The Watch Forum 2022

Olivia Kinghorst is a journalist, anchor and moderator in Switzerland with over six years of experience in the news and media industry. She was born and raised in Sydney, Australia and has since worked for outlets including CNN and Forbes DA. She currently resides in Zurich after living in Sydney, Munich and New York. She completed her Masters in Journalism at Columbia University.

Former CEO of TBWA Corporate and CSR Director of one of the leading fine jewellery brands, Céline has more than twenty years of experience in engagement and transformation issues. Passionate about responsible innovation, she loves exploring the new creative fields offered by circularity.

Céline is also a member of the Ethics Chair of the FHH Cultural Council, B-Leader, member of the Zei board, CrushOn and UN Women France and a former student of the Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategies programme at Cambridge University.

Stephen Dunbar-Johnson is the President, International for The New York Times Company.

Previously, he was Publisher of the International Herald Tribune (IHT), a position he assumed in January 2008. Before his appointment as publisher, Mr. Dunbar-Johnson was executive vice president of the IHT and had responsibility for advertising and conference revenue. He also oversaw the newspaper’s circulation and marketing departments and all of the commercial operations in Asia. Previously, Mr. Dunbar-Johnson held the position of senior vice president and commercial director and before that worldwide advertising director which was his post when he started at the IHT in 1998.

Clio Godrèche is currently the CSR Manager at Watches and Culture, the cultural division of Fondation Haute Horlogerie.

She holds two master degrees in political sciences with a major in international relations from Sciences-Po Toulouse and in business management from La Sorbonne, Paris. For the past 15 years, she has held positions in communications and marketing in the luxury goods and the watchmaking industry. After completing a Sustainability course at the University of Cambridge, she joined FHH in 2021 as the CSR Manager.

Fatou is a serial entrepreneur and expert for the United Nations.

She spent a decade as an expatriate, living on 3 continents, including in Australia where she headed the International Trade department of KPMG.

Fatou is now the founder and CEO of The Wonders, an organization creating solutions for more diversity and equality in business and in society. She and her team build talent development programs for companies and support hundreds of female leaders and entrepreneurs each year. Fatou recently received the National Medal for Equality and is also an international speaker, member of the Time For The Planet supervisory board and one of the 150 leaders of the Business Convention for Climate.

Since January 2022, Gerard Bos is Head of Enterprise and Investment team after 10 years as Director of the Business and Biodiversity Programme at the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He is passionate for driving Transformational Change through multi-sector collaborative platforms with the aim to challenge current and future business models of the corporate and financial sector.

He believes valuing Natural Capital and integrating Nature-based Solutions in corporate decision making are critical towards building a more sustainable nature positive and inclusive future.

Before joining IUCN, Gerard worked for more 17 years in the building materials industry with operational roles in finance, procurement and logistics before developing and implementing the biodiversity strategy for the Holcim group.

His working career started in banking with Barclays and is linked to his current passion and endeavour to urgently redirect financials flows from nature negative to nature positive activities.

Kate started her career in academia before entering the business world in 2003.

She worked for 9 years at STMicroelectronics in charge of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Strategy and represented ST on the board of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (now the Responsible Business Alliance). She then spent 6 years at Edmond de Rothschild Group, leading the creation and implementation of the Group’s first Sustainability and Responsible Investment strategy and representing the Group on the board of the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland. In 2020 Kate joined MeaningSphere, a startup dedicated to meaningful work, where she explored how to enhance the connection between personal meaning and shared values and purpose.

She is now Head of Sustainability at FigBytes, a platform that enables companies to manage and report on their Sustainability data and engage with stakeholders in line with their purpose and strategy.

Kate is based in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband and their two children.

Chiara is an activist, speaker and expert raising awareness about gender equality and diversity. She consults corporations on their diversity goals. Chiara has launched a podcast,The Other Half, which interviews male leaders and CEOs around the world on the subject of gender equality in their personal and professional lives.

