As a "circle of competence," we work together to create new solutions for the challenges our customers face. Then, we further develop them with the services of our companies. And in doing so, we expand the possibilities of brand-oriented corporate evolution.
René Affolter
Managing Director & Deputy CEO
gateB
Andrea Küpfer
Senior Consultant
Brand Leadership Circle
Marco Wyler
Managing Director
gateB
Thorsten Traber
Creative Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Samir Ganouchi
Managing Director
Studio Victor Hotz
Olaf Gijseman
CEO
gateB
Simon Grand
VR & Head Group Strategy Board
Hotz Group
Bastian Schneider
Chief Business Development Officer
Brand Leadership Circle;
Managing Director
FOCUSNEXT
Fabian Hotz
Owner & Chairman of the Board, Hotz Group
CEO, Brand Leadership Circle
Giulia Bruschi
Director
gateB
Stefan J. Wagner
Head of Transformation & Metrics
Hotz Brand Consultants
Daniel Severin
Design Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Sarah Iskander
Managing Director
gateB USA
Patrick Ensslin
Brand Experience Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Uli Meier
Deputy Managing Director
gateB
Michel Schibler
Manager
BLC Business Lab
Robert Schumacher
Director
gateB
Chris Steinacker
CEO
Hotz Brand Consultants
Kilian Feller
Creative Director
Calydo
Experts
René Affolter
Managing Director & Deputy CEO
gateB
René has been working in enterprise software for over 17 years. For eight of those years, he served as the Head of European Business Development for a provider of license accounting software in London. In August 2014, he joined gateB as Director and since then, he has been responsible for global business development and partnerships with various software vendors. His focus is on smart business processes and intelligent customer engagement solutions, from brand and marketing portals to intelligent content & engagement solutions.
Andrea Küpfer
Senior Consultant
Brand Leadership Circle
Andrea's passion is communication. She has been advising and supporting companies in external and internal communication for many years. In doing so, she combines in-depth knowledge and conceptual skills with practical implementation. Andrea led communication teams in SMEs and multinational companies in various industries. At the BLC, she works as a senior consultant and supports customers and the BLC itself on communication opportunities.
Marco Wyler
Managing Director
gateB
Marco's focus is on consulting and long-term client development. He helps clients towards continuously improved marketing effectiveness, efficiency and automation. He advises brands on how to deal with technology, supporting their introduction of customer-centered orchestration and marketing automation solutions, as well as global marketing portals.
Thorsten Traber
Creative Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Thorsten has extensive experience in brand development, strategic brand management and product and interior design. He has been an integral part of the BLC since 2005. He is Creative Director at Hotz Brand Consultants and at Hieronymus. In fact, Thorsten developed and significantly shaped Hieronymus, a paper and writing culture brand. In 2019, Architectural Digest Germany included him in their list of the 200 most influential designers.
Samir Ganouchi
Managing Director
Studio Victor Hotz
Samir has been working for over 25 years in various capacities and in different BLC companies. With his very broad and multi-layered background of experience and knowledge in management, consulting and design, he is currently a senior consultant at Calydo, where he is a mainstay in the integrated, prudent and flexible support of our clients.
Olaf Gijseman
CEO
gateB
For many years, Olaf has advised companies on strategic issues and supported them in optimizing their marketing and business processes. Fascinated by the possibilities opened up by technological innovations, he built gateB. Today, gateB has a pioneering role in the field of marketing technologies in Switzerland. As CEO, Olaf also guided gateB’s expansion into the U.S. and Singapore.
Simon Grand
VR & Head Group Strategy Board
Hotz Group
Simon is a member of the Board of Directors and Head of the Strategy Board at the Hotz Group. As a strategy designer, knowledgeable entrepreneur and management researcher, he has been conducting strategic dialogues with experienced business owners and executives for more than 20 years. He shares a common goal with them: the continual development and improvement of the organization’s ability to make decisions, act and innovate.
Bastian Schneider
Chief Business Development Officer
Brand Leadership Circle;
Managing Director
FOCUSNEXT
Bastian is an expert in business development. For 20 years, Bastian has been supporting business owners and management teams in strengthening their brands from within. He helps them lead their organizations and their businesses into the future — and has done so in more than 30 industries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He writes passionately about brands and the future and is a sought-after keynote speaker. As Member of the Steering Committee at the BLC, he is responsible for the development of the BLC and new business areas.
Fabian Hotz
Owner & Chairman of the Board, Hotz Group
CEO, Brand Leadership Circle
As early as the 1990s, Fabian pushed for a radical rethink in his father's company, driving the complete reorientation of what was then a print company into an owner-managed group for brand-oriented corporate development. He is the sole owner of the Brand Leadership Circle, which positions itself at the interface between brand, management and technology.
