Member Profiles

Members Introduction

Línic Almeida - September 2021

Linic Almeida

Linic holds a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from INSA Lyon, specialized in Lean Management, and with a solid background in Project Management, Supply Chain Planning and Process Improvement.

Linic is fluent in Portuguese, English and French with more than 4 years of experience in managing process improvement projects in supply chain and operations.

His biggest accomplishment is the delivery of a new distribution center for the EU region after the GE O&G merger with Baker Hughes.

Linic is currently working for a Pharmaceutical company in supply chain finance compliance and setting new processes after a spin-off. He wants to learn and exchange interesting discussions with other Project Managers across Switzerland.

In his free time, Linic loves running, skiing and travelling with friends.

You can learn more about Linic by visiting his LinkedIn profile.

James Heidrich - September 2021

James Heidrich

James Heidrich is a change and execution leader who is committed to quality and business transformation. He brings a big-picture perspective and a unique problem-solving ability as a manager of diverse, cross-functional teams. He holds an MBA along with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and his Six Sigma certifications. Since joining PMI Switzerland he also holds the following PMI Certifications: PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-ACP and DASSM.


James’ passion about Project Management was the primary driver for him to join PMI Switzerland Chapter. He would like to increase his network and to learn from his Peers in Switzerland for the cutting-edge Agile techniques, and to "compare notes". Also, James hopes to become more involved with the organization.

James spends his free time with his three daughters and he enjoys downhill skiing.

You can learn more about James by visiting his LinkedIn profile.

Leandro Benda - July 2021

Leandro Benda

Leandro joined PMI Switzerland Chapter in April and he is a volunteer for Event Team (Romandie). He is 31 years old and holds Swiss and Italian citizenship. Leandro is a pragmatic, team spirit and customer service oriented and organized person who can easily adapt to changes. He is fluent in French, Italian, English and German languages. Leandro holds a diploma of Confirmed Buyer and PMP credential since December 2020. He has more than 13 years of experience as Strategic and Technical buyer and site purchasing manager and now, he works as Head of Purchasing and IT in Mapei Suisse SA in Sorens.

Leandro has experience in all procurement categories and types of purchases, has managed several projects for ERP migration and has strong skills in MS Office, SAP, AS400, MS Dynamics 365 and E-tools.

Daniela Reist - June 2021

Daniela Reist

Daniela has a strong background in the finance industry (banking, insurance) with eight years’ experience as a project Manager and Business Analyst. Her projects focus on digital transformation of Business Applications, Client-Facing-Applications and digitization of Business Processes to increase efficiency in the area of Output Management, Portfolio Management, Controlling, Legal & Regulatory Requirements. Daniela builds bridges across cultures by Offshoring/Outsourcing/multicultural collaboration and she successfully introduced collaboration models for project teams that were located both in Switzerland and India. Daniela also builds bridges across disciplines via Stakeholder Management where she puts strong effort to understand both Business and IT need in order to develop sustainable solutions by demonstrating strong skills in collaboration and communication at all levels, across different disciplines and lines of Business

Daniela currently works as a project lead for operational excellence topics at AXA in Switzerland. In the last three years, she supported the company’s digital strategy by developing and implementing new capabilities and features to foster digital output. She currently evaluates and implements a new reporting tool that automates and improves the current process for Balanced Score Cards.

Daniela holds a PhD of Science degree in Geography. She obtained the PMP certificate in December 2020 to strengthen her knowledge in project management. She is also completed her Scrum certification to improve her skills in agile methods. She joined the Swiss Chapter for exchanging knowledge and best practices in project management to learn from each other. She is also looking forward to meeting inspiring people to learn from their insights and update her practical experience.

Daniela’s heart beats for projects in dynamic, multicultural and innovative environments at the intersection of Business and IT, which requires open minded approaches, a strong end-to-end-perspective and where we seek new ways to solve problems

In her free time, Daniela loves being outdoors – with her white-water kayak, mountain bike, cross country skis or hiking boots. She has a passion for food and traveling – always looking for new dishes around the world.

You can learn more about Daniela by visiting her LinkedIn profile.

Katarzyna Wieland - June 2021

Katarzyna Wieland

Katarzyna is a Senior strategy management consultant with 10 years of international experience in the banking sector within top multinational financial institutions in digital and regulatory transformations, product management and process optimization.

