Our Board

The SIETAR Switzerland Board is the strategy-setting and decision-making body between Annual General Meetings. It is composed of elected members of SIETAR Switzerland, led by a President elected at the Annual General Meeting.

The Board seeks to provide good governance and leadership to the Association and its members, according to the bylaws of the Association. It is accountable to the membership and presents its results at the Annual General Meeting.
 
Board members work in a spirit of openness and transparency and, in so doing, demonstrate their adoption of the following core principles of good governance:
  • working effectively both as individuals and as a team;
  • behaving with integrity;
  • ensuring delivery of organizational purpose;
  • exercising effective control;
  • managing the ressources of the association,
  • being open and accountable.
Members interested in occupying a position on the Board should announce themselves to the President to enquire about positions to be filled.
The current incumbents are:

Jillaine Farrar, Co-President

Intercultural is an important part of Jillaine Farrar’s life, both privately and professionally. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she has been teaching intercultural leadership and English for Business to adults in Switzerland and internationally, in both higher-education and corporate settings, for over two decades. Her education, research, and her experiences have contributed to her belief in the importance of facilitating cooperative actions aimed towards intercultural growth, inclusion, and leadership development.

Crossing geographic borders to learn, live, and work has provided many opportunities to embody lived experiences interculturally, both privately and professionally. She earned her master’s from The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and her CAS International Leadership from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts-Business in Switzerland. She is a qualified IDI administrator and holder of the Japan Intercultural Institute’s Brain, Mind and Culture Masterclass certificate.

In addition to the Canadian and Swiss cultures, she has had the privilege to interact with many cultures thanks to her position as Head of the Exchange Program, lecturer in the taught-in-English degree programs, Co-Head MAS International Management and Co-Head CAS Leading Global Teams and Projects at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts-Business. In connection with her university work, Jillaine is also the president of the ICP European University Network.

As a board member of SIETAR Switzerland, she is proud to have co-headed the planning of the successful 2020 congress on inclusion and intercultural topics, which had to be moved online in autumn 2020 in a dispersed format due to the global situation. Jillaine co-heads the Value Recognition for the Profession – Academic Survey Project and a UNESCO Futures of Education Forum, both initiated in 2020. Further, she is the board member responsible for the SIETAR Switzerland peer-reviewed Journal.

Jillaine was elected Vice-President in 2021, and Co-President with Pia Stalder in February 2023.

"Volunteering as a board member for SIETAR Switzerland is an opportunity for me to give back to the intercultural field. SIETAR Switzerland provides a valuable link to practice and research in the areas of intercultural, integration, and international leadership."

Gundhild A. Hoenig, Co-President

Gundhild A. Hoenig is passionate about people, their potential and human issues. Following a successful career as a Human Resources & Organizational Development Professional, she founded her consultancy, with Switzerland as the hub for international services. Her activities focus on :

  • accompanying people and global organizations in transition across cultures and geographical regions, addressing strategic prioritization, and cross-cultural understanding in the professional and humanitarian field,
  • fostering collective cultural intelligence for a positive organization transformation and people development,
  • moving towards trusted collaboration, burnout-free environments and workplace evolution.

 

As a trusted cultural navigator, she makes global (leadership) journeys meaningful. Gundhild has a university background as a lecturer, conference speaker and mentor. Her professional involvement has taken her to diverse cultures and various countries across the globe.

Gundhild was elected Co-President with Jillaine Farrar in February 2024. She is also the board member responsible for the SIETAR Switzerland Mentoring Programme.

“No matter where around the globe – being able to create common reference points and mutual understanding is more than an art, it is a MUST for all of us. Whether we want to sustain a globally successful business, foster intercultural learning, contribute to a peaceful coexistence, or just make friends across cultures and regions. SIETAR as an international organization and its members and affiliates around the world have been contributing for decades now to education, training and research in the intercultural field and making the world culturally more accessible and more peaceful. I am happy and proud to be invited to contribute to SIETAR Switzerland.”

Arnaud Detourbet, Treasurer

Arnaud Detourbet graduated in Finance, Accounting and Economics (Paris-Sceaux University and CNAM) after an initial training at Paris Chamber of Commerce management school. He acquired international financial experience in the controlling department of international groups in an Anglo-Saxon working culture with Hispanic countries (Delta Air Lines, Stanhome, Yves Rocher, Sicli-Chubb, Siemens, Alcatel, Dassault Systèmes). He grew up in Paris, partly living in Geneva and Mallorca then established in Geneva in 2015.

