Nominate a woman, who has shown her empowerment on the job, in a team or company. She has showcased how valuable her input was and has either increased revenues, made new business or created opportunities.

Alexandra Haas

Head of IoT of Swisscom

She is a tech, data-driven and passionate leader who drives digitalization in Switzerland and across borders. She is a genuinely authentic and humble leader, a convincing and inspiring tech speaker, who empowers her team, she truly lives for diversity and supports females in tech through a variety of communities. At the age of 33, she has been showing grit and persistence as a female tech leader. Her gems are data analytics and leadership. Alexandra is a role model as a female leader in tech.

Alexandra should receive the award to create more awareness that there are female badass tech leaders out there who can change the market and leadership style, empower other women to have a loud voice, and stand up to represent their true value. As a minority your focus is often not on how much impact you already have and how much you are doing for the female community, therefore it would mean the world for Alexandra to be reminded that it’s worth the effort.

Lisa Stähli

Co-Managing Director at Girls in Tech Switzerland and is responsible for press-related tasks.

Lisa was one of the first who took over the Girls in Tech Switzerland Management from the founder team. She did not hesitate to take on this opportunity, as this is exactly where she belongs. Lisa is very enthusiastic and always looking for opportunities to bring more women into tech. At the same time, her calm and reflective personality helps everyone to feel welcomed and contribute in their own way.

Lisa has been a driving force for GiT Switzerland! She is leading the team with passion, never losing sight of its mission and vision. With her energy and enthusiasm, she inspires their members to pursue a career in tech. Never does she miss an opportunity to share her knowledge, skills and expertise as an amazing teacher and instructor. The most impressive is her persistence to not only bring more women into tech but to ensure that we can find alleys to build a more inclusive environment in tech.

Sinja Christiani

DBI Transformation Director in Zurich Insurance.

Sinja is an inspiration for women in tech – anyone who has ever worked with her is in awe of her ability to simplify complex technical (and people!) challenges and successfully coach teams to find solutions.
She is 100% impact, 0% ego – which explains the strong followership she has been able to build in her former roles as Deloitte Risk Analytics Consulting Lead and Agile Coach, as well as in her current role as Transformation Lead Zurich Data & BI.

Sinja combines tech expertise with deep insight and empathy for how organizations and people tick. Combining these two, she is enabling global, complex organizations to get real value from data and tech. And she is blazing a trail for women in those organizations by acting as a role model for integrity.

Julia Vogel

Julia is an amazing peer in the technology / VC space. She has a PhD in computer science and has worked in various senior roles bridging business/technology – very hands-on and result oriented. She is a true inspiration to junior (female) tech people.

Julia is an inspiration as a tech leader who is always there to help and will push the best solution successfully in “political” organizations. She can be a great role model for any female STEM professional.

Julia could have been the female entrepreneur role model people are looking for when starting out their careers. Back then, you mostly saw male company founders, investors and entrepreneurs. This is still true today but changing slowly but surely.

Prisca Quadroni

Prisca is a mother of two young children and an accomplished lawyer in Switzerland. Her work is crucial and needs to create a better, and safe technocratic society in Switzerland.

Apart from her work, Prisca is a very open-minded person, with a huge thrive and willingness to help. If there is an open task, she is the first to raise her hand. If there is a problem, she is the first to address it. She is direct, you always now where you are at, no sweet talking, no backstabbing. She went above and beyond for her commitment to Women in AI.

Prisca is motivated, extremely professional, and smart. She is a great public speaker and a role model for future generations to come.

Prisca has founded a start-up as a legal & tech consultant; this means they consult companies on how to adhere to the legal standards required in the home country or in the EU or countries who want to collaborate with the EU. Why is this crucially important? A large number of companies harm other people or users, for instance, gender discrimination in health care, recruiting, or loans. Hundreds of ethical voluntary guidelines have flooded the market since then. Adherence is completely voluntary with no liability and accountability for those doing harm. With the upcoming EU AI Act, the first regulatory framework for regulating artificial intelligence, there is probably nothing more important now, than first, to understand these laws, second to make them transparent to all tech companies, and last, to protect those who get hurt. Prisca has chosen to work in a field of utmost importance, which is too often neglected by companies due to a lack of knowledge and willingness. Her work is crucial and needs to create a better, and safe technocratic society in Switzerland.

There are three main reasons why I believe Prisca would deserve this award.
1. As an appreciation for her work, and all the things she has done beyond expectations. Extremely professional, yet very humane.
2. On the other hand, her startup and what she is doing is crucially important work for our society.
3. She needs to have visibility and give the world, especially women the opportunity to see her shine – she is an inspirational role model.

Sanjana Rao

Dr. Sanjana Rao is extremely passionate about making women’s health accessible to all. She has a strong entrepreneurial spirit while at the same time being driven by the social cause. With a background (Ph.D. and Post Doc) in Biological Sciences, she brings to the table her scientific and research expertise in developing the business which has the main goal of making health information and solutions accessible to women. Her enthusiasm to work in this area shows in her willingness and openness to learn things along the way, like social media, product development, marketing and sales. She has great networking skills which is important as a founder. She makes sure to stay updated with the latest information in this area to be able to stay a step ahead in the field. Finally, she is extremely caring, sensitive, and empathetic to fellow co-workers as well as clients’ needs which is paying off in developing Miyara as a company and business.