Giulia Bruschi
Director
gateB
Giulia leads the Brand and Corporate Strategy division and is a member of the Executive Board at HBC. She primarily works on strategic consulting engagements that help companies realise the full potential of their brands. Prior to joining Hotz, Giulia was an Engagement Manager at a strategy consultancy for international clients in the financial services, consumer goods and insurance industries. Her work experience includes projects in the areas of go-to-market strategy, brand and product portfolio strategy, product value proposition, employee engagement and organisational development using brand foundations such as purpose and values.
Stefan J. Wagner
Head of Transformation & Metrics
Hotz Brand Consultants
Stefan leitet als Managing Director die Bereiche Transformation und Metrics und ist Mitglied der Geschäftsleitung bei HBC. Seine Hauptaufgabe ist die Beratung von Entscheidungsträgern bei der Definition und Realisierung ihrer Transformationspläne. Mit tiefgreifenden Kenntnissen in Research und Methodik, unterstützt er Unternehmen auch bei der fortschrittlichen Nutzung von Daten, KPIs und Metriken. Zuvor war er als Strategieberater in den Bereichen Financial Services, Versicherung und Technologie tätig. Er hat am King's College London promoviert und die letzten zehn Jahre in UK, Deutschland und den USA gelebt. Seine praktische Erfahrung umfasst Projekte in den Bereichen Growth, M&A, Risk & Compliance, KYC & CLM, Insurance & Broking, Technologiestrategie, Research & Analysis sowie digitales Marketing.
Daniel Severin
Design Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Daniel combines the classic craft of design with strategic questions. He learned his high standards of quality and structure from scratch, honing his skill through an apprenticeship as a prepress operator in Davos and earning his degree in typographic design for visual communication in Zurich. He also worked for various agencies. For many years, Daniel was responsible for the creation and development of multiple brands in a large Swiss corporation. He brings his wealth of experience to Hotz Brand Consultants as an expert at the interface between people and brands, from concept to implementation and impact measurement.
Sarah Iskander
Managing Director
gateB USA
Sarah is the managing director of gateB Consulting, Inc. (USA) and is responsible for the management and development of the implementation and consulting business in the American market. She has years of experience in marketing and consulting for large companies. Sarah knows exactly what drives brands and how they can be strengthened through digitalization.
Patrick Ensslin
Brand Experience Director
Hotz Brand Consultants
Patrick is a native of the BLC. For over 20 years, he has been helping to build brand experiences that move people. In his work as Brand Experience Director, Patrick provides support in the development and communication of brand strategies. He also helps organizations with the creation and realization of compelling — and even surprising — brand experiences. To do so, he draws on a broad pool of experience that he has accumulated in his career as a brand, motion and sound designer, producer, concept developer, copywriter, speaker and managing and creative director.
Uli Meier
Deputy Managing Director
gateB
Uli is a pioneer in the field of omnichannel marketing. For more than a decade, he has been advising companies in a wide variety of industries on the introduction and implementation of digital communication and publication systems. His know-how extends across all areas of digital asset management systems, PIM & e-commerce, web-to-print and brand management, as well as the automation of publications. As a member of the gateB management team, he is responsible for the sale and implementation of digital solutions and the expansion of the growing business.
Michel Schibler
Manager
BLC Business Lab
Michel established and now runs the BLC Business Lab — a space to review the feasibility of corporate and strategic initiatives. Before Michel joined the BLC, he did research on the digitalization of administrations and cities at the University of St. Gallen’s Smart Government Lab. Michel was also the project manager for pop music and digital culture at Migros Culture Percentage. Michel studied philosophy, sociology and management in Basel, Lucerne and St. Gallen.
Robert Schumacher
Director
gateB
Robert is one of Switzerland's leading pioneers in the areas of data-driven marketing and CRM. For over 20 years, he has worked in various direct marketing functions. For six years of those years, he was responsible for Customer Intelligence at SAS Institute Switzerland. Since November 2015, he has been leading gateB’s business development in customer intelligence and engagement. As a lecturer at various universities (including Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts), he shares his knowledge.
Chris Steinacker
CEO
Hotz Brand Consultants
Over the past 15 years, Chris has helped shape successful branding on many fronts. After several years at a brand consulting and communication agency, he studied business administration in Cologne before co-founding a strategic consulting and project management unit in a Swiss Fortune 500 company. As Managing Director of Hotz Brand Consultants, he guides and drives the company's orientation towards brand-driven impact, the uncompromisingly results-oriented use of brands in the context of business strategy.
Kilian Feller
Creative Director
Calydo
Kilian is Creative Director at Calydo and a member of the Executive Board. Results- and quality-oriented designer with over 10 years of experience in graphic, type and motion design as well as in client consulting on a national and international level. Kilian is Creative Director at Calydo and brings his expertise in visual communication, conception, consulting and realisation of holistic solutions. He has been part of the BLC since 2019, before that he had his own design studio and worked for renowned clients and agencies at home and abroad.