Foundation Board

Katja Gentinetta

President of the Foundation Board

Katja Gentinetta is an independent political philosopher. She serves on various administrative committees, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. She is a lecturer at the universities of Lucerne and Zurich and a regular columnist.

Katja Gentinetta studied German literature, history, and philosophy in Zurich and at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. She earned a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Zurich with a thesis on tolerance and its limits in multicultural societies. Through continuing education programs in Salzburg, Harvard, and INSEAD, she deepened her knowledge in management and leadership skills.

Katja Gentinetta has had a long career with leadership roles in culture, politics, and economics, including as Deputy Director of the think tank Avenir Suisse. She wrote several books on socio-political and economic themes and co-editored most recently La politique extérieure suisse au défi du XXIe siècle (Slatkine, 2021). She has also been a presenter of Sternstunde Philosophie and co-host of NZZ Standpunkte on Swiss television.
 

CHARLES BEER

Vice-President of the Foundation Board

Charles Beer

 

 


Charles Beer is an independent consultant who served for over 10 years on Geneva’s cantonal government as Minister of Public Education and Minister of Culture and Sports, and was elected its President in 2007 and 2013. Having trained as a social worker, he was Director of the Actions Unia trade union between 1988 and 2003. President of Pro Helvetia until the end of 2023, Charles Beer chairs the Fondation pour l'animation socio-culturelle du canton de Genève (FASe) and the Fondation Partage.

TAMAR MANUELYAN ATINC
 

TAMAR MANUELYAN ATINC

 

 


Tamar Manuelyan Atinc has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2013. She has over 30 years of experience in the analysis and implementation of development policies and programmes. She was the World Bank’s Vice-President for Human Development, working to advance country policy and programmes to foster human development, reduce poverty and improve economic management. Her recent research focuses primarily on scaling up early childhood development, social impact bonds and data and accountability for better education outcomes.

 

Claire baribaud


Claire Baribaud

Claire Baribaud has been the Director of the Haute école du paysage, d’ingénierie et d’architecture de Genève (HEPIA) since 1 March 2021. Prior to her appointment, was Head of the Haute école de gestion de Genève (HEG) for 11 years.

Claire Baribaud has extensive experience in management, teaching and research. After studying mathematics at the University of Geneva and obtaining a doctorate in science at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), she joined Florida State University and then École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich ETH in Zürich as a teacher-researcher. In 2000, she was hired as a Lecturer Haute école de gestion de Genève (HEG) in the field of business informatics, where she taught mathematics, operating systems and computer networks and security for 11 years.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale- Geneva (HES-SO), she actively participates in the life and politics of the institution. She is also a member of the Foundation Board of la Fondation pour la formation des adultes à Genève (Ifage).

 

CHRISTINE BEERLI


Christine Beerli

 

 


Christine Beerli is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of the Canton of Bern and of the Upper House of the Swiss Parliament (1991 to 2003), where she chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee and then the Committee for Social Security and Health. She chaired the caucus of the Free Democratic Party (PRD) in Switzerland’s Federal Assembly and also served on committees dealing with security policy and economic and legal affairs. A former director of the School of Engineering and Information Technology at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, since 1 January 2006, she has headed Swissmedic, the Swiss supervisory authority for therapeutic products. She was Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) until March 2018.

 

Alessandro Curioni


CURIONI Alessandro

Alessandro Curioni is an IBM Fellow, Vice President of IBM Europe and Africa and Director of the IBM Research Lab in Zurich, Switzerland. On top of being responsible for IBM corporate research in Europe and Africa, he leads IBM global research in Security and the Future of Computing. Dr Curioni is an internationally recognised leader in the area of high-performance computing and computational science, where his innovative thinking and seminal contributions have helped solve some of the most complex scientific and technological problems in healthcare, aerospace, consumer goods and electronics. His research interests now include AI, Big Data and novel compute paradigms, such as neuromorphic and quantum computing. Alessandro Curioni received his undergraduate degree in Theoretical Chemistry and his PhD from Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. He is active in several scientific and technical advisory boards and is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

 

Alexis Keller


Alexis Keller is Professor of Legal Philosophy and Head of the History and Philosophy of Law Department at the Faculty of Law (University of Geneva). He is a member of the Board of the International Committee of the Red Cross, of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law, of the International Center for Transitional Justice (New York) and of the Tocqueville Foundation (Paris).

