Didier holds a Bachelor of Geography from the University of Lausanne and have worked across several media (printed press, Television Suisse Romande, internet site of 20minutes.ch) and communication channels. He also collaborate with magazines dedicated to outdoor sports and cycling.

With his background in geography, he is very interested in mobility. It is a key topic and a sector in deep transformation which he follows closely as a journalist and as a user of public transport and all forms of mobility.

Oscar Cherbuin graduated from EPFL as a civil engineer specialised in transport. He managed transport related projects for the Lausanne city and the Morges region, in particular as a member of the MBC Company (Transports de la région Morges-Bière-Cossonay). Subsquently Oscar Cherbuin took the helm at the Association for the Region of Cossonay-Aubonne-Morges.

This regional association covers 62 communes, with a total population in excess of 80,000 inhabitants, within the territory of the Morges district. It sponsors a number of projects in tourism, urban planning, land management and in particular mobility. One of the mobility undertakings is an innovative project which focus on new forms of management for the Park and Ride (P+R) facilities. The objectives are to improve the fluidity of traffic and offer to commuters a compelling alternative to driving.

Prith David holds an Executive MBA in Mechanical Engineering. Over the years, he worked for firms such as Leica Geosystems, Alstom, Roche Diagnostics etc.

Prith is currently working on the design and development of a universal wireless charging device for e-bikes, cargo e-trikes and similar vehicles. The charging device can automatically charge Li-ion batteries with different voltage and current levels, irrespective of the vehicle or brand.

Originally trained in materials engineering, Didier works as a consultant and project manager. Passionate about winter sports, Didier chose to focus his professional activities on energy and sustainability from 2009 onwards. He started working as an independant consultant in 2010 in Bagnes in Valais when he launched two major projects in Verbier linked to energy efficiency in the built environment and electrical mobility. Over the last six years, Didier has undertaken various consulting assignments, in particular the development of the EcoVillage Forum. He started specialising in energy transition, electrical mobility and more broadly speaking the digital revolution in the alpine region. Didier believes these are key levers to foster sustainability and the development of smart cities. Didier is now in charge of the organisation of a key event in French speaking Switzerland on behalf of Innobridge: the’ Smart City Day’.

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Cindy Freudenthaler graduated from the Lausanne University (UNIL) with a BA in Geography in 2008 and completed her education with two Certificates of Advanced Studies in mobility planning and public planning obtained at the HES-SO Valais-Wallis. She worked for five years on bike mobility for the city of Lausanne. In 2016, she joined the Büro für Mobilität AG, a consulting firm specialised in mobility, which enables her to diversify her activities and broaden her horizon. She manages projects in sustainable mobility and develops mobility training offers.

After obtaining technical qualification (‘diplôme d’ingénieur ETS’) in mechanical sciences, Alexandre Gabard started working in a series of industries : warehousing of loading pallets, electrical motors and high voltage insulators. He then shifted to research and became head of mechanics for the particle accelerator magnets at the Paul Scherrer Institute at Villigen (Aargau Canton).

Mr Gabard has driven electrical cars since 2012. In 2015 he co-founded e-Lime SARL, a consulting firm which advises SMEs on the electrification of their fleet and the integration of their electrical fleet with new energy generation and energy storage.

Alexandre Gabard will represent BMW (Suisse) SA at the VMIF 2017.

Martin Gonzenbach holds a MSc in physics from EPFL and spent over a decade on the digital side of the corporate world. In 2015 he joined TRACE, the EPFL Transportation Center, where he develops connections between scientific research and industrial or public partners. With the EPFL Vice-Presidency for Innovation and the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Martin is actively promoting innovation and technology transfer.

Martin (44) was an early adopter of car sharing and he commutes with multi-modal and active travel practices. In love with mountains, he's the father of two kids and lives in the city of Geneva.

With a sales background, Alain Gretz worked for Swiss Post in business sales and marketing. He completed his early training with federal degrees and diplomas in management, leadership and marketing. He was the linchpin of the ‘Sion Roule’ project and president of ‘Valais Roule’. Since 2003 Alain Gretz has been the head of CarPostal in Valais Romand.

Virginie Kauffmann trained as a geographer and holds a Master’s Degree in sustainable urban planning. She graduated from the universities of Neuchatel and Lausanne between 1995 and 2005. She worked for five years for a national association involved in transport policy and during that time she had the opportunity to follow key transport projects for the Swiss Federation. As she wanted to have a more operational role, she became project director for the Büro für Mobilität AG, a Berne based consulting firm specialised in sustainable mobility. For the last nine years she has led a diversity of projects for public and private clients (planning, strategic advice, management of participatory processes, development of offers of services and training). Over the last five years she has also led the activities of the Büro für Mobilität AG in French speaking Switzerland.

