Board members, CEOs and consultants with start-up experience

One of the most important resources of successful start-up ecosystems are founders and managers who have led and sold start-ups successfully. Although the Swiss ICT start-up scene is still small, there were some very successful exits in the past. Lodestone has been sold to Infosys for more than CHF300 million, jobs.ch was acquired by Tiger Global in 2007 for more than CHF100 million and five years later bought by Tamedia and Ringier for CHF 390 million and Svox was sold to Nuance for around CHF125 million. Three persons who worked for Lodestone, jobs.ch and SVOX have joined start-ups in the last weeks.

Peter Odman (Lodestone, Qumram, picture left)
Peter Ödman is elected Member and Chair of the Board of Directors at fintech start-up Qumram. Over a career spanning more than 20 years, with firms including PwC, IBM, Lodestone Management Consultants, and Infosys Consulting, Ödman has expertise in building global businesses, with a focus on financial services business advisory, implementation and management consulting. Responsible for co-founding Lodestone Management Consultants in 2005, and growing the firm from three to eight hundred staff over seven years, Ödman and his partners sold Lodestone to Infosys in 2012, for more than CHF 300 million. Subsequently, Ödman and his partners founded Zirconia, a Swiss-based venture capitalist firm, which was an early investor in Qumram.
An interview with Peter Odmancan be found on the website of Qumram.

Mark Sandmaier (jobs.ch, STAFF FINDER, picture middle)
Mark Sandmeier has been appointed Business Consultant at STAFF FINDER AG. With Sandmeier, the on-demand marketplace for flexible work counts on one of the most experienced specialists in digital recruiting. Mark Sandmeier will support STAFF FINDER strategically and help develop partnerships. “I am convinced that STAFF FINDER will succeed in revolutionising the on-demand market. With its platform, the young business has automated recruiting for urgent temporary staffing needs in a cost-efficient way,” Sandmeier reasons.

As CEO from 2000 to 2015, Sandmeier transformed JobCloud AG – formerly known as jobs.ch – into one of the leading online companies in Switzerland. Under Sandmeier, JobCloud AG with its 140 employees operated a total of 12 job portals and received over 150,000 visits from job seekers every day. Sandmeier has been on the board of directors at JobCloud AG since 2014 and also works as an independent consultant. He advises start-ups and young businesses in the tech segment on digital strategies and sales processes.

Erik Bonab Stricker (SVOX, Smartwatcher, picture right)
Erik Bonab Stricker took over as CEO at Smartwatcher. He had worked as head of worldwide sales at SVOX from 2009 to 2011 and turned the company into an aggressive global player with a remarkably effective global partner network. SVOX was acquired by Nuance in 2011. Regarding his new job Stricker writes on Linkedin: “I recently came across an impressive company, who set out to develop a next generation personal safety solution. I am super excited to have now joined as the CEO. In a world with increasing health and security concerns, Smartwatcher Technologies AG provides new ways for people to look out for each other and get help in case of an emergency. We just launched our first basic emergency alarm solution which is available worldwide as a FREE app for leading smartwatches such as Apple Watch and TAG Heuer Connected. Yet this is just the start. New features and products are already in the making. Being a truly international team, and offering the world’s first cross platform safety solution for wearables, we have a strong basis for a successful global expansion. An amazing and demanding journey is ahead of us.“