Skills transformation: what makes a career last - and keep evolving?

Event details

Date

Thursday, 5 November - 18:45

Place

Hotel Warwick, Geneva

Genre

Conferences

Organiser

Association Alumni EMBA UNIGE

Description

SKILLS TRANSFORMATION: WHAT MAKES A CAREER LAST - AND KEEP EVOLVING? Networking event Alumni EMBA UNIGE Date: Thursday 5 November 2026, 18:45-22:00Place: Hotel Warwick, Geneva - 14 Rue de Lausanne, 1201 Genève, SuisseAlumni & Student & Frends: Confrence and networking cocktail - 45 CHFNot an Alumni: Confrence and networking cocktail - 60 CHFTickets purchased on-site must be paid in cash.Places are limited. Secure your spot at this exclusive event today!PROGRAM:18:45-19:15 Welcoming participants19:15-20:15 Conferences20:15-22:00 Cocktail and NetworkingDear friends, Careers no longer follow a straight line. Industries are being redrawn, technology is rewriting job descriptions faster than we update our CVs, and the skills that got us here rarely carry us all the way. What keeps a career alive has less to do with the diploma on the wall than with the willingness to start learning again - and again. Our 2026 autumn event brings together three women who have done exactly that. A podiatrist who became the CEO of a clinic group. A lawyer who now leads onboarding and due diligence for a global private bank. An IT engineer turned entrepreneurship coach and board member. Three sectors - healthcare, finance, entrepreneurship. Three generations of working life, from a career that began in the 1970s to one built over the past decade. And one thing in common: at every turning point, each of them chose to reinvent rather than repeat. Those transformations were never only professional. Behind each pivot there was a moment of doubt, a decision to go back to studying, a network to rebuild, a professional identity to redefine. That's the conversation we'd like to have with you on 5 November: not only which skills matter next, but what it actually takes - in curiosity, courage and stamina - to keep evolving. Meet our speakers Sandra Dunkel - CEO, Emeis Cliniques Sandra started her career hands-on, as a podiatrist treating athletes and diabetic patients. Today she runs three private clinics in psychiatry and rehabilitation across French-speaking Switzerland, steering the strategy of some 400 people. In between: biomechanics at EPFL, market development at Medtronic, general management at Integra LifeSciences, and a federal diploma in healthcare institution management earned mid-career. Nothing about that path was accidental - she kept acquiring the skills each new chapter demanded. Cynthia Soulikhan - Director, Head of Onboarding and Customer Due Diligence, HSBC Cynthia trained as a lawyer and began at the Swiss Embassy in Yerevan. Twelve years later she leads a 40-strong team at HSBC Global Private Banking, where she has moved from technical specialist to transformation lead to people leader - adding an Executive MBA along the way. She has a front-row view of how compliance, technology and client relationships are reshaping skills inside a major international bank, and of how you grow into roles that did not exist when you started. Nadine Reichenthal - Business Coach Nadine has reinvented herself more often than most of us change jobs: software engineer, corporate data manager, business development - then a full pivot into entrepreneurship. She founded accelerators at UNIL and UNIGE, teaches at