Executive Office
The Executive Office is responsible for the management of the center and its activities in research, education, outreach and communication.
Together with the Steering Committee, the executive office of ETH AI Center develops and implements the strategy of the center and builds strategic partnerships and collaborations. It is the central hub for facilitating exchange between members and external partners from academia, industry, start-ups, and government.
Operations
PD Dr. Alexander Ilic
Executive Director
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PD Dr. Alexander Ilic is the Executive Director and a co-founder of the ETH AI Center. He completed his habilitation at University of St. Gallen (HSG), holds a PhD from ETH Zurich, and a MSc from TU Munich. He was named twice "Entrepreneur of the Year" and won several entrepreneurship prizes including the Swiss Economic Award.
Letizia Turri
Director's Associate
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Letizia is Director's Associate at the ETH AI Center. She holds the CEMS MSc in International Management from ESADE and NUS. Letizia has worked with Impact Team at UBS, and at Merantix, within the Berlin AI Venture Capital environment. Previously, she collaborated with Google in Singapore and gained experienced in the Barcelona startup ecosystem.
Natalia Marciniak (maternity leave)
Operations Manager
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Natalia Marciniak is the Operations Manager at ETH AI Center. Her approach is to cultivate good relationships with everyone, and in that way to foster a cooperative environment. She thinks that this is the key to the success of big organisations, and also the prerequisite to have a pleasant and constructive working life.
Patrizia Napoli
HR Administrative Assistant
Patrizia is an Administrative Assistant at the AI-Center who takes care of HR related matters. She also provides administrative support to several laboratories at the Institute for Machine Learning. Before joining ETH, Patrizia worked at a globally renowned firm in the chemical industry where she orchestrated several customer events and trade shows across Europe and led the organizational part of the Master’s student program.
Flori Olteanu
Financial Administrative Assistant
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Flori is the Financial Administrative Assistant at the ETH AI Center. She studied Finance at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. After her studies, she moved to Munich and worked in administration at the Ludwig Maximilian University. She further developed her career at St Cross College, University of Oxford, where she supported several administrative departments and also managed the Events Office.
Research & Community
Dr. Jennifer Wadsworth
Research Coordinator
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Dr. Jennifer Wadsworth leads the research coordination at ETH AI Center. Her background is in the life sciences and space science. During her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and subsequent work including a postdoc at NASA her research touched on many domains, from life detection to astronaut health. She is passionate about enabling highly interdisciplinary collaboration and novel domain applications.
Trinh Ngo
Office & Community Manager
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Trinh Ngo holds the position of Office and Community Manager at the ETH AI Center. She earned her Master's Degree in Management and Economics from the University of Zurich. With over 3 years of experience in event coordination and community management, she is deeply committed to fostering a collaborative working environment and cultivating an active research community at the ETH AI Center.
Entrepreneurship
Viviana Gropengiesser
Director Entrepreneurship
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Viviana Gropengiesser is a graduate in business psychology with more than 10 years of management experience in startup and NGO environments, and is the Director for Entrepreneurship at the ETH AI Center. She manages our in-house activities and educational programs to foster an entrepreneurial environment and support students and researchers in building their startups. She is passionate about enabling top talents to proactively and positively shape the future as responsible entrepreneurial leaders.
Dr. Stefan Tuchschmid
Entrepreneur in Residence
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Dr. Stefan Tuchschmid, Entrepreneur in Residence at the ETH AI Center, shaped his ETH PhD thesis into VirtaMed, a global leader in surgical training with 130+ employees. He's a winner of the Swiss Economic Award in Hightech/Biotech and serial-winner of most business plan competitions in Switzerland. He mentors aspiring student entrepreneurs, start-up / scale up companies and supports strategic research of the ETH AI Center within surgery, medtech and health-related activities.
Industry Partnerships
Daniel Naeff
Head of Innovation & Entrepreneurship
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Daniel is the Head of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the ETH AI Center. With a background in mechanical and industrial engineering from ETH and MIT, he brings extensive experience in the buildup of and investment in early stage companies across multiple sectors - most recently as co-founder of impact venture studio Brainforest. He also serves on the board of several organizations, including the Board of Directors of ETH Alumni.