In 2017 shae was awarded the Woman of Influence Prize for her work on the subject. Chiara is the founder of Led By HER, a nonprofit that works on women’s entrepreneurship, innovation and women’s rights. Prior  to founding Led By HER Chiara worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on gender mainstreaming. She graduated from Harvard and has a masters from Sciences Po/LSE.

Diana started her professional path at the International Committee of the Red Cross in the context of the first Russian-Chechen conflict. She then spent 14 years in Africa, Asia and Middle East by being involved in different humanitarian projects. From 2008 to 2018, as the CSR Manager at Chopard Group, she established and oversaw numerous sourcing, environmental, work-life balance and philanthropic initiatives of the group.

Today, Diana leads the Swiss Better Gold Association, a pioneering network of industry, finance and service providers representing Swiss gold industry, which supports sustainable development of artisanal small-scale miners and facilitates establishment of responsible gold value chains from these operations to end market.

Marie-Claire Daveu began her career as a technical advisor to the cabinet of Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, before becoming Principal Private Secretary to Serge Lepeltier, Minister of Ecology and Sustainability. In 2005, she became Director of Sustainable Development for the Sanofi-Aventis Group. From 2007 to 2012, she served as Chief of Staff to French politician, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, working in various secretaries of state and then at the Ministries of Ecology, Sustainability, Transport and Housing.

In 2012, she was appointed Kering’s Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer.  She sets out the strategy and ambitious objectives as well as implementing a set of best practices within the Group and the Houses. Today, Kering is a pioneer and recognized leader in sustainability.

A French national, she is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences (ENGREF). She also earned a postgraduate diploma (DESS) in public administration from Dauphine University, Paris.

Helena Drobná is Programme Specialist at UNESCO, serving in the Capacity Building and Heritage Policy Unit of the Secretariat of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

She advises States and other key stakeholders on the implementation of the 2003 Convention, designs training modules and materials on safeguarding living heritage for UNESCO’s global capacity-building programme and develops projects related to living heritage and formal and non-formal education.

Before joining the 2003 Convention’s Secretariat in 2011, she managed UNESCO’s global programme on culture and health and developed UNESCO’s training and capacity building programme on cultural management and policies, as well as culture and development. 

A graduate of the Faculty of Management of the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, Helena studied cultural management, policies and diplomacy at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. Studies in art, film production, psychology and social sciences in Germany, the UK and the US completed her education.

Fabienne Fischer is a lawyer and politician, a member of the Green Party, elected at the Council of State by-elections for the canton of Geneva on 21 March 2021. She is charge of the Department for the Economy and Employment.

In 1985, while Fabienne Fischer was a student at the University of Geneva, she chaired the Scholarship Board for the National Students’ Union of Switzerland. After a graduate degree in History, she teaches humanities from 1987 to 2003 at a local school. She earns a master’s degree in law in 2002 and the Geneva bar in 2005. Her work as a lawyer consists of administrative and employment law, as well as family law and amicable settlements of disputes.

Fabienne Fischer has been a member of the Green Party of Switzerland since 2007. She became a City Councilor in 2011. She sat on the board of directors of the Geneva International Airport from 2012 to 2018, as well as vice-president of the board of directors and chair of the real estate committee of the Hospice General (welfare office).

Julie Gautier is a French freediver, Underwater film director and interpreter who was born and raised on the island of La Réunion.

She was both influenced by her father, a spearfisherman, who initiates her to freediving as a sport when she was 18 and by her mother who was a dance teacher.

Freediving will lead her to break two French records for depth, holding her breath for more than 6 minutes. 

Julie progressively turned her passion for freediving towards creativity. She loves to write and captures images telling the magic of the underwater world. 

Her first short film, “Free Fall” (2010) is a worldwide success and will start her recognition amongst the public. 

She will then direct for others (Beyonce’s music video for “Runnin” in 2016) as well as continuing her own personal artistic journey behind or in front of the camera: Narcose (2014), Ama (2018), One Breath Around The World (2019), or more recently Narcisse (2022).

As Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and member of the Executive Board of IWC Schaffhausen, Franziska Gsell Etterlin has headed the company’s Marketing & Communication department since 2015.

For more than five years she has been chairing IWC’s Sustainability Committee, a topic close

to her heart. Tasked with managing IWC’s social and environmental impact, the Committee is the driving force behind the company’s ambitious stance on most responsible watchmaking and transparency from sketchbook to wrist.

Franziska majored in Business Administration and Marketing at Zurich’s University of Applied Sciences. Before joining IWC in her hometown Schaffhausen, she served as CEO of a leading Swiss luxury hosiery and knitwear brand (Fogal), and as Marketing Director and Executive Board member of leading Swiss-based international food (Lindt) and beverage companies (Carlsberg).

Franziska is a board member of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Switzerland.

Born in 1964 from a Lebanese father and a Swiss mother, Sami Kanaan is multilingual (French, Swiss German, German, Arabic and English). His life course is divided between Lebanon, Greece and Switzerland (Bern, Zurich and Geneva). He graduated in Physics (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) and in Political Science (University of Geneva).

Sami Kanaan has been a member of the social-democratic party since 1988, elected to the parliament of the City of Geneva (Conseil municipal – City Council) between 1997 and 2001, and to the parliament of the Canton of Geneva (Grand Conseil) between 2001 and 2005. In the spring of 2011, he is elected to the Executive Council of the City of Geneva. He is currently in charge of the Department of culture and digital transition. He was Mayor of Geneva in 2014-2015, 2018-2019 and 2020-2021.

Since 2016, he chairs the federal Child and Youth Commission and is Vice-President of the Swiss Union of Cities and the Geneva Union of Cities.

Sabrina Karib joined a Swiss refinery in April 2015 as a Senior Legal and Compliance counsel. Prior to this, she has been working for FIFA TMS and later for a law firm based in Geneva. She studied in France and in the UK, where she obtained a LLM in Business Law. Given her professional experience and her interest for precious metal supply chains, she decided to enrol for a PhD at the Basel University. The topic of her research is “Reconsidering the effectiveness of existing standards for responsible supply chains of gold”.

As a natural result of her research, Sabrina Karib created the Precious Metals Impact Forum, a unique platform open to all representatives of the sector and committed to improving the state of the entire precious metals sector – always with the commitment of inclusivity and respect of all stakeholders – by creating dialogue and tools/solutions.

Louis Maréchal joined the Centre for Responsible Business Conduct of the OECD in September 2014. He specifically works on projects related to the implementation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

Prior to joining the OECD, Louis Maréchal worked for four years with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France on issues related to transparency and governance in the mining sector, and security of supply of strategic metals. He started his career with a strategic consultancy firm focusing on the defence and extractives industries. 

Louis Maréchal holds a master’s degree in international relations, with a specialization in the defence industry. 

Irene leads the Circular Transition Indicators work at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In her role she supports the development and global adoption of the Circular Transition Indicators with the objective to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. She has an MIA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York, USA and extensive experience in stakeholder and project management in both the public and the private sector.

The WBCSD is a global, CEO-led organisation of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world.

Fueled with a passion to regenerate the ocean, Danielle is the Chief Ocean Officer of Tēnaka, a social startup that restores marine habitats such as coral reefs and mangrove forests, working with corporations that are keen to create a positive impact. Focused on developing projects for ocean sustainability, she co-founded Waves of Change, a non-profit organization promoting practices that preserve the biosphere. She is also a scientific journalist and editor-in-chief for the special issues of the French magazine Science & Vie.

Danielle was recently named an Ocean Hero for her awareness-raising roles and dedication to using the power of communication to create real change in the way we connect with the ocean.

Expert in societal innovation and governance, Jonathan Normand spent more than 12 years in international financial institutions before creating the consulting firm Codethic in 2009. Specialist in improving global performance and sustainable growth, he is passionate about the evolution of the economy and studies its trends and disruptions.

