CSEM Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

CSEM, the Swiss technology innovation center, has announced that Sara Girardi (45) will be its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), succeeding André Laville, who will step down next year. The handover will take place after a transition period that will end with the close of the financial year in March 2024. As the incoming CFO, Girardi will oversee all financial matters and lead the Services Business Unit, which encompasses Finance & Controlling, Security, and Infrastructure. She will ensure the optimal use of financial resources and provide guidance and support for the creation and development of startups, a key aspect of CSEM’s mission to transfer innovative technologies to Industry. Girardi will report directly to CSEM’s CEO Alexandre Pauchard.

Sara Girardi has a solid background in finance, having worked as Finance Director for Otis SA, Fribourg, where she was in charge of all economic activities. She started her professional career in 2005, as an external auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers SA in Geneva. She also worked for STMicroelectronics N.V. and Oriflame Cosmetics SA. She holds a degree in economic and social sciences from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and a Swiss federal diploma as a certified accountant from the Académie Suisse d’expertise comptable in Lausanne. She has been involved in voluntary work in Honduras since 2008.

CEO Alexandre Pauchard, comments on the new addition: "Sara is an innovative, analytical, and strategyoriented expert with over 18 years of experience in the finance industry and will join us as we continue CSEM's path to success. We are delighted to have found such a competent successor for André, who has done an outstanding job over the last 27 years and will start his wellearned retirement in the summer of 2024. André has played a decisive role in developing CSEM into an internationally recognized and financially stable center of innovation. We would like to thank him for all his hard work."

"I'm looking forward to the new challenge," explains Sara Girardi. "The position as CFO at CSEM will open up new horizons and I'm looking forward to tackling the challenges ahead with the current teams. For me, being able to shape the company's strategy and work together with a large number of SMEs and start-ups in a wide range of markets was a deciding factor. In addition, I have a really strong interest in technology, and at CSEM, I'll be virtually at the source of innovation," the 45-year-old explains.