Home/People
People & governance
Helvetia is governed by a volunteer Executive Committee and directed by practising scientists. In this founding phase several posts are vacant or carried ad interim — and we list every one of them openly, filled or not.
Executive Committee
Under Swiss association law the general meeting of members is the supreme governing body: it adopts the articles of association, elects the committee and the auditors, and approves the annual report and accounts. Between general meetings the Executive Committee administers the association. These are unpaid, fiduciary roles.
Pedro Faustino
President of the Executive Committee
Co-founder of the institute and its registered authorised signatory. Chairs the Executive Committee, convenes the general meeting, and carries ultimate responsibility for the association’s governance and compliance.
Treasurer
Executive Committee · open position
Custodian of the association’s finances: oversees the annual accounts and budget, presents them to the general meeting, and works with the auditors. We are seeking a volunteer with Swiss non-profit or accounting experience.
Secretary
Executive Committee · open position
Keeper of the institute’s formal record: convenes and minutes committee meetings and the general meeting, maintains the membership register, and safeguards the articles of association and resolutions.
Leadership
Science and operations are directed separately and deliberately. Neither post reports to the other; both report to the Executive Committee.
Dr. Magalí Lingenfelder
Scientific Director
Co-founder of the institute and Principal Investigator of the Lingenfelder Lab. She created and led the Max Planck–EPFL Laboratory for Molecular Nanoscience in Lausanne for over a decade, and received the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for her work on chiral recognition at submolecular resolution. In 2018 the Royal Society of Chemistry included her work in its first “100 Women of Chemistry” collection.
As Scientific Director she is responsible for the institute’s research programme, its scientific standards and the selection of hosted groups. She also carries the Executive Director post ad interim.
Executive Director
Open position
Responsible for the institute’s operations: funding strategy, finance and administration, partnerships, and building out the organisation through the founding phase. The counterpart to the Scientific Director, so that neither science nor operations is run as a sideline of the other.
The post is currently held ad interim by the Scientific Director. Recruiting to it is a priority of the founding phase.
Operations
Two hands-on roles would make the most difference to the institute right now. Both are currently voluntary and part-time, with the explicit intention of becoming funded positions as the institute establishes itself.
The institute’s remaining operational functions — finance and administration, laboratory operations and people — are carried by the Executive Committee and the directors during the founding phase.
Join us
A new institute is built by the people willing to do the unglamorous early work. If one of the open posts matches what you are good at, we would genuinely like to hear from you.
Four posts are open: Executive Director, Treasurer and Secretary on the Executive Committee, and the two operational roles above. Most are voluntary and part-time for now, carried out remotely or from Marly, and we are explicit about intending to fund them as the institute establishes itself.
We are particularly keen to hear from people with experience in Swiss non-profit governance, research administration, institutional fundraising, or science communication.
Scientists: if you lead a group and are looking for an institutional home, the route is different — see hosting a research group.
