Stefanie Zechner, PhD – Founder and Director

Stefanie’s early passion for science and people brought her to Basel where she studied psychology and medicine, and completed a PhD in neuropsychology.

As Clinical Trial Head at Novartis, Stefanie was instrumental in the development and market preparation of the first transdermal patch for Alzheimer’s Disease, Exelon Patch. In this process, she found her second passion: working with professionals and teams and enabling them to perform. After 10 years of rewarding firsthand R&D experience, Stefanie decided to advance medicine through and with people and started her 2nd career as Recruitment Consultant.

Since this move in 2008, Stefanie supported a multitude of pharma, biotech and consumer care clients in their hiring and career decisions, and led national, European and global talent acquisition projects. Her recruitment experience includes the whole value chain from R&D, late-stage development and medical affairs, production, and manufacturing operations, to commercial and sales and at all levels up to C-suite.

In 2020, Stefanie completed a formal coaching training with the NeuroLeadership Institute, certified in the Harrison Assessment and founded Science. People. Business.

Stefanie’s commitment to gender equity and supporting women and men in the creation of strong, diverse teams goes back many years. As Volunteer with the international Healthcare Businesswomen Association (HBA) she acted as President of the Basel Chapter from 2016 to 2018 and contributed to the growth of the European HBA organization. In her current role as Adviser in HBA’s “Ambassador Program” Stefanie works with emerging leaders of corporate partners on a 1-year leadership development program.

As of 2023 Stefanie acts as Expert with Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency.

After many years living in Basel, Stefanie and her family now live on the country side in Basel-Land with beautiful hiking paths. In her free time Stefanie enjoys meeting friends and new people, taking long walks with her dog and singing in a Basel concert choir.