Board Members
“I strongly believe in Swiss innovation and startups. Our country has a strong track record in entrepreneurship and a world-class reputation in finance. Now it´s the time to transform finance into fintech. Switzerland is about to become a leading hub for bespoke fintech services and SFS is driving this change.”
Christina Kehl co-founded SFS in 2014 while she was the COO at Knip AG. Knip is the first mobile-based insurance broker worldwide that she had co-founded in Zurich in 2013. With the successful completion of a 15 million USD investment round a broad C suite structure was implemented at Knip and Christina was able to focus on her dual mandate as Fintech Evangelist at Knip and President at SFS. She actively promoted the development of the Swiss fintech industry; she established the first Swiss Fintech & Digitization Day and was able to win high level support from politics. She is a regular guest in the media as well as speaker at panel discussions, forums and conferences. As of May 2016 she left Knip to take on the position as Managing Director at SFS, building up a professional team, leading all lobbying and operational activities. Christina was born in Germany, she studied law in Würzburg, Helsinki and Oxford. She founded her first company at the age of 19 and helped build several startups in Berlin and London before coming to Zurich in 2013.
“Here I come, rocking like a hurricane!”
Urs Haeusler is founder and CEO of DealMarket – a global platform for fundraising and deal flow management for professional venture capital and private equity investors. Urs is SFS co-founder and and a board member since day one, he is also co-founder and president of Swiss Startup Association (SSA). Urs has gathered more than 15 years of experience in building up startups at amiando, Jamba! and others. He has an MBA of St. Gallen university (HSG), is a fintech and startup expert and runs his own online business consulting firm. As a business angel he is invested in several internet startups.
“Banking is the foundation the Swiss economy is build on. We need to make sure that we keep our innovators in Switzerland if we want to have a prospering banking system in the future.”
Gian Reto à Porta is co-founder and CEO of Contovista. Contovista pursuits the goal to provide banking customers with a next-level online and mobile experience. Before becoming an entrepreneur Gian was a business consultant in the financial sector. As a consultant for different banks he dealt intensively with core banking systems and business process outsourcing. While studying at Zurich university he has published several thesises about banking and technology Gian is also a co-founder of SFS and a board member since foundation.
“I like to move it, move it. I like to – move it!”
Thomas Brändle is founder and CEO of Run my Accounts. Before becoming an entrepreneur himself Thomas worked as the CFO of several startups. During his time at IBM he was the operational lead of a global outsourcing project. He graduated from St. Gallen university and majored in finance & accounting first and later in law.