Leadership in Perspective –
A successful format continues
In the 2019 Gender Monitoring Report, ETH Diversity put the focus on the university’s spin-offs. Whilst the observed growth in successful entrepreneurship among scientists and students at ETH Zurich is a positive development, the lack of female founders cannot pass unnoticed. Further research by ETH Diversity into the topic showed that this is not an uncommon phenomenon, even in non-MINT-oriented fields and that there is little data available to provide for a full understanding of the issue. Based on the available literature and a series of interviews with spin-off founders, some possible measures were identified (Gender Monitoring 2019).
As part of the series of events “Leadership in Perspective”, ETH Diversity invited students and staff to meet and discuss with Stefanie Flückiger and Séverine Chardonnens, two female founders of successful ETH-spin-offs, as well as Ana?s S?gesser, Co-founder of Stride, a school specialised in entrepreneurship and Marjan Kraak from ETH Transfer, the internal office providing advice and legal support to spin-off founders. Following the speeches and the panel discussion, the participants had the opportunity to seek personalised advice at a mini-fair from externe SeiteDiversify, externe SeiteESA Business Incubation Centre Switzerland, externe SeiteETH EntrepreurClub, ETH Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (ieLab) and externe SeiteSEIF. A tour around the premises of the Student Project House with its Maker’s Space, where the event was held, was offered to the interested public.
Previous Lectures
On the 28th of March the latest “Leadership in Perspective” event took place. ETH Diversity in cooperation with D-ARCH organised the event. Guest speakers were Katrin Gügler, the Director of the City Planning Office Zurich and Dalila Chebbi, the founder and owner of the architectural firm Chebbi Thomet Bucher. Both speakers informed the audience about how their professional careers in architecture developed, about difficult decisions they had to take and how they coped with all sorts of barriers. They both emphasised the importance of being courageous and accepting challenges that involve risks. Realistic judgements on one’s own capabilities were esteemed important as well as networks consisting of challengers and supporters.
In a panel discussion, in which the two speakers participated as well as the Head of Departement D-ARCH, Philip Ursprung, and one of the female professors from D-ARCH, Annette Spiro, the role of ETH was discussed in developing future female leaders in architecture. Educating (female) students in architecture in a way that fosters their creativity but also the courage to accept new challenges was identified as a key task for ETH Zurich. In the concluding discussion between the panel and the audience (80 young, mostly female people), more personal experiences and tips from the speakers were shared. Further discussions went on for quite some time at an apéro riche…
On 20 November 2018, for the fourth time in succession, another event of the lecture series ?Leadership in Perspective – How to become a successful leader? took place. In cooperation with the D-PHYS, ETH Diversity invited Dr. Heike Riel, IBM Fellow and director of IoT Technology and AI Solutions at IBM Research, to be the keynote speaker of the evening. After a short presentation of Phimale Associations (D-MATH and D-PHYS) by Dominique Heyn and Marie Louise Schubert, Dr Anna Garry reported on the highlights of equal opportunity initiatives at D-PHYS, NCCR Must and NCCR QSIT. Guest speaker Heike Riel portrayed her professional career which lead her from a carpenter apprenticeship to a studies in physics and finally to a leadership position at IBM Research. She concluded that the most important keys to a successful career are self-confidence, passion and to regularly step out of one's own comfort zone. Equally significant are a stable social network and a well equipped and supportive professional environment, Heike Riel pointed out.
Dr Heike Riel's presentation was followed by a panel discussion in which professor Rachel Grange (D-PHYS), professor Detlef Günther (Vice President Research, ETH), professor Rainer Wallny (Head of Department, D-PHYS), and Dr Heike Riel and which was moderated by professor Renate Schubert, Associate Vice President for Equal Opportunities of ETH Zurich. Detlef Günther argued in support of active measures at the departments for promoting women, whereas Rachel Grange highlighted the importance of proactively searching for role models. The panelists agreed on the fact that the disappearance of talented women on higher career levels is a system failure which needs to be counteracted already at highschool level with programmes such as ?ETH unterwegs?. In order to increase the proportion of women, ETH itself had already implemented a bunch of measurements like mentoring programmes or gender-balanced appointment procedures. After a lively round of questions from the audience, the event was topped off by numerous ongoing conversations at an apéro.
On the 8th of March 2018, i.e. on the International Women’s Day, ETH Diversity together with the Gender and Diversity Group of the Department D-BAUG organised the third “Leadership in Perspective” event. During the last three years, the D-BAUG invested a lot of time and energy to implement ETH Zurich’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) in a way that matches the department’s specific framework conditions.