In 2014, he participated to the launch of B Lab in Europe, which is responsible for rolling out the B Corp movement. He founded and has been leading B Lab Switzerland since 2017, a non-profit organization promoting socio-environmental impact measurement tools as well as the B Corp certification. He is also the designer of the Swiss Triple Impact engagement program and contributes to academic research for an inclusive, circular and regenerative economy.

He has recently co-founded the Swiss Board for Agenda 2030, an Alliance of Swiss business leaders committed to a high level of board accountability to drive sustainability and business resilience.

Damian Oettli is an experienced sustainability expert heading the Markets Department at WWF Switzerland. His expertise covers topics like climate action, water stewardship, biodiversity stewardship, deforestation and conversion-free supply, sustainable food systems and many more.

Damian is with WWF over 25 years. During that time, he has been working closely with businesses, politics, and other stakeholders to improve different market systems and sectors. Originally being a trained forestry engineer at ETH Zurich, Damian has been helping to establish the timber certification scheme FSC in Switzerland developing new forms of constructive cooperation between industries, public administration, and NGO’s.

Above, Damian leads WWF Switzerland’s work on responsible gold supply chains and the watch/jewellery sector where he gained insight in sustainability-related challenges and opportunities of the related industries.

Marcin Piersiak is the Director of the European chapter of Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), a global NGO headquartered in Colombia, that champions a vision of legitimate, responsible and profitable artisanal and small-scale mining sector, contributing to inclusive and sustainable development.

With a background in Economics and International Relations, he has 12 years of experience designing and implementing programs focused on continuous improvement of ASM´s ESG performance and access to formal markets, within a framework of ARM´s sustainability standards: Fairmined for best achieving mines, and the entry level Craft Code for ASM due diligence.

Strategic vision, passion for product and a multifaceted commercial experience led to Jean-Marc Pontroué’s appointment as CEO of Panerai in April 2018.

Combining an emphasis on modern heroes to communicate the inspiration of every Panerai product with a keen eye on a commercial and omnichannel strategy to bolster e-commerce, Pontroué honors the Brand’s traditions with innovation as its hallmark.

A business economics graduate from Nantes Business School, Pontroué joined the LVMH Group as Givenchy’s Sales Director, strengthening its sales network before joining Richemont Group’s Montblanc as Product Strategy and Development Executive Vice President. His talent in diverse categories of ultra-luxury products led to his appointment as CEO of Roger Dubuis a year after joining the brand. After six years at the helm of the Geneva Maison, he was named CEO of Panerai.

“I won’t change the way Panerai produces its watches but how our customers engage with experiences,” Pontroué says.

Andrew Prag is currently Senior Advisor in the OECD Environment Directorate where, among other roles, he leads the OECD’s cross-cutting work on mainstreaming net-zero and climate resilience across the organisation’s policy analysis.

With 20 years’ experience across the climate and environment fields, he has previously been Head of the Environment and Climate Change Unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA), and has led diverse research projects at the OECD related to energy, climate change, trade and waste policy. He has also been closely involved with the UN climate change negotiations (UNFCCC) for many years, advised the G7 and G20 processes, and has worked extensively on carbon pricing. Previously, Andrew worked on climate issues in the private sector, including as a principal consultant for Camco Clean Energy where he developed carbon credit projects in developing countries and co-founded the Project Develop Forum, a carbon market trade association. Earlier in his career he held a variety of roles in the energy sector, including downstream production management with Royal Dutch Shell.

He holds an MSc in environmental technology from Imperial College, London, and an MA in natural sciences from Cambridge University, UK.

Patrick Pruniaux is the Chairman & CEO of Ulysse Nardin and Girard Perregaux. Since Spring 2022, he is also one of its main shareholders.

