Secrets of successful Women in Tech

Location: ETH Zurich, Universitätsstrasse 2, Room LFW B 1

Agenda

• 10min Intro by Women in Tech and ETH AI center
• 20min Keynote by Esther van Laarhoven-Smits (Associate Partner at EY)
• 20min Keynote by Stacia Carr (VP Size & Fit at Zalando SE)
• 40min Panel Discussion with:
• Anela Koldzic (Weiss) - Partner at EY
• Stacia Carr - VP Size & Fit at Zalando SE

• Giorgia Ramponi - Postdoc at ETH AI Center

Topics

• Choosing the right environment: Identifying female-friendly employers
• Female Leadership in male-dominated environments (disrupting the boys club)
• Finding your mentors
• Work-life balance

About Esther van Laarhoven-Smits, Associate Partner at EY

Esther has 13 years plus experience in Data & Analytics, supporting organizations across sectors. She started to lead the Dutch Analytics team 6 years ago and moved to EY Switzerland to lead and grow the D&A team there in 2021.

Esther and her team focus on different aspects of Data Analytics, which can range from designing a D&A operating model and process mining to Data Science.

About Anela Koldzic (Weiss), Partner at EY

Anela Weiss is Transformation Lead with a focus on Finance and Operations functions in banking and insurance. She also leads the Swiss Intelligent Automation practice. Anela has gained extensive experience over the last 15 years working within the financial services industry, advising clients on how to transform their business and operating model, improve processes, increase efficiency, apply latest technology and make the change happen.

Anela holds a diploma in Business Administration from University of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and is a member of the Swiss Finance Institute Alumni Association, Women’s International Networking and Women’s Business network.

About Stacia Carr, VP Size & Fit at Zalando SE

Stacia Carr is an American technology executive and startup co-founder. Throughout her career she's led engineering teams developing consumer internet products and services with an emphasis on digital media distribution including SoundCloud, Sony, Listen.com, CMJ and Kink.com. In 2013 she successfully negotiated the acquisition of the boutique consulting company she was running to Indiegogo. In 2014, she relocated from the US to Madrid, Spain, as the technical cofounder of Vidnex, a real-time video platform for the health and fitness industry.

Stacia is currently Vice President Size & Fit at Zalando. Since she joined the company in 2016, she has been leading cross functional (applied science, engineering, product and business) teams developing data driven innovations to tackle the size and fit challenge for Zalando's customers and brand partners.

About Giorgia Ramponi, ETH AI Center

Giorgia Ramponi is a postdoctoral researcher at ETH AI Center and Google Brain. Her research interests lie in Machine Learning and mathematical modeling with a focus on Reinforcement Learning and Multi-Agent learning.

She started to do research in Computer Science during her BSc, working on Networking and Telecommunications, and publishing her work at one of the top conferences in this field. Then, she worked on Social Network Analysis and Natural Language Processing with Marco Brambilla and Stefano Ceri, having the possibility to share her works at top international conferences. In 2018, she spent two months at Havard University working on Generative Adversarial Networks for time-series data. In June 2021 she completed her Ph.D. in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano (with honors) advised by Marcello Restelli, working on (Inverse) Reinforcement Learning and Multi-Agent Learning.