Merger of ICTswitzerland and digitalswitzerland
The general meetings of digitalswitzerland and ICTswitzerland have approved the merger. Under the name digitalswitzerland, the new umbrella organisation pools the strengths of 220 members from business, the public sector, non-governmental organisations and associations, as well as research and education.
digitalswitzerland will do even more to promote Switzerland as a leading location for digital research and innovation. In concrete terms, the new umbrella organisation will in particular expand the public dialogue with the Swiss Digitaltage and other channels, become more involved in digital issues at the political level, for example for the rapid introduction of the E-ID, MINT vocational training (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology), and the development of the digital economy. and promote the startup ecosystem in Switzerland.
Following the signing in July of the declaration of intent to merge the umbrella association ICTswitzerland and the location initiative digitalswitzerland, the members of both organisations have now also confirmed the merger project at their respective association meetings. As a location initiative, digitalswitzerland has so far been committed to establishing Switzerland as the leading international digital innovation hub. ICTswitzerland represented selected and overarching topics of digitisation to society, politics and business and placed a special focus on cybersecurity and the education and training of ICT professionals.
Focus on cybersecurity as well as on education and training
The umbrella organisation aims to deepen selected skills and topics with which Switzerland can be credibly positioned and strengthened as a leading digital research and innovation location. Among other things, the focus is on developing and implementing measures to increase the number of STEM specialists trained at all levels of the education system, with the aim of meeting the demand for skilled workers. The expansion of the digital ecosystem is also to be advanced through cross-sector collaboration in order to continuously enable innovation. In addition, there will be a greater commitment to increasing the cyber resilience of the state, the economy and society and to ensuring compliance with ethical standards in the digital world. Public dialogue with the Swiss population is to be intensified thanks to the Swiss Digitaltage events held throughout the country. The startup ecosystem will also continue to be promoted so that young entrepreneurs receive optimal support in terms of growth and scaling. In the political arena, the digital topics and concerns of digitalswitzerland members will be championed. One initial joint commitment is the rapid introduction of the state-recognised and certified e-ID.
Major merger as of 1 October
The merger was decided on 1 October and should be completed by the end of 2020. In future, the umbrella organisation will have three offices in Lausanne, Bern and Zurich. Nicolas Bürer will assume overall responsibility for digitalswitzerland. Andreas W. Kaelin is deputy managing director and head of the Bern site. He is responsible for the political representation of interests as well as for the dossiers cybersecurity and ICT vocational training. Sébastien Kulling will continue to head the Lausanne site as deputy managing director. He is responsible for all activities and members in Suisse Romande.
With the merger, the two thrusts will be bundled and the two organisations will merge under the name digitalswitzerland to form the most relevant umbrella organisation in digital Switzerland with a new membership of 220. The merger will enable holistic networking in the digital ecosystem of all industries and public administration. This will strengthen Switzerland's positioning as a digital and innovation location both at home and abroad. Ivo Furrer will remain President of digitalswitzerland, and the current ICTswitzerland President, National Councillor Marcel Dobler, will become Vice President.
With the merger, the association board will consist of the following members:
Ivo Furrer (Chairman) - Helvetia & Julius Baer, Marcel Dobler (Vice Chairman) - National Council, Yvonne Bettkober - AWS, Jochen Decker - SBB, Wolfgang Eger - Swiss Post, Thomas Flatt - SwissICT, Franz Grüter - National Council, Peter Grütter - Asut, Marco Huwiler - Accenture, René Hüsler - HSLU, Marianne Janik - Microsoft, Gabriela Keller - Ergon, Christian Keller - IBM, Andreas Knöpfli - Swico, Joël Mesot, ETH Zurich, Stefan Metzger - Cognizant, Cédric Moret - Elca, Christophe Nicolas - Kudelski, Marcel Stalder - Chain IQ, Martin Vetterli - EPFL, Marc Walder - Ringier, Patrick Warnking - Google, Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler - Swisscom, Anja Wyden Guelpa - civicLab.