Since 2004, he has been carrying out projects in Transition Finance Management as FP & A Manager or Financial Controller and leading teams and Finance services through transformation following an acquisition, a spin-off, a modification of an ERP or regulatory implementation. Transition management requires a strategic overview and operational activity. Arnaud’s main responsibility was to transform and then hand over a function to a junior manager or a renewed team. In 2012, Arnaud validated his expertise and experience through the Management of Transition Certification at Paris-Dauphine University.

In 2015, he settled in Geneva and dedicated himself to several associations as dual career partner’s integration (IDCN), language exchange groups (CAGI), Wikipedia projects (les sans pagEs), maths tuition to refugees to prepare them for future apprenticeship (Interactions), an umbrella association for volunteers (Genève Bénévolat) and lately riding therapy association (Le Cheval Médiateur).

Joining SIETAR Switzerland was an obvious choice after years of work with different industrial and national cultures. In Transition Management, you invest in mixing past and present working habits to co-create the future organisation. Multicultural environments are highly beneficial for individuals and industry as they provide access to the richness of global studies, research and perspectives, driving innovation which in turn has a positive impact on production.”

Tom Waterhouse, Board Member

Tom Waterhouse is an independent consultant working in the fields of Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion, with a particular focus on equity and diversity in the workplace. He also acts as strategic advisor and project director to a number of start-ups. 

Tom is Co-President of the Board of The Hunger Project, a charity whose mission is to

Prior to becoming independent, Tom spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry in strategic project management, COO and senior HR roles, notably at JPMorgan and the Pictet Group.

He is host of the If I Had Been Born A Girl podcast, which aims to help men better understand the ubiquitous and pervasive nature of sexism and systemic gender discrimination by encouraging them to explore the impact on their own lives of gender stereotyping and male privilege.

Tom grew up in the UK, where he read Modern Languages at Lincoln College, Oxford. He also holds a post-graduate diploma in Leadership from Emeritus. He lived in London, Montpellier, New York and Vienna before settling permanently in Geneva in 2001. He is now the proud holder of both British and Swiss passports and the even prouder father of tri-lingual children.

“For most of my professional life, I believed that because I grew up in one of the world’s most multicultural cities and spent the majority of my career working in international companies and living outside the country of my birth, I understood what diversity and interculturality were. It was only towards the end of my corporate career that I began to dig deeper and begin to appreciate the nuances and subtleties of true intercultural understanding. Ever since I joined, SIETAR Switzerland has been an invaluable source of knowledge for me, as well as enabling me to develop wonderful relationships with both academics and practitioners. To be given the opportunity to contribute to its continued success as a member of the Board is both humbling and gratifying”

Susan Schärli-Lim, Board Member

A proud third culture kid, Susan Schärli-Lim has been a member of SIETAR Switzerland since its inception. She has lived in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland and currently holds four passports. 

Susan has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a Diploma of Education from WE’G in Aarau, Switzerland and a Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations, University of the Pacific & Intercultural Communication Institute, Portland, USA.

Susan currently works at Zurich University of Applied Sciences as Head of International Relations – Institute of Nursing. For almost 15 years her main focus has been the intercultural development of students and staff in projects nationally, as well as EU/Movetia funded projects internationally. She is a member of the International Academy for Intercultural Research and the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence, where she is the co-coordinator of the “Intercultural and Global Competence in Healthcare” workgroup. She is a qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory with an ethnorelative mindset. 

She is also visiting lecturer at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Qingdao University.

Susan is the co-author of a dual language book (English/German) “Intercultural Interactions for Health Professions”. She is also owner of I-LEAD Schärli-Lim Consulting – Intercultural Leadership, Education, Assessment & Development.

“Why do we Sietarians across the world do what we do? As practitioners, mentors, educators, researchers, and interested persons we aim to build peace through mutual understanding as a basis, to learn to respect each other in our differences and commonalities. I believe that volunteering for SIETAR Switzerland will help to build community here in Switzerland and beyond.”