Dr. Gulnaz Partschefeld is Lecturer, Director of the Academic Programme of the Kick-off Days and Head of Events at the University of St.Gallen. In 2006 she moved to Munich and in 2008 to St. Gallen, where she initially researched the concept of authenticity in tourism and completed her PhD at the University of St. Gallen. Gulnaz also teaches courses on cultural aspects of tourism and Russian cultural history at the University of St.Gallen. As an expert on Eastern Europe and Russia, she has been asked by various media for her analyses and statements on the Russian war in Ukraine and has given numerous interviews and written articles.
Tim Kramer was born in Berlin and completed his studies at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart and the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. His acting engagements have taken him to the Burgtheater, Volkstheater and Schauspielhaus in Vienna, the Salzburg Festival, the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden and the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern. He has staged his own productions at the Theater Magdeburg, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Volkstheater Wien, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Theater Konstanz, Landestheater Salzburg, TAK Liechtenstein, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, and Theater St. Gallen, among others. From 2007 to 2016, he was director of acting at the Theater St. Gallen and from 2019 to 2022 director of acting at the Theater Magdeburg. He taught at the Max Reinhardt seminar for six years and was head of the acting department at the Vienna Conservatory for three years.
From 2022 to 2024, he was artistic director and coordinator of teaching at the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding. He has been teaching at the contextual studies at the University of St. Gallen since 2010. Since August 2024, Tim Kramer has been artistic director of SQUARE at the University of St. Gallen.
Hagr Arobei is the Head of Security Days at the HSG Security Policy Forum. Together with her team, she organized one of the first public university panel discussions on the war in the Middle East, drawing over 300 attendees.
Nils Fürstenberg, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management. His research uses quantitative methods at the intersection of management, psychology, and neuroscience. He frequently speaks at international conferences and publishes in leading journals.
Adrian Rouzbeh is an experienced entrepreneur, mental health & mindset coach. Known for his SPIEGEL bestseller ‘Erfolg aus Prinzip’, he is a highly demanded consultant and gave a TEDx talk at the University of St. Gallen. Rouzbeh is a professional-level martial arts trainer and black belt holder.
Professor Barassi researches and writes about the impact of data technologies and artificial intelligence on human rights and democracy. She is the author of different articles and three books, including Child | Data | Citizen: How Tech Companies are Profiling Us from before Birth with MIT Press (2020). Her Ted Talk on What Tech Companies know about your Children has reached more than 2 million views.
Miriam Buiten is a CERRE Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. She leads a research team on “Platform Governance”, funded by the University of St.Gallen Basic Research Fund. Her research focuses on the legal issues surrounding new technologies and artificial intelligence and the role of competition law in regulating the digital economy. Previously, Miriam was a Junior Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim. She has been involved in several policy studies for the European Commission and the Dutch government on topics such as the role of online intermediaries in the ecommerce sector and mechanisms to reduce regulatory burdens.
Tina Freyburg is a Professor of Comparative Politics and currently president of the university’s research commission. Her research focuses on strengthening and maintaining democratic principles in diverse contexts, particularly in emerging democracies and autocracies. She studies key global challenges such as the resilience of democratic institutions, the impact of digital technology on political repression and protests, and strategies to safeguard democracy against authoritarianism.
Prof Dr. Dietmar Grichnik is Vice-President for Innovation and Quality, Full Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG) at the University of St.Gallen. As founder and director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship (Startup@HSG) and the Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, he is committed to promoting HSG spin-offs and the Swiss start-up ecosystem. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Switzerland Innovation and the Board of Directors of Switzerland Innovation Park Ost (SIP Ost). Dietmar Grichnik listed as one of the top 100 leading entrepreneurship professors worldwide.
Professor Dr. Antoinette Weibel is chaired professor for human resource management at the University of St. Gallen and Director at the Institute for Work and Employment Research at the University of St.Gallen. She is President of the Executive Committee of the Institute for Systemic Management and Public Govern-ance at the University of St.Gallen (IMP-HSG), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute for Media and Communications Management (MCM-HSG) and the Institute for Business Ethics (IWE-HSG) at the University of St.Gallen. Further, she has been elected to the executive board of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW). Antoinette Weibel is a dedicated trust and motivation researcher with numerous publications in her field of research. Her research focuses on trust management in companies, corporate trust, stakeholder trust, trust-based leadership and motivational management. Together with Otti Vogt, founder of "good organi-zations" and formerly COO-ING, she established the "Good Organization Research Lab". Current research topics are "practical" wisdom, thriving, responsible leadership and good work (also in the context of AI). Antoinette belongs to the 40 thinker HR from the D-A-CH. She is active in executive teaching, runs a small HR academy, is active as speaker and sparring partner to top management.
