The consulting and IT service provider adesso Switzerland is strengthening its management team with Syrian Hadad as its new Chief Technology Officer. The technology expert brings over 20 years of experience in the areas of architecture, platform development and digital transformation.

From the canton of Aargau to adesso

Syrian Hadad most recently worked at the Canton of Aargau as CTO and Head of Technology and Solution Development. There, he was responsible for central cloud, architecture and AI initiatives and managed around 40 engineers in various teams. He also managed cross-divisional transformation projects. In 2023, the Canton of Aargau team was honored with the Digital Economy Award.

The new CTO holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the FHNW and a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology. He also works as a lecturer, including at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, and is on the board of directors of an SME in Aargau.

Focus on innovation and delivery

«I am very much looking forward to my new challenge at adesso Switzerland. My goal is to consistently translate innovation and technology into marketable, scalable offerings, to shorten the time-to-value for our customers, to further develop delivery together with the teams in a targeted manner and to make adesso even more visible as a leading technology partner in the Swiss market,» comments Syrian Hadad on his new role.

CEO Michaela Gasser adds: «With Syrian Hadad as our new CTO, we are gaining a strong leader with strong technology and implementation skills. Syrian combines leadership with strategic thinking and operational delivery experience and brings extensive expertise in IT architecture, platforms, cloud and AI.»

adesso was founded in Dortmund in 1997 and currently employs over 10,400 people in the adesso Group. As a national company, adesso Switzerland focuses on consulting and individual software development for the core business processes of companies and public administrations. Its most important customers include SBB, Swisscom, Swiss Post, PostFinance, the Swiss Confederation, Roche, Helsana, Swiss Life and Mobiliar.

More information: www.adesso.ch

Bernhard Kletzmair has been the new Managing Director of Mondelez Austria and Switzerland since February 2, 2026. In this role, he is responsible for the business of the two fast-growing markets with well-known brands such as Milka, Philadelphia and Toblerone.

Focus on growth and innovation

«In line with our Vision 2030, we will continue to focus on growth in chocolate, cookies and baked snacks in order to become the global market leader in snacking. In doing so, we will focus on our core brands such as Milka, Philadelphia and Toblerone as well as exciting innovations for our consumers,» says Kletzmair.

Comprehensive expertise from international management positions

The qualified international business economist was most recently Managing Director of Heidi Chocolat Niemetz Schwedenbomben in Austria and previously worked as European Head of Sales and Marketing at The Hain Celestial Group. Kletzmair also has many years of management and sales experience from national and international management positions at companies such as Red Bull and Procter & Gamble, where he worked as Sales Director in Switzerland, among others.

Michael Baumgartner, who has been running the business for Mondelez Austria as interim Managing Director for the past few months, will continue to manage the sales agendas as Head of Sales Austria. In the Swiss business unit, Lukas Henle is responsible for sales as National Account Manager. Kletzmair succeeds Anna van Riesen as Managing Director in Switzerland, who announced her departure from the company at the beginning of the year.

«I am looking forward to working with the teams from Austria and Switzerland to further develop our strong favorite brands together with them and thus inspire our consumers,» says Bernhard Kletzmair.

Mondelez International recorded net sales of around 38.5 billion US dollars in 2025 and is a leading snacking provider in over 150 countries. With its «Snacking Made Right» strategy, the company offers consumers the right snack for every occasion.

More information: www.mondelezinternational.com

With the House of AI, the Serviceplan Group is opening up a central component of its AI strategy to small and medium-sized companies for the first time. From March 2026, specialized AI agents will start working on the Sokosumi agent platform, taking on specific marketing tasks as digital «AI coworkers» - from research and project management to operational implementation.

Sokosumi is Serviceplan's self-service platform for standardized AI agents as part of the House of AI - the Serviceplan Group's integrated AI approach that combines AI tools, specialized agents and data-driven services along the entire marketing value chain. As the first offering from the Agentic AI layer of the House of AI, it is aimed specifically at small and medium-sized companies.

AI agents with agency expertise

«Many small and medium-sized companies in Germany are not yet exploiting the potential of AI in marketing. They often lack time or their own resources. With our AI coworkers, we are bringing the power of the House of AI directly to SMEs for the first time - easy to use and backed up with real agency expertise,» says Sebastian Küpers, Managing Partner of Plan.Net Studios.

Unlike generic AI tools or chatbots, the AI coworkers are critically thinking, specialized AI agents with clearly defined roles, quality standards and agency expertise from the Serviceplan Group. The special feature: Collaboration takes place via familiar channels such as email, WhatsApp or in Microsoft 365 environments - no new software, no additional training required, no prior technical knowledge needed and no media disruptions. These AI coworkers are operated in Europe and meet European data protection and compliance requirements.

