Innov8rs Zurich

Claudia Bienentreu, Head of Open Innovation at AXA Switzerland and Ivan Brustlein, CEO and founder of Swibeco, will share their leanings on how a collaboration between corporates and startups can work out. They will talk about the reason why collaboration makes sense, how they made it work, what they have achieved over the years and what the challenges have been and still are.

Claudia Bienentreu is heading the innovation team "AXAnauten" at AXA Switzerland. Her mission is to enable collaborations between AXA and external innovation partners like startups and corporations to develop open innovation initiatives and unlock new business opportunities. She has a strong background in strategic marketing and communications and has been working in the financial services industry in Switzerland and Germany in the past 20 years. She is passionate about understanding customer needs, technology trends, developing innovative business models and connecting people and ideas.

Ivan Brustlein is a Swiss citizen, married and father of two children. He immediately entered the world of entrepreneurship and business development after his Master's degree in Law at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Straight after his studies, Ivan launched his first start-up in 2008. He then worked at Altran (leader in technology consulting) as a Manager for 5 years before launching his second start-up, Swibeco in 2015. Swibeco has 40+ employees and 4’000+ B2B clients in Switzerland.