Miyara is a start-up that is a preventive health and wellness platform for women. The first focus of Miyara is women in midlife. Similar to hormonal changes affecting women with fertility, pregnancy and postpartum, during midlife (prior and post-menopause), the drastic drop in some hormones causes major changes. Till the body can adapt to these changes, there are 34+ symptoms that can affect them at varying degrees. Additionally, how health and lifestyle are maintained through this stage can bear a lasting effect on aging health. Unfortunately, though they may experience some symptoms, they are not completely informed about how to manage them and lead healthy, productive lives through them.

Miyara provides a one-stop solution to these women from being a guide for these women to be able to understand their bodies (including mental health) and their symptoms to provide solutions in the form of services and products. Apart from working directly with women, Miyara works with corporates to provide awareness, sensitization and preventive health and lifestyle change solutions to help women thrive in their careers and help companies retain these women.

Dr. Sanjana Rao has been determined, motivated and exemplary in working towards building Miyara. The team had to pivot multiple times to reach where they are today in their focus and now they are delivering immense value to the customers due to her hard work. Working in a bootstrapped startup and being a founder has put immense pressure and sacrifice to build this social enterprise. Sanjana’s motivation has been the driver of this.

This award will help her get the due recognition with which she can be extra motivated to continue with the work despite the ups and downs of being a startup founder. This will also help motivate more women to take this step towards building social enterprises and knowing they can succeed. It will additionally help Miyara get recognition in turn helping Dr. Sanjana in her work.

Karina Mereuta

Karina is one of the co-founders of an ed-tech startup that specializes in creating learning programs in the sustainability area. The first program, Women back To Work – Skill Set Sustainability Careers, was an opportunity to tackle a societal problem in Switzerland as mothers or women expats have difficulties finding a job here. Covering the S of the ESG as a professional and believe that SMEs and entrepreneurial organizations need a 360 degrees approach to understand and implement sustainability, Karina co-founded Fructify Network, a platform on a mission to support companies and professionals to pivot to business as a force of good.

It is a women-led non-profit on a mission to empower people on their sustainability journey with chewable information, to scale the impact. Their Knowledge Hub will bring bite-size information about sustainability, FROM people FOR people. Everyone will finally understand what sustainability is and how they can make a difference. They are developing a sustainability education tech platform that is aligned with the Hidden Figures Awards values and eligibility.

Karina is an outstanding professional in sustainability and a career changer, continuously evolving and learning with the team. She shows flexibility and an out-of-the-box approach in terms of creativity and team building and she is a great colleague to work with. In a very short amount of time, Karina has successfully developed relationships with partners, stakeholders, suppliers and other important actors in the sustainability ecosystem. A lot of successes in this organization are because of Karina’s continued commitment to inspiring and motivating all of us through good or difficult personal times. Her community and Fructify Network contributions make her a one-of-a-kind candidate for the award.

Nour el Houda Bourbia

“Houda is a dedicated and motivating person who has encouraged me to achieve goals that I did not think I could achieve. She built me up when I didn’t believe in myself. She has given me new opportunities and introduced me to people who can help me with my goals. She believed in me when even though I did not believe in myself. She encouraged and challenged me at a time when I was trying to find myself and always kept me aware of what I could achieve in life. I could always rely on Houda. She always made time for me and listened to me and made sure I kept progressing. She voluntarily took me under her wing as her coachee and has been a strong role model for me over the last few years.

She and her sister also put this quality into practice in their NGO “Backpack2School”. They support teachers in their training so that they can teach students from all backgrounds in the best possible way. In a world where a traditional classroom is becoming more and more diverse, they have seen the importance of this aspect. As a child of migrants, I know how important it is that teachers know and understand the needs of all students. For me, Houda is not only a role model as a woman in STEM, but also as a human being in life.”

Nesrin and Houda Bourbia were born in Algeria and migrated to Switzerland at the age of eight. They experienced integration into a new society firsthand and understand the importance of inclusive classrooms. In 2018 they founded backpack2school to realize a program that aims to prepare the teachers of tomorrow for the increasingly multicultural classroom. The founders want every single child to have the opportunity to thrive in the
classroom, irrespective of their background.”

In my eyes, Houda is not aware of how much she does for society as a whole. She puts a lot of heart and soul into Backpack2School which shows a lot of grace. In addition, Houda always wants others to shine and feel great about their own achievements. It is about time that she shines and that she feels good about everything she achieved so far. An award would finally give her the recognition she deserves.

Susanne König

Susanne has more than 13 years in web design & development, online and email marketing, and other digital things. Her curiosity and strive to make a difference led her to join Powercoders 3 years ago. She solidified the IT curriculum and has continuously further developed the learning offers & experience to make sure the candidates are best prepared for an IT career. She’s been doing this job with all her heart (and continued to freelance on the side). Currently, she’s taking a very well-deserved sabbatical.

Powercoders is a work integration program for refugees and migrants. The main program is a 3-month training followed by a 6-12 month internship. The ultimate goal of the Powercoders program is the permanent placement of trained refugees and migrants in IT companies and IT departments in Switzerland.

Susanne has dedicated all her heart to supporting the Powercoders candidates in being ready for an IT career. She has continuously improved the curriculum and learning design over time. This includes the focus tracks she introduced, collaborations with various organizations (such as the Swiss Testing Board), and the Connecting Program (for the candidates who don’t find a follow-up solution immediately). She is very talented, has very broad technical skills, and is a wonderful learning facilitator.

Susanne is not aware of this nomination. This would be a very nice recognition of her work vis-à-vis the countless hours and efforts she has put into this role.

Nominate a woman, who started her own business in any of the STEM related industries, helped to increase diversity in STEM or has been a crucial part of an innovative solution.

Nominate a woman, who has made a tremendous contribution for a non-profit organisation within or supporting the STEM area or has had a great impact as a volunteer.