Hannah and Elena at the start

Hannah and Elena are the first two specialized AI coworkers to start on the Sokosumi platform. As a marketing research partner, Hannah specializes in market, competition and target group analyses. She supports companies in making marketing decisions based on reliable data and accesses premium data sources such as Statista, GWI, dpa or DataForSEO - data that is otherwise not economically accessible for many small and medium-sized companies. Hannah classifies insights, makes contradictions transparent and openly points out when the data is not sufficient to make reliable decisions.

Elena acts as Account Management & Project Partner and specializes in project and task management as well as coordination and quality assurance. She brings structure to marketing projects, prioritizes tasks, makes budgets transparent and organizes all activities, including those of other AI agents, on a central task board. In this way, it ensures that agents, processes and work steps interact smoothly.

Both AI coworkers do not work in isolation, but complement each other in clearly defined roles as a well-coordinated team. Depending on the task at hand, they coordinate other specialized AI coworkers. The aim is to make marketing decisions more reliable and avoid wrong decisions at an early stage - especially in organizations without their own large marketing department.

Marketplace for AI agents

The House of AI consists of four pillars: Insight.AI provides data-based decision-making, Creative.AI enables scalable creation, Activate.AI optimizes campaign activation and Agentic.AI forms the overarching layer in which specialized AI agents take over and orchestrate tasks independently.

Sokosumi was launched in the summer of 2025 as a marketplace for AI agents and offers access not only to Serviceplan Group agents, but also to numerous partners such as Statista, GWI, NMKR and other providers from the marketing environment.

For medium-sized and large companies, the Plan.Net Group also offers customized solutions for the development and integration of AI agents into existing marketing, data and technology landscapes. These individual agentic AI systems are specifically tailored to the requirements of complex organizations and enable the seamless orchestration of data, processes and creative workflows along the entire value chain.

«With the House of AI, we have created an ecosystem that integrates AI into all areas of our work. Our AI coworkers on Sokosumi are the logical next step: we are opening up this system to SMEs and making professional agency services more accessible than ever before through AI agents,» says Florian Haller, CEO Serviceplan Group.

sokosumi.com

The Swiss Venture Club is best known for the Prix SVC, which is regularly awarded to exemplary SMEs in various economic regions of Switzerland. In recent years, the award ceremonies have developed into an important rendezvous for business, politics, society and the media. It all began in 2001, 25 years ago. To mark the anniversary year, we spoke to SVC President Hans Baumgartner.

Mr. Baumgartner, what was the actual «founding moment» of the SVC?

The idea goes back to Hans-Ulrich Müller. I worked with him in the SME business at Credit Suisse in 2001. At that time, however, SMEs had a rather insignificant status at the big banks. SMEs did not appear in the quarterly reports; everything was dominated by the wealth management, asset management and investment banking divisions. Hans-Ulrich Müller in particular was of the opinion that this did not do enough justice to the performance of SMEs. He was aware of the economic importance of SMEs and wanted to recognize particularly exemplary companies. In particular, we wanted to highlight the fact that wealth is created through entrepreneurship and does not simply fall into the lap of an entrepreneur.

And that is still the basic motivation for the SVC's work today?

Yes, absolutely. In the meantime, awareness of SMEs has increased in the political landscape. But it must continue to be cultivated. We must not give up, otherwise this awareness will quickly be forgotten again.

How was the SVC received in the Swiss SME landscape, especially as Credit Suisse, a major bank, played a not insignificant role in its development?

The SVC immediately met with enthusiasm. Many people wanted to join. So we set about creating a viable organization: We founded an association and put together a neutral jury of experts. Everyone got the message out: SMEs form an important part of Switzerland's economic ecosystem. Together with McKinsey, we drew up a list of criteria for evaluating SMEs, and CS generously supported us with its resources, but never gave us any guidelines. We had a free hand.

How were the other sponsors convinced?

Hans-Ulrich Müller's large network proved to be an advantage. It was important for us to find partners who are also strongly anchored in the SME business, not only today but also in the future. Personal access to the decision-makers of these partners was also crucial. This was the only way to convince them of our project.

How difficult is it to find new partners today against the backdrop of increasingly tight sponsorship budgets?

We are very grateful to our long-standing Gold Partners and UBS as our current Presenting Partner. We still have to be able to convince all sponsors that they are using their money in a targeted and benefit-oriented manner. Commitments always need to be carefully considered. But our sponsorship offers are designed in such a way that they can also be individually tailored.