Andrej Kulikov
Partnership Manager
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Andrej Kulikov is a Partnership Manager at the ETH AI Center in Zurich with a focus on autonomous systems, robotics, Computer Vision, AR/VR and Human-Centered AI. His background is in the data science and business. Before joining ETH Zurich Andrej has founded, built and sold a computer vision company Artisense.ai with a mission of delivering autonomy through robust positioning. Andrej is passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation and deep-technology.
Mateja Kramar
Customer Success Manager
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With over 25 years of experience in high performance leadership, leading innovation teams, developing new businesses through disruption, design thinking and change management, Mateja Kramar joined the ETH AI Center as a Customer Success Manager. She has co-founded 11 successful, innovation driven companies in 8 different industries, establishing a track record in change management and re-invention of businesses.
Mauricio Moncada
Customer Success Coordinator
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Mauricio serves as the Customer Success Coordinator at the ETH AI Center. He has a Master’s Degree in Management and Economics from the University of Zurich, where he wrote his Master thesis on competition policy and AI regulation. Mauricio is deeply passionate about AI policy and AI entrepreneurship. He works closely with the entrepreneurship team at the ETH AI Center and our affiliated startups, aiming to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and practical business applications.
Wayne Zeng
Partnership Coordinator
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Wayne is the Partnership Coordinator at the ETH AI Center. He earned his Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics at ETH Zurich, where he specialised in statistics, machine learning, and natural language processing. He previously helped coordinate the ETH AI Center Fellowship Program.
Marketing, Communications and Events
Dr. Helga Rietz
Science Communication Manager
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Helga Rietz is the Science Communications Manager at ETH AI Center. She has a background in physics and graduated with a PhD in attosecond physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Writing and storytelling, however, has always been a passion of hers. Before joining the ETH AI Center, Helga has been a writer and editor for the science section of Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Diar Rachman
Marketing and Comms Coordinator
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Diar is the Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the ETH AI Center, with a Master in International Law from the University of St. Gallen and her tenure at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, she merges her diplomatic expertise, and marketing acumen to elevate the ETH AI Center's global standing, championing ethical AI discussions through strategic communication and engaging narratives.
Valeria Bella
Event Manager
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Valeria Bella is the Event Manager at the ETH AI Center. She has an extensive experience within the event industry and was previously working as an event manager at the Stadion Letzigrund. Valeria is enthusiastic about providing the best event experience and thinks that events are crucial for the exchange and creation of state-of-the art technology.
Hanna Brahme
Curator AI House Davos
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Hanna leads the curation of the AI House in Davos. With a background in engineering and business, her main focus is deep tech innovation and activities that aim to reimagine and shape the future. She is a leader with experience from organisations like ABB, the UN, TEDxZurich and geographies like the US, Nordics and China.
AI + Art / AI for Education
Adrian Notz
Curator AI + Art
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Adrian Notz is the curator of the AI + Art initiative at ETH AI Center. Besides that, he is the curator of the Art Encounters Biennial 2023 in Timisoara. Before joining the ETH AI Center, he was the artistic director of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, and head of the Faculty for Fine Arts at the School of Design in St. Gallen.
Lisa Wagner
AI for Schools Project Manager
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Lisa Wagner is the Project Manager AI for Schools at ETH AI Center. She is an examined high school teacher with many years of experience in teaching in an international environment. She also gained experience in conducting programming and robotics modules, tailored for different outreach programs in Zürich and Los Angeles. Before joining the ETH AI Center, she worked as a secondary school teach and co-founded a startup in the education sector.
Dr. Gerd Kortemeyer
Dr. Gerd Kortemeyer is the Center’s liaison to the ETH Rectorate and advances initiatives in the area of AI for Education. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Michigan State University, where he is also an Associate Professor Emeritus of Physics Education. He brings a background in Educational Technology, in particular assessment and learning analytics.
