New association for a secure and stable Internet, made at ETH Zurich

Vanessa Wood is a full professor and chair at the Institute for Electronics (IfE) in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-​ITET) at ETH Zürich. She won the 2014 Science Prize in Electrochemistry endowed by BASF and Volkswagen Group, and the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society in 2018. Besides her professorship, Vanessa Wood is the Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations at ETH Zürich since 2021. In this role, she represents ETH Zürich’s involvement in the SCION Association by chairing the Association’s Executive Board.

Andréa M. Maechler studied economics at the University of Toronto and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. She earned a Ph.D. in economics in 2000 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In her early career, she held various positions at organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). She then occupied senior positions at the IMF. In 2015, she was appointed as a Member of the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) Governing Board and was the first woman to occupy a Board position. At the SNB she is the Head of Department III (Money and Foreign Exchange Markets, Asset Management, Banking Operations, Information Technology). As a member of the Executive Board of the SCION Association, she possesses extensive knowledge of the financial industry.

Patrick Naef is a seasoned technology executive with vast expertise in IT, digitalisation and innovation. He spent more than 20 years in senior leadership roles in the airline, travel, telecom and IT industries. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from ETH Zürich. Having worked in various countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, Patrick brings a global perspective as the CEO of the SCION Association.

Adrian Perrig is a Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zürich, leading the Network Security group. He was previously a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Adrian is an ACM and IEEE Fellow, and a recipient of the ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award. His research focuses on building secure systems. In his early work, he introduced the TESLA authentication protocol, which is now globally used to secure global navigation satellite systems such as Galileo. His current research efforts on secure Internet led to the birth of the SCION secure Internet architecture. He brings his deep knowledge of SCION to the Association by chairing the Advisory Board.

Uli Sigg, born 1946, Swiss. He completed his studies with a Ph.D. of the University of Zurich Law Faculty. He then worked as journalist and editor for various Swiss newspapers and magazines. From 1977 to 1990 he joined the Schindler Group where he held positions as Area Manager for Asia Pacific and later Member of the Group Executive Committee and Shareholders Board. He established in 1980 the first Joint Venture between China and the outside world and remained its Vice Chairman for ten years. He then served on the boards of a number of global companies till 1995 when the Swiss federal government appointed him for four years ambassador to China, North Korea and Mongolia. Presently he also serves as Vice-President of the Ringier Media Group, as member of the Advisory Board of China Development Bank and is an active investor in several ventures . He is Honorary Director of China Foreign Investment Association, Beijing and Founder and Honorary Member of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He has formed the most substantial collection of contemporary Chinese art in the world of which he donated in 2012 1450 works to M+ Museum for Visual Arts in Hong Kong.

Reto Francioni as the Chairman of UBS Europe SE, as a former member of the Board of Directors of the UBS Group and former CEO of Deutsche Börse, can draw on many years of experience in the financial world. Especially his roles at Deutsche Börse (CEO 2005 – 2015, Member of the Executive Board 1993 – 2000), and as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and President of the SWX Group (2003 – 2005), Zürich, placed him at the heart of digitalization within the financial sector. In these positions, he drove a fundamental transformation to reshape the firms as world leaders in technology. Reto Francioni has been a professor of Applied Capital Theory at the University of Basel (since 2013) and was an adjunct professor of Zicklin School of Business, New York. He is the author of several highly respected books on capital market issues. He has also been the Chairman of Swiss International Airlines, the Lead Director of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling and the Vice-Chairman of MTip AG.