When was the SVC's real breakthrough, for example in terms of membership figures and public perception?

The first Prix SVC award in Bern in 2003 was a milestone, but I would describe 2006 as the real breakthrough year. At that time, CS was celebrating its 150th anniversary. On this occasion, the SVC received significant funding, which enabled us to award a Prix SVC in seven regions. Over 10,000 people took part in these events. This proved to be a huge boost. We subsequently introduced other event formats - some developed well, others were discarded. And more regions are being added all the time: Geneva in 2021 and Aargau Solothurn in 2026. The number of members has increased to 3,800 today, and our social media activities have also enabled us to increase our reach.

How does the SVC manage to position itself as an independent network?

The Board of Directors always makes decisions without vested interests. All Board members are at home in the business world and have an interest in maintaining and promoting the innovative strength of SMEs. The award ceremonies and activities would not be possible without the support of our partners. They make a significant contribution to ensuring that the pride of the finalists and award winners can always take center stage at the events. This encourages other companies to continue and become even better. This is the only way to get on the jury's radar and be talked about.

What were some of your personal success stories?

There are a few, such as the inaugural awarding of the Prix SVC Zurich Economic Area. When I came up with this idea, I was initially told that nobody would be interested and that there were too many events in Zurich anyway. But things turned out differently. We filled the Hallenstadion with 1500 guests, and Zurich's SMEs agreed that they had never had such a good opportunity for networking. The jury days, when we visit all the finalist companies, were and still are impressive. I also have fond memories of the trips to Asia, where we were able to see how well Swiss SMEs have developed in Vietnam or China. Another thing that always makes me happy is to see how committed people are to a company they have nominated.

But there have also been difficult phases in the history of SVC, such as the coronavirus pandemic or the end of Credit Suisse. What was particularly difficult at these times?

Yes, those were turbulent times. Corona was a big challenge. But we only had to postpone the award ceremony for the Prix SVC Espace Mittelland; we were able to hold all the others, albeit with conditions. This was a difficult time for the SVC, which thrives on personal contacts and networks. We were then able to successfully hold the Prix SVC Espace Mittelland 2021 in Bern's Kursaal in 2023. The story with Credit Suisse, which led to the takeover of CS by UBS, also took place in 2023. There was brief uncertainty at SVC about how to proceed, but positive signals were quickly received from UBS to continue CS's involvement. We were then able to conclude a new, long-term agreement in the course of 2024. Today, UBS is the SVC's presenting partner.

As mentioned, the SVC is active in various regions of Switzerland. What does this mean for the management of the network - also as an association?

The characteristics of the regions should always be taken into account. We ensure this through the regional OC presidents, who are very well networked locally. Behind the scenes, the SVC office, headed by Franziska Bürki, pulls the strings. She is also responsible for looking after the members. The juries, with a total of 130 members, are organized regionally. Currently, 500 partners and sponsors are involved with the SVC.

How is it possible to make the «local color» of the respective regions visible at the award ceremonies?

The award ceremonies follow a standardized script. This is important for the quality of the events and the reputation of the award. However, there are of course regional variations and room for individual input. These are discussed in advance in close cooperation with the office.

A Prix SVC is being awarded for the first time this year for the Aargau Solothurn region. Against what background?

In our view, it makes sense for these cantons to receive their own joint prize. Both cantons together form an economic «heavyweight»: Aargau as the «energy canton» and Solothurn with its many strong SMEs in the precision industry.

How will the 25th anniversary be celebrated? What special activities are planned?

We want to use the anniversary year to raise the SVC's public profile even further. Four award ceremonies will take place this year. In addition, a 25th anniversary celebration will take place in August 2026 at the Annual General Meeting. Together we will look back, but also forward. Appearances by a keynote speaker and top people from the business world are planned.

What are the next goals - qualitatively and quantitatively?

Under the motto «We inspire SMEs», we want to position the SVC as the most important network of entrepreneurs in Switzerland. One goal is also to increase the number of members to over 4000. We want to be a player for entrepreneurs and engage in dialog with them. We will showcase more SME success stories and provide a showcase for the entrepreneurship that is responsible for the prosperity and success of our country.

About the person

Hans Baumgartner has chaired the SVC since 2023. He is the third SVC President after SVC founder Hans-Ulrich Müller and Andreas Gerber. Hans Baumgartner is a Senior Advisor at UBS and previously worked for Credit Suisse for over 30 years. There he held various management positions in the private and corporate client business.

www.svc.swiss