Federico Luisetti is Full Professor of Italian and Environmental Humanities at the University of St.Gallen. He is the author of books and essays on critical theory, including Non-human Subjects. With Flurina Gradin, he directs “Unruly Natures” unrulynatures.ch, a collaborative research project and network in political ecology.
After graduating from HSG with a degree in Strategy and International Management (SIM), Andri Hinnen founded the consultancy and design agency ‘Zense - Reframing Com-plexity’. Among other things, he supports organisations with the visual and narrative accompaniment of transformation processes. Andri Hinnen is also a filmmaker and author. His documentary film Unter Wasser Atmen won the Audience Award at the Zurich Film Festival and was nominated for the Prix de Soleure. Together with his brother, he wrote the non-fiction bestsellers ‘Reframe it’ and ‘Change it’ and his novel ‘Rolf’ was recently published by Elster Salis.
Gieri is the Head of Global Sales at Swiss Int. Air lines. He has joined SWISS in 2009 and has held various positions within the company, among others as Head of Labor Relations, Head of Strategic Communication, and Environmental Affairs. Gieri holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the University of St. Gallen.
Emiliano Guaraldo is an Environmental Humanities researcher at the University of St. Gallen. His work seeks to understand the historical, aesthetic, and political dimensions of extractivism and toxicity.
Carsten Paulus is Lecturer and Coach for Sports Nutrition, Fitness & Well-Being at the University of St.Gallen. He holds a PhD in marketing management from HSG with the highest distinction, co-founded a start-up in the medical sector and has the purpose to promote physical, mental and social health.
Simon is a Professor of Interaction- and Communication-based Systems at the University of St.Gallen and the Dean of the University's School of Computer Science. With his research team, he explores interactions among devices, people, and services in ubiquitous computing environments.
Luka is a student in the Software and Systems track of the Master of Computer Science program at HSG. He is currently writing his Master's Thesis on Filter Bubbles and Algorithmic Bias on Social Media Platforms. Luka is interested in various dimensions of social media, including governance, artificial intelligence, privacy, and decentralization.
Jannis is a PhD Student at the University of St. Gallen. He studies how ubiquitous personalization systems can make people's interactions with their environment more efficient, safer and inclusive, and how these systems can be built in a responsible and societally beneficial way.
Tim Kramer was born in Berlin and trained at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart and the Max Reinhardt Seminar. Tim Kramer has been teaching in the contextual studies program at the Uni-versity of St. Gallen since 2010. Since August 2024 he is the direc-tor of SQUARE at the University of St. Gallen.
Barnaby Skinner, journalist and data expert, leads the visuals team at NZZ. Formerly with Tamedia and news.ch, he co-founded Opendata.ch. His work was published in Tages-Anzeiger, Monocle, The Daily Star, SonntagsZeitung, and more. Bilingual in German and English, he advocates for data literacy and digital transformation in journalism.
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Handschuh is Full Professor of Data Science at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of St.Gallen. He studied Computer Science in Ulm and Information Science in Konstanz. His teaching at the University of St.Gallen focuses on Data Science (Data Engineering, Data Analytics, Machine Learning) and Natural Language Processing.
Sascha Spoun has been President of Leuphana University Lüneburg and Guest Professor at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) since 2006. Previously, from 1999 to 2006, he was a junior lecturer in Business Administration at the HSG and delegate of the rector for university development, and from 2004 to 2010 he was a lecturer at the University of Zurich. He is currently spokesman for the Association of North German Universities and chairman of the Study and Teaching Commission of the Landeshochschulkonferenz Niedersachsen as well as the Niedersachsen Innovation Network. He is also involved in foundations and is on the board of the ISCN (International Sustainable Campus Network). He founded the first sustainability faculty in Germany in 2010 and made the Leuphana campus climate-neutral in 2014. Most recently published "Integrativ Managen. Ein Modell für eine effektive Praxis der Unternehmensführung» by Springer (2020).
Viktoria has led the HSG Kick-off Days as a project manager and worked as a team member in the HSG Events Office for 5 years. With an international background and a degree in Business Administration, she has gained valuable experience in the consumer goods industry and in teaching. She balances her vibrant family life with her passion for education and event management, which makes her part-time job truly rewarding.
Jennifer Büchel is a Master's student in Law and Economics at HSG and has worked in the HSG Events Office for nearly a year, supporting events like Graduation, Kick-Off Days, and Dies Academicus. She previously completed an apprenticeship as a mechanical designer and worked in wealth management. Jennifer combines her technical skills and event management experience while balancing her studies and work.