years’ experience in banking, investment management, digitalisation and IT. In previous roles, he was responsible for SaaS, cloud, platform and transformation initiatives at Finnova and UBS Wealth Management. His focus is on combining AI, data, technology and business models to make innovation scalable within financial organisations.

Fabien is a Senior Manager at Simon-Kucher, based in the Geneva office. He focuses on pricing, offering, and discount management topics, particularly in the banking industry. He advises private banks on pricing, offering harmonization, and discount management, and has supported the implementation of simulation and workflow tools in private banking. Fabien holds a B.Sc. in Management from the University of Lausanne (HEC Lausanne) and an M.Sc. in Economics and Strategy for Business from Imperial College Business School.

Jörg Schönhärl is an internationally experienced expert in developing and implementing digitalization strategies, identifying new business areas, and establishing innovation management systems for SMEs and large corporations. Prior to his time at Horváth & Partners, he served as Managing Director and Partner at various consulting firms. Among other achievements, he founded and successfully sold a consulting boutique specializing in innovation and technology management in collaboration with an ETH spin-off.

Tobias Stüssi is a Managing Director at Accenture and Co-Lead for Financial Services in Switzerland. With more than 20 years of experience, he advises banks, wealth managers, and payment providers on large-scale transformations. He works directly with executive teams on strategy, operating models, and core platform modernization. As Co-Lead for Financial Services in Switzerland and lead for several financial services clients, he brings together the best of Accenture’s capabilities to turn client ambitions into concrete, scalable solutions and measurable business outcomes.

Sheila Zingg is a PhD Candidate in the System Security Group at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on digital identities, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), ML & LLM security, data privacy, and fraud detection. Her work takes a human-centered approach, exploring how technology can support users in making better security and data privacy decisions. As a speaker at the Global Digital Collaboration conference and in Swiss e-ID policy participation meetings she has contributed to Swiss and international policy conversations on digital identity systems. Prior to her doctoral studies, Sheila worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, with a focus on data privacy and information security. She holds an MSc in Computer Science from ETH Zurich.