The evening’s guest was Valentina Kumpusch, the Project Director of the Gotthard Road Tunnel. Valentina Kumpusch graduated from D-BAUG 20 years ago. In her talk, she gave a brief overview on her professional career. She explained how she developed from a young first-year student at ETH to a civil engineer, then a manager and now a leader for big projects and teams. Valentina Kumpusch mentioned capabilities that are important for leaders: creating and coordinating large networks of people, showing interest in people and their diversity, and taking care of one’s own needs. She also dealt with the question why we find so few women in leadership positions. Our speaker’s insight was that women should improve with respect to their self-confidence and that they should focus less on trying to fulfill all tasks in a perfect way. She advocates not to have long family breaks and to watch out for role models in order to identify the conduct of life that has the best fit with one’s own personality.
The talk was followed by a panel discussion moderated by ETH Zurich’s Gender Delegate, Professor Renate Schubert. Besides Valentina Kumpusch, Professor Sarah Springman, ETH Zurich’s Rector, Professor Thomas Vogel, Head of D-BAUG as well Lukas Vonesch, Head of ETH’s Human Resources Department were on the panel. The panel as well as the following discussion with the audience, focused on the question how an institution like ETH Zurich can support young researchers, and especially young female reasearchers in their career development. Fostering self-confidence as well as appreciating diversity were mentioned as essential points and several examples on how ETH fosters these aspects were given.
The relevance of starting measures rather early, i.e. already in schools was emphasised. It was also highlighted that positive discrimination is not ETH Zurich’s key strategy. ETH’s approach is rather to assist and support women so that they are enabled to play their full potential. This seems useful not only for the women themselves but also for the entire institution – more diversity seems to give way to more innovative and sustainable ways to cope with the current and future big challenges.
The lively discussions of this well-attended event continued for quite some time during the aperitif …
On November 9th, Monika Ribar, the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of SBB, gave the second talk in our series ?Leadership in Perspective?. Her talk was preceded by an introductory speech by Prof. Ulrich Weidmann, Vice President Human Resources and Infrastructure (ETH Zurich), who highlighted the importance of promoting women in leadership positions in academia. He affirmed that a balanced culture is the key to success and that women need to pursue leadership actively by joining forces with other women as well as men.
Subsequently, Monika Ribar elaborated on her experiences in acquiring and holding leadership positions. She emphasised the aspects of human resource management and the responsibility that are implied by leadership functions. Monika Ribar pointed out that the latest McKinsey study ?Women Matter 2017? reaffirmed that mixed teams are the most successful. Furthermore, Monika Ribar expounded that the study demonstrates the reflection of gender differences in different styles of leadership, which nevertheless are equally effective and diversify management culture successfully. Thus, Monika Ribar encouraged the mostly female audience to overcome their lack in self-consciousness concerning their differing ideas and practice of leadership as well as their ambitions.
A lively panel discussion followed Monika Ribar’s speech. The discussion was led by Professor Dr Renate Schubert (Gender Delegate to the President of ETH Zurich) and involved Monika Ribar, Ulrich Weidmann, Gudela Grote (Head of Department M-TEC, ETH Zurich) and Antonio Togni (Vice-Rector for Doctoral Studies, ETH Zurich). The panellists underscored the significance of three main factors that contribute to success on the career path towards a leadership position: searching for mentors, measuring personal success and taking over responsibility. If women self-confidently search for female as well as male allies, they proactively can succeed in increasing the numbers of female leaders.
On March 30th 2017, Dr Ursula Plassnik, the former Austrian Foreign Minister and current Austrian Ambassador to Switzerland, gave the first talk in our new lecture series ?Leadership in Perspective“. Ambassador Plassnik talked about a variety of experiences and observations during her career. She encouraged the mostly female audience to pursue leadership positions actively and made the audience aware of the various challenges arising along the way. Ambassador Plassnik pointed out that moving out of comfort zones, being a good team worker and being competent in crisis management are important elements when pursuing a career. She made clear that leadership essentially means human resources management. Furthermore, she emphasised the importance of fighting actively one’s own change aversion and of establishing a failure culture in teams. With respect to the well-known gender stereotypes, Ambassador Plassnik advised to follow a strategy of persistence, patience and humour.
A lively panel discussion followed Ambassador Plassnik’s speech. The discussion was led by Prof. Dr Renate Schubert (Gender Delegate to the President of ETH Zurich) and involved Ambassador Plassnik, Professor Sarah M. Springman (Rector of ETH Zurich), Professor Gerhard Schmitt (Senior Vice President ETH Global, ETH Zurich) and Professor David Norris (Head of D-MAVT, ETH Zurich). The panellists as well as the audience agreed on the requirement of continuous motivation for women to pursue their careers. Increasing the number of female leaders requires joint input from men and women.