He was a Fellow of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University), as well as a Visiting Fellow at King's College (Cambridge University) and a Visiting Professor at Sciences-Po (Paris). From 2002 to 2004, he served as the Swiss Foreign Ministry's Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process.

Alexis Keller is the author of numerous publications in French, German, and English in the fields of legal history, philosophy of law, and European intellectual history. He is a member of several academic societies and research institutes in Europe and the United States.

He holds a PhD from the University of Geneva and a doctorat honoris causa from the University of Paris XIII. He was awarded the Latsis Prize in 2001, the Sean MacBride Peace Prize in 2004 and the Grand Prix International Condorcet-Raymond Aron in 2005.

 

JACQUES MARCOVITCH


Jacques Marcovitch

 

 


Jacques Marcovitch is Professor of Management and International Affairs at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and a member of the Global Agenda Council for the Future of Latin America at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva. His past appointments include Rector of the University of São Paulo, President of Electric Utilities of the State of São Paulo and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of São Paulo. His research and publications focus on environmental challenges, entrepreneurship and Latin America.

 

Blaise Matthey


Blaise Matthey is Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia and Treasurer of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), a regular member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Swiss employers' delegate to the International Labour Conference (ILC). 

From 2007 to 2023, he was the CEO of FER, the umbrella organisation of businesses and employers for the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and a member of the boards and chamber of the three Swiss Business and Employers Confederations. He has also been a member and president of various councils in the fields of social security, corporate social responsibility, and education at both regional and national levels. 

He is currently Special Advisor for Labour Affairs for the Swiss Confederation of Employers (UPS) and for FER.

He is a member of the Board of the Fondation des immeubles pour les organisations internationales (FIPOI) and of the Federal Committee against racism. He also holds various positions in several non-profit organisations.

A Doctor of Law and a qualified lawyer, Blaise Matthey has completed management programmes at INSEAD (Paris/Singapore) and has interned at law firms in Chicago, as well as at the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) in Berlin.

He is the author of numerous publications in political, economic, and legal fields.

 

Elettra Ronchi


Elettra Ronchi

Elettra Ronchi, PhD, MPP,  former Head of Unit and international policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is, since January 2022 , senior policy consultant and adjunct lecturer in data governance, privacy and digital health.

Dr. Ronchi has more than 25 years of experience as international policy analyst evaluating the instruments available to governments to improve the public benefits from investments in health, science and technology. Work under her guidance at the OECD has included policy research, multi-lateral work, and the development of OECD Council legal instruments, including the 2021 Recommendation on Children in the Digital Environment and the 2016 Recommendation on Health Data Governance.

She has published extensively on the intersection of digital technology and governance with a particular focus on the health sector, and is on the editorial board of a range of journals, including most recently the International Journal of Medical Informatics. She has also served as expert on various advisory boards, e.g., the Ethics Advisory Council of the International Covid-19 Data Alliance, and the Working Group on Data Governance of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence.

Elettra Ronchi started her policy career in 1993 as consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, before which she held academic research and teaching positions in the U.S. and France.

 

Vera Songwe


Vera Songwe

Vera Songwe is Chair and Founder of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, senior advisor to the BIS Financial Stability Institute, a visiting senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Co-Chair of the Independent High Level Expert Panel on Climate Finance nominated by the government of the UK and Egypt for COP27 and also for the Egypt and the UAE under COP28 alongside Lord Nick Stern.  Under these COP presidencies they wrote the Songwe- Stern report on Climate finance as well the report on Accelerating implementation of Climate Finance.  She also co-authored the report Financing nature: a Transformative agenda launched at COP28. Dr. Songwe is a Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission, an independent interdisciplinary academic commission that equips political and economic decision makers with tools and evidence to shift food and land use systems.  She is the former United Nations Under-Secretary General and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). 

 

Read the communications from the Foundation Board of the Geneva Graduate Institute.