A watch enthusiast since his teens, Patrick joined LVMH in 2000 and rose to become Regional Sales Director for the Wines & Spirits business for Latin America. After gaining an MBA at HEC Paris and the London Business School, Patrick – also a graduate of Stanford Business School – soon became Vice-President Global Sales & Retail at TAG Heuer. In 2014, Patrick was hired by Apple to prepare the launch of the Apple Watch as a member of the Special Projects team.

He joined Kering Group in September 2017 as Chief Executive Officer of Ulysse Nardin. In 2018, he became CEO for Girard-Perregaux as well. As passionate about the outdoors and wilderness sports as he is about sailing, kitesurfing and free diving.

Avid collector and passionate about watches, Pascal Ravessoud is holder of an MBA from Business School Lausanne. He joined Harry Winston as PR & events manager, and later as Head of Communications for the Timepieces division.

In 2007 Pascal joined the Fondation Haute Horlogerie as a Marketing/Development director, overseeing the development of the foundation’s activities in the markets. In charge of the External Affairs and Watchmaking Expert, he also leads the Cultural Council and is now co-directing Watches and Culture, the cultural division of FHH.

Catherine Rénier is the Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre since May 2018.

She brought with her several years of experience in international business. She began her career in 1999 in New York with Cartier, as Retail Development Director until she joined Van Cleef & Arpels in 2003 as International Deputy Marketing Director.

In 2008, she relocated to Hong Kong to support the development of Van Cleef & Arpels in the Asia Pacific region first as Regional Commercial Director and then as Managing Director for Hong-Kong and Macao. In 2013, she was appointed President of Van Cleef & Arpels Asia Pacific.

For the past four years at Jaeger-LeCoultre, Catherine Rénier has focused on highlighting the watchmaking know-how, technical innovations, elegance and sophistication of the Grande Maison through its watchmaking creations along with immersive exhibitions, discovery workshops, and collaborations around the world.

Born in France, Catherine Rénier graduated from Boston College in 1999 and currently lives in Switzerland with her husband and her three children.

Bérangère or Berry is Richemont Chief Sustainability Officer since the 1st of February 2021.

Berry is a Swiss and Belgian national. She was born and raised in Sainte-Croix Switzerland.

Dr Ruchat joins from the Firmenich Group, Switzerland, where she was Chief Sustainability Officer and more recently, Senior Vice President Sustainability. During her 12-year tenure, Dr Ruchat established unique partnerships, drove Firmenich sustainability strategy and led the group ESG reporting. Beforehand, she was the Director of Partnerships at Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) from 2004.

Dr Ruchat holds two Master degrees: one in Political Science from Lausanne University in 1994 and the other in Public Administration from the Graduate Institute of Public Affairs, Switzerland, in 1996. She also holds a PhD in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York as well as postgraduate qualifications in Public Private Partnership Management from Cambridge University and in Social Innovation from Stanford University.

Bérangère was acknowledged by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Leading Women Awards for her work in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in 2016. She also received the Head of Sustainability of the Year award by Ethical Corporation in 2015.

Marie-Laure Salles is Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute and. Professeure des Universités in France. Before joining the Institute, she was Dean of the School of Management and Innovation at Sciences Po Paris, a school she launched in 2016, and Professor in Sociology at Sciences Po Paris. Before 2016, she had been Professor, Dean of the Faculty and Associate Dean for the PhD Programme at ESSEC Business School.

She holds a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and a habilitation à diriger les recherches from Dauphine University in Paris. Her research interests range from the role of social networks in the transnational diffusion of rules, practices and ideas, to the historical transformation of capitalism and national institutions, with a particular interest in the evolving nature of the social responsibility of firms and the transnational dynamics of governance in the context of globalization.

McKenna Smith is the Manager for Target Validations at the SBTi. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) drives ambitious climate action in the private sector by enabling organizations to set science-based emissions reduction targets. The SBTi is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In order to drive ambitious climate action, the target validation team reviews submitted emissions information and analyses companies against the SBTi criteria and latest climate science. McKenna holds a MSc in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh where her research focused on carbon accounting within supply chains. She is currently based in Paris at WWF France.

