New leadership and the next generation in various Swiss startups

Commerce infrastructure platform Foodetective offers local businesses and entrepreneurs an all-in-one platform to seamlessly manage their entire operations, tech stack, suppliers and marketing. The startup has welcomed Coca-Cola HBC executive, Maté Varga as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) to support it in its innovation, technology and strategy planning to scale the platform and expand globally. In his previous role, Maté served as Digital and Technology Platform Director and has a noteworthy career of 20 years across the Coca-Cola System. He was responsible for Sales, Route to Market, Performance and Revenue Growth Management throughout his career before becoming part of the Swiss Leadership team. In his recent role, he led the building of Qwell.ch, a Coca-Cola spin-off D2C eCommerce and supported startup acceleration within the Coca-Cola System.

Lucie Rein joins Cultivated Biosciences as Chief Commercial Officer
With her entrepreneurial experience, Lucie Rein is now joining Cultivated Biosciences as Chief Commercial Officer. She was the Country Manager at Too Good to Go, a global social enterprise dedicated to tackling food waste in the restaurant, retail, bakery and catering industry by connecting users with businesses through an app. She helped grow the business in Switzerland to 22 people and attracted 800’000 users and 3‘000 food businesses. Most recently, she was the CEO of the Swiss sharing platform Sharely. In her new role, Lucie will support Cultivated Biosciences’ commercial growth for plant-based fat alternatives. The startup, founded by Tomas Turner and Dimitri Zogg, is developing a creamy, dairy-free alternative fat ingredient for plant-based dairy products using non-GMO yeast fermentation.

Loft Dynamics strengthens the US team
Loft Dynamics AG, creator of the world’s first and only virtual reality (VR) simulator authorised by a major aviation regulator, has made two strategic appointments to strengthen its global expansion. Industry veterans Scott Firsing and Woody McClendon will lead sales and growing operations in North America. Firsing brings a wealth of expertise in the flight simulation market. Most recently, he led the North American market for ALSIM Simulators, a leading global manufacturer and designer of fixed-based flight simulators. While there, Firsing drove the company’s successful expansion into the US and Canada - growing its client list to include world-renowned original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), universities, and flight schools. Earlier in his aerospace career, Firsing held academic and policy roles for the United Nations and the US government and taught at the University of North Carolina, The Citadel and Monash University. Firsing serves on the University Aviation Association (UAA)’s board of trustees.

McClendon joins the Loft team as North American New Business Manager, bringing 35 years of aviation experience in sales and operations. Previously, McClendon held sales leadership roles in the corporate jet industry including at Boeing, PrivatAir, Airwest Helicopters, and Flight Safety International. He is also a Challenger and Learjet captain. McClendon holds a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering

Bernard Laurel becomes the President of Piomic Medical Inc.
Piomic Medical, the startup developing innovative medical devices for the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds, based on the proprietary COMS therapy, has appointed Bernard Laurel as President of its US subsidiary Piomic Medical Inc. Laurel is a highly experienced global business executive with an exceptional track record of managing, scaling and supporting the acquisition of market leaders in the wound care industry. He will support Piominc in its commercial journey and success for COMS in North America. “Bernard’s extensive experience in scaling emerging medtech companies and guiding them to successful strategic transactions will be invaluable as we initiate further clinical investigations in the US. Moreover, his previous experience supporting clinical investigations for De-Novo technologies seeking FDA approval is very important to improve commercial readiness before Piomic Medical enters the US market. With his wealth of knowledge and experience, Bernard will significantly impact the company’s success,” says Bertrand Hughes, Chairman of the Board at Piomic Medical.

CEO’s daughter becomes Co-founder at Abhati Suisse
Abhati Suisse develops and commercialises natural skincare and hair products while investing in social projects such as girl education in India. The company has welcomed a new generation into the business, Shirin Dörig has assumed the Co-Founder role of ABHATI Suisse alongside her mother Anju Rupal, the Founder. “Adding this next-generational power to the company will further strengthen the brand, says Anju Rupal in her LinkedIn post. “For me, it is a very special announcement. I have watched my daughter as a young girl, develop her own beauty rituals, mix her homemade beauty products and share these tips on her very own social media channels. I never in my wildest dreams thought that Shirin would step into the business. ABHATI Suisse embodies Shirin’s love of aesthetics and the world of beauty – it is such a natural, perfect fit. It’s unique to address different generations in one beauty brand”, she added.

(RAN)