Tristan Larpin graduated in 2012 from the Department of Geosciences and Environment from the University of Lausanne with a Master's degree in Urban Studies. He started working for Team+, a consulting firm specialised in mobility, based in Bulle, and then joined the BISA consulting firm (specialised in planning and land management) based in Sierre. Since September 2015, Tristan Larpin has been working as urban planner for the Commune de Bagnes.

Michaël Michellod has been sales manager BMW for the URFER Group since 2012. Since 2013, he has been more specifically responsible for BMW i and all issues related to e-Mobility.

After obtaining a Swiss ‘maturité commerciale’ in Bienne (German speaking) he studied towards a business management diploma, in parallel with his professional activities, and obtained his diploma in 2016.

Patrice Moret has been the head of primary schools in Martigny since 2016. (1500 pupils and circa 200 staff). After a first training as a cabinet maker, I graduated from the Ecole Normale du Valais as a teacher in 1996.

He has been teaching in primary schools for more than 20 years and undertook various supplementary studies in education sciences and in the coaching of trainees from the Haute Ecole Pédagogique du Valais (HEPVS).

At the personal level, he is very interested in all aspects of sustainable development, energy efficiency and soft mobility. These themes are discussed with the school pupils and it is very useful to frame these discussion with tangible examples.

Sébastien Munafò, holds a geography degree from the University of Neuchâtel and a science doctorate from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He is a specialist in mobility, transport and planning. He started working, inter alia, for the Mobility Observatory of the Geneva University (Observatoire Universitaire de la Mobilité de l'Université de Genève - OUM) where he led numerous studies on these themes in French speaking Switzerland. In 2011, he joined the Laboratory for Urban Sociology of EPFL where he conducted his doctoral thesis on the linkage between types of living environments and mobility for leisure. In 2016, he joined 6-t, a consulting firm specialised in the analysis of mobility behaviours, ways of living and the organisation of territories. He now leads the Swiss subsidiary of 6-t which is based in Geneva.

After studying electronics in Geneva, Olivier worked for ten years for international telecom groups for the sales and development of products and services in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In 2005 he obtained an Executive MBA in entrepreneurship from EPFL (MoT) and created his own consulting company (Ageko Sàrl). He focused on strategic advice to SMEs and larger companies in French Speaking Switzerland. Olivier also holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Sustainable Development and a PMP Certificate for project management. Since 2011 he has initiated several electrical mobility projects, including the Verbier eMotion project. He has become a recognised expert in sustainable development and electrical mobility. He advises companies, operators, electricity suppliers and institutions in their thinking towards the development of electrical mobility. In 2017, he joined the consulting firm Innobridge SA as Senior Consultant.

Vincent has a sales background and holds a Federal Diploma in Management and Leadership, a Diploma in Business Economics and a Master in Advanced Studies in General Management from Rochester-Bern (collaboration between the Bern University and the Simon Business School of the University of Rochester, USA).

Vincent worked for the CFF from 1999 to 2016 in sales, sales management and as head of key account management. In 2017 Vincent joined TMR SA as Head of the Client Services Department.

Jean-Pierre Römer is responsible for the distribution of the Volvo buses in Switzerland. He started his career with an apprenticeship in heavy vehicles engineering. After a ‘maîtrise fédérale’ (federal diploma), he trained in business management and held various senior positions with brand agents and importers in training, client service, sales and overall management. He joined the Volvo Group and its bus department in 2005. Jean-Pierre has a keen interest in public transport and is convinced that this is promising sector against the backdrop of a future in profound transformation.

After studies in literature and a bachelor degree from the University of Fribourg, Eloi Rossier taught at the Maya-Joie school in la Fouly, where he was principal from 1990 to 2012. With a diploma in Sports Management from the IDEHAP and Swiss Olympic, he became President of Ski Valais and member of the board of Swiss Ski. He also chaired the Raiffeisen branch of Bagnes-Vollèges. The Bagnes population elected him as President of the Commune de Bagnes in October 2012 and again in October 2016 for a second mandate. Born in 1953, he is married with three children, and lives in le Châble.

Isabelle Schirmer is the founder of the Verbier Mobility Investment Forum.

Isabelle is an adviser and investor focused on the environmental sector. She has nearly 30 years of international experience in strategy, corporate development, M&A and investment applied to the natural resources, industry and energy. From 2010 to 2014, Isabelle was investment adviser for a venture capital fund incubated by Hazel Capital. Prior to this, she held senior executive roles with BP Plc and Arjo Wiggins Appleton and she was a senior consultant with London Economics. She started as a project economist with the World Bank, based in Washington DC.

Isabelle holds an MBA from INSEAD (with Distinction) and Master’s degrees from the Paris Institute of Technology (Agro Paris Tech) and the University of Wisconsin in the US.

Isabelle has long held interests in resource efficiency, environmental management and development economics. She was a non-executive director of City Car Club when it was the largest independent car club in the UK.

As a resident of the Commune de Bagnes, Isabelle hopes to stimulate fresh thinking about mobility and help launch innovative projects for the environment and the local community.

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Maria Sokhn is a professor at the HES-SO, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland Valais. She is the head of the Data Semantics Lab (DS Lab) and also VP of the eGov Innovation Center.

Maria Sokhn holds a PhD from Telecom Paris Tech in 2011 in multimedia knowledge management and visualization in collaboration with the CERN. She graduated from the Engineering Faculty of Saint Joseph University, with a Computer and Communication Engineering diploma, and holds a specialized master diploma from Telecom Paris Tech in Multimedia production and creation

Her current research activities interests are the mobility and touristic citizen centric services. She especially focus her work on accessibility for people with disabilities and therefore to reduce inequalities among the population. Her field of research also includes Linked Open Data and she recently participated in an Open Data hackathon in the food field.

She also successfully creates multiple private-public projects sustained by the CTI, the Commission for Technology and Innovation in order to accompany private companies on the path of innovation in their field: webcasting, pharmaceutical, knowledge management...

The Data semantics lab focus on Semantic Computing, Linked Data, Information Extraction, Knowledge Management, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data Visualisation, Business process modelling and Mobile technologies.

The eGov Innovation Center is an e-government competence center that promotes innovation in the public sector

Christian has been working for the Bolloré Group for 31 years and he has a background in accounting. Over the years, he participated in the launch of numerous new activities for the Bolloré Group.

In terms of electrical mobility, he has been responsible for the pilot tests for the Autolib' car sharing service in Paris and he has started and managed the Bluely car sharing service in Lyon. For the last three years he has developed the Bluebus (electric buses, 6m and 12m in length) activity together with Yves Labesse who is also participating in the VMIF.

Henk Verloo is a UAS professor at the School of Health Sciences of HES-SO Valais-Wallis in Sion and teaches at the University Institute for Training and Research in Healthcare ('Institut Universitaire de Formation et Recherche en Soins') of the Lausanne University. He is a scientific consultant with the Valais Hospital and is a specialist clinician with the mobile unit of psycho-geriatrics (EMPAA) of the university psychiatric service for senior patients (SUPAA) of the University Hospital of the Vaud Canton (CHUV). Henk Verloo holds a Master's Degree in hospital sciences, tropical medicine and palliative care and a PhD in nursing sciences focused on the detection and home treatment of delirium. Henk is an expert in psychiatric conditions in older adults, in particular neuro-cognitive and personality disorders.

Martin von Känel supplemented his first training in a professional school (Bern) by executive education training in business engineering and general management. He spent most of his professional career in the railway industry in Switzerland. Martin started with Sintro Electronics AG in Interlaken. From 1995 to 2011 he held technical responsibilities (in particular in supply chain management, maintenance and fleet management) and project management responsibilities for BLS AG and Bombardier Transport. In 2011 Martin joined TMR SA as Technical Director and became General Manager in 2013.

Thierry Chanard heads GEA a planning firm located in Lausanne and specialised in urban planning, land use planning and innovative mobility. He graduated from École Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL) as an architect in 1985.

Thierry Chanard has worked on innovation in mobility for the last 30 years. He is the co-author of "VOLTair", a methodology designed to incorporate the first and last mile journeys into planning studies, interfacing the various mobility tools with the territories under analysis, and to shape them up.

Thierry Chanard designed the Cristal system, a twin-use transport system than can be operated as a semi-public transport (shuttle mode, 2-4 vehicles coupled together) or as an individual system (self service mode, vehicles clustered in stations).

For the last 15 years, Thierry Chanard and the GEA have been involved in European R&D projects (CyberMove, CityMobil, CityMobil2, CityNetMobil, CATS) geared towards the development of automatic or autonomous vehicles and their integration into urban transport systems. Thierry Chanard is a an adviser to symposiums focused on the future of mobility.