Holder of an engineering degree, Aurélie Streit served as logistics manager for Sowind group (Girard-Perregaux & JeanRichard), before spending four years as project manager at Audemars Piguet. She then joined Piaget as marketing project manager for Customer Service.

Since 2013, Aurélie developed and successfully launched The Academy of the Fondation Haute Horlogerie, As an International Development Director, she is now co-directing Watches and Culture, the cultural division of FHH.

Rolf Studer is co-CEO of Oris SA, one of the few remaining independent Swiss watchmaking companies.

A law graduate, Rolf began his career at Coca-Cola in the 1990s, moving to Oris in his native Switzerland in 2006. He was appointed co-CEO in 2016 and has implemented the company’s Change for the Better campaign, a pioneering series of activities, partnerships and product launches that promotes sustainability, conservation and humanitarianism. In 2021, Oris was certified as a climate neutral company by ClimatePartner and released its first sustainability report, detailing its carbon emissions and the broad programme of changes it is implementing at its factory in Hölstein, Switzerland, and across its international network of subsidiaries and boutiques to reduce those emissions. Under Rolf’s leadership, Oris has become one of the luxury watch industry’s leading voices on ESG.

Rolf is married with two children and enjoys jazz, nature, running, sailing and skiing. 

Iris has a background in law and international relations. A sustainability pioneer, leadership executive and coalition-builder, with more than 20 years of global experience working in fast-paced environments including technology, diamonds, jewellery, fashion, and government.

She initiated and Chaired the United Nations Global Compact Network Belgium. She was honoured by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs for her leadership role in initiating the Global Compact Network Belgium and for her work on promoting corporate social responsibility in Belgium and abroad with a focus on human rights including children’s rights and the role of business. In her former role as RJC Executive Director she was dedicated to a ‘members first’ strategy with 20 % growth despite COVID. She also launched the Generation Equality Campaign for the global jewellery and watch industry.

In July 2022 Iris was appointed as Executive Director & Secretary-General of the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, based at Maison de la Paix in Geneva. Iris has been an active volunteer for the Special Olympics for over 20 years and she ran the NY marathon for UNICEF. She is a Board Member ISEAL and DIAMONDS DO GOOD.

Flore started her career in New York as an entrepreneur during the first Internet bubble. There, she witnessed Sept 11. Since then, she works on the end of the world as we know it and the one to come and those (women, men, the Youth) who might make this transition happen. She writes books, portraits, fiction series, films and follows one thread: and now, what do we do?

BIGGER THAN US her first documentary-feature film is dedicated to young change-makers fighting for human rights, climate change, social justice, access to education or food. Produced with Marion Cotillard, selected in Cannes Film Festival and 35+ international festival, the film is supported by an impact campaign focusing on the Youth and their desire to live big through activism. To date, about 3800 community screenings have self-organized. The film is about to be launched in 50+ countries.

French, born 1961, Mr Vigneron was appointed to the Board in 2016.

He is a graduate of ESCP – Paris.

On 1 January 2016, he succeeded Mr Stanislas de Quercize as Chief Executive Officer of Cartier. Prior to his new role, Mr Vigneron was President of LVMH Japan and worked with Richemont from 1988 to 2013: principally with Cartier, rising to become Managing Director of Cartier Japan, President of Richemont Japan, and finally, Managing Director of Cartier Europe.

Melati Wijsen born in 2000 has been fighting plastic pollution since she was 12 years old. With her sister Isabel, she launched Bye Bye Plastic Bags and together, they have mobilized thousands of children and tourists. They obtained the ban of the sale and distribution of plastic bags, packaging and straws on their island Bali.

Melati believes in the power of her generation. She is nowadays developing YOUTHTOPIA. YOUTHTOPIA aims to be a youth empowering ecosystem where young changemakers create content around their skills learned at the frontlines of change.