Fathi Derder appointed new Director of the Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI) in Geneva
Niniane Paeffgen • September 2022
After three years of successful implementation, Managing Director Niniane Paeffgen will leave the Foundation out of her own will in November 2022. Her successor is Fathi Derder, former National Councillor and journalist, who has been committed to creating an innovative Switzerland for many years. With the multiparty initiative “Geneva Digital Initiative”, Fathi Derder is committed to strengthening international Geneva in the areas of digitalisation and digital trust.
Geneva, September 13, 2022 – After three successful years of successfully launching, developing and leading the Swiss Digital Initiative Foundation in Geneva, the current Managing Director Niniane Paeffgen will leave the initiative in November 2022. She will take a sabbatical and then pursue new projects. The Swiss Digital Initiative Foundation was established in 2019 following the first “Swiss Global Digital Summit” on ethics and fairness in the digital age, organised under the patronage of Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer and by digitalswitzerland. Two years later, SDI launched the world’s first Digital Trust Label at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
This flagship project aims to raise awareness of digital data management, privacy and artificial intelligence and to disseminate it worldwide from Geneva. Together with the project “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” and “Corporate Digital Responsibility in Practice”, other concrete projects have been developed and implemented with renowned partners, such as HEAD Geneva and IMD Lausanne.
Doris Leuthard, President of the Swiss Digital Initiative and former Federal Councillor on Niniane Paeffgen’s departure: «We thank Niniane warmly for her unwavering commitment to the Foundation and for positioning Switzerland and Geneva in the field of digital ethics and trust. Thanks to her commitment, the Foundation is perfectly positioned for the future.»
Fathi Derder will drive the international positioning of the SDI and the Label
With the operationalisation and awarding of the Label to the digital applications of the first twenty digital trust pioneers, SDI is entering a new phase. The focus is now on developing and scaling the Digital Trust Label internationally. A committee of competent and high-level experts has recently been recruited through an open application process. Under its leadership, the Label is perfectly poised to become an internationally recognised standard for trusted digital applications.
Fathi Derder is an expert at the intersection of politics, business and society. As a journalist, former National Councillor, Director and co-founder of the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, he also has the political sensibility, experience and drive to write the next chapter of the Swiss Digital Initiative.
Doris Leuthard on Fathi Derder’s appointment: «We are proud to have been able to recruit such an eminent, competent and committed personality in the person of Fathi Derder. This confirms the great importance that the SDI has already acquired after a few years.»
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Press Release: Change in SDI Leadership