Professor Dr. Christoph H. Wecht is a Partner at BGW AG and member of the board of directors of BMI Lab AG. He is also a Professor of Management at New Design University in St. Pölten. He holds a lectureship in technology management at the University of St. Gallen and teaches at its Executive School as well as at the Vienna University of Technology. Prof. Wecht is a consultant, coach and lecturer who publishes practical and scientific journal and book contributions. Previously, he headed the Competence Center for Open Innovation at the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen. After completing his mechanical engineering studies, he worked in Austria, Germany and the USA, and his responsibilities included the Department of Knowledge Management and Innovation in the tire business of Continental AG.

Dr. Raphael Boemelburg completed his master’s degree in psychology and then his PhD in business innovation (summa cum laude). Raphael has gained international work experience in Germany, USA, Switzerland and Holland. He is currently an International Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Applied Data Science & Relational Analytics at the University of St. Gallen (HSG).
In addition to his work for the HSG, Dr. Boemelburg is a coauthor of the St. Gallen Innovation Culture Navigator (Hanser Verlag) and leads the Collaboration Analytics division at BGW AG, enabling companies to manage the human side of their transformation in a data-driven way.

Dr. Kilian Schmück earned his PhD at the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen in platform economics, distributed ledger technologies and decentralized platforms. Kilian led the St. Gallen Blockchain Roundtable (www.blockchain-roundtable.ch) and the associated initiatives, which address the decentralization and democratization of the platform economy, as well as the corresponding incentive mechanisms. Dr. Schmück holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University. Previously, he has been engaged in digital business models at the Volkswagen Group as well as at the BMI Lab.

Since his Master’s degree at the University of St. Gallen in Business Innovation, Valentin has been supporting the BGW AG team as a consultant. Besides his bachelor studies at the University of St. Gallen he was involved in different associations like START Global or the HSG Ball. Valentin Ernst gained experience in an international trading company in the area of financial controlling and trading. He is particularly interested in working on innovative business models. With his analytical skills, his solution-oriented approach and his previous professional experience, he is particularly committed to entrepreneurial thinking, decision-making and action.

Selina Zindel joined BGW AG in July 2023 as an executive assistant.

After her commercial training at the Cantonal Tax Office St. Gallen, Selina worked as an assistant in the AABS department of EY St. Gallen. Steueramt St. Gallen, Selina worked as an assistant in the AABS department of EY St. Gallen. She then switched to childcare and completed her abbreviated training as a childcare specialist in 2011. During her graduation, Selina built up the Finkä-Zimmer daycare center in Neukirch-Egnach TG and led the institution as operational manager for about 12 years.

Dr. Ute-Christine Konopka is a Senior Manager in Intellectual Property. Leading positions in the patent and trademark field in industry and in a patent law firm allow her to assess challenges in the field of intellectual property from “two” sides. Owing to her many years of experience in the establishment and management of the industrial patent department / patent coordination of an international food company, Dr. Konopka has acquired a sound knowledge of intellectual property rights and contracts. She built up the intellectual property department of the company and headed it for nine years. Subsequently, she headed a Zurich law firm for four years. Her professional interests include employee training in patent and contract law, the development of company-related patent strategies, in-house management training, the establishment of patent departments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), intellectual property coaching for SMEs and startups as well as lecturing at universities, including universities of applied sciences in patent and contract law in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Shaun West obtained a PhD from Imperial College in London and worked for over 25 years in several businesses related to industrial services. He started his industrial career with AEA Technology before moving to National Power, where he developed and sold services to external businesses. After studying at HEC (Paris) for an MBA, he moved to GE Energy Services, modeling and negotiating long-term service agreements. At Sulzer, he drafted the strategy that led to the service division tripling in size over ten years and executed part of the strategy by acquiring a 220M CHF service business. Now at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, he is the Professor of Product-Service System Innovation. He focuses his research on supporting industrial firms to develop and deliver new services and service-friendly business models. He is a member of the advisory board for the ASAP Service Management Forum and a member of the Swiss Alliance of Data-Intensives Services. He lives close to Zurich with his wife and two children. He climbs, skis and runs. Check out his publications, clicking here.

Annabell Pehlivan is a Lecturer in business modeling at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein (Institute for Cross-Border Restructuring). She advises companies and managers on all topics related to innovation and idea management and the related disciplines such as agile project management and creativity. In recent years, she has specialized in business model development and innovation coaching. As a coauthor for the Corona Deep-Dive initiative “Learning from the Crisis,” she was able to discuss the current needs and lessons learned in the field of innovation management with many innovation managers and companies around Austria and developed innovative “turnaround innovation” methods and concepts for the companies. Furthermore, she has been assigned by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce to be the project manager of the implementation of the Vorarlberg “Innovation Hub,” and she develops programs for small and medium-sized enterprises around the topic of transformation.
She studied “Product Marketing and Project Management” at the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, on the Campus of the Austrian Marketing University, as well as specialized in strategic innovation management in her master’s degree.