She is a driven, reliable and solution-oriented team player with excellent communication skills and ability to build a network of trusted partners in a global organization.

Katarzyna is an experienced university teacher, workshop facilitator and webinar host, author of several scientific publications in the area of finance, banking and family business.

You can learn more about Katarzyna by visiting her LinkedIn profile.

Zubin Aibara - June 2021

Zubin Aibara

Zubin Aibara is a management executive from the tourism industry, specializing in group travel. He started his career in India, moving to Switzerland in 2006. His latest assignment was with Kuoni-Tumlare as Regional Manager for incoming business to Switzerland, Germany and Austria, where he managed the operations, procurement, customer service and event-management setups, leading teams in Switzerland, Germany and Hungary.

He studied for PMP certification because, though he had been involved in numerous projects over the years (both event-related and otherwise), he wanted to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, especially when working with other project managers. Besides, PMs always seemed a step ahead with their specialized lingo and he wanted to make sure he understood them perfectly!

Zubin is currently looking for a new role in different industries and joined the Switzerland chapter to interact with like-minded people, engage in interesting discussions and learn from his peers.

In his free time, besides having to patiently answer questions from his overly-curious six-year-old son, Zubin is an avid reader and hopes to publish a book some day.

You can learn more about Zubin by visiting his LinkedIn profile.

Giordana Gai - May 2021

Giordana Gai

Giordana has a background on structural engineering. She obtained a PhD in early 2018 and her studies were focused on performance-based approach to fire safety and quantitative fire risk assessment of tunnel facilities.

Giordana has been living in Geneva since 2018. She works at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) as a Health and Safety Engineer, playing the role of a fire safety specialist of building and research infrastructure projects. She is heavily involved in managing a R&D service-oriented and multidisciplinary project aimed at assessing the consequences of fire accidents to life safety, environment and property.

She obtained the PMP certification in December 2020 and is glad to be part of the Swiss Chapter as she would like to get in touch with other professionals in the project management field.

You can learn more about Giordana by visiting her LinkedIn profile.

Gary Lloyd - May 2021

Gary Lloyd

Originally from the United Kingdom, Gary moved to Switzerland in 2007 as an internal move within a major international. He has been working in the Energy / Transmission and Distribution industry for over twenty years with most of his projects located in Middle East and Far East. Gary became PMP certified in 2008 and later to support a new position he took the PfMP certification in 2016.

Lately Gary has focused on defining Project Governance standards and aligning them with Corporate Governance requirements as part of an internal change project.

As the energy market goes through the largest shake up in recent years – the challenges for the Electrical networks are immense and Gary is keen to promote good PM practices as a part of the tool set needed to manage the transition. He has supported the training and development of several PMs as part of an in house Pm certification scheme and now he is interested to share his experiences with other PMs in Switzerland.

You can learn more about Gary by visiting his LinkedIn profile.

Alex Tatar - May 2021

Alex Tatar

Alex is a project manager with 10+ years’ experience in the telecommunication industry, managing various projects for worldwide mobile network operators. He is based in Lausanne and currently works for Cellnex Telecom, managing activities related to the implementation of 5G network of Salt Mobile.

Alex holds a master’s degree in telecommunication engineering, he is PMP certified since May 2018 and graduated from the executive MBA program of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne which is the longest running European EMBA focused on technology and innovation management.

He joined the Swiss Chapter to connect with PMI professionals for sharing knowledge and best practices, and to increase his professional network circle.

In his free time, Alex spends time with his family and likes to be active. He enjoys running, winter sports, hiking and outdoors activities in general.

You can learn more about Alex by visiting his LinkedIn profile

Wilhelm Heckmann - May 2021

Wilhelm Heckmann

Wilhelm has more than 20 years in executing and managing SAP projects. He managed various SAP implementation and roll-out projects across the globe from Europe, China, Latin America and US for the pharmaceutical, mechanical engineering and plant engineering sectors.

Currently, Wilhelm is the Managing Director of CNT Management Consulting AG in Switzerland and he is building up a new subsidiary in Zurich

After he moved to Zurich at the end of 2020, Wilhelm joined the Swiss Chapter to extend his network in Switzerland to IT and SAP project managers and learn Swiss specifics in running especially IT/SAP projects

In his free time Wilhelm enjoys exploring the wonderful Swiss nature by running, golfing and other outdoor sport activities.

You can learn more about Wilhelm by visiting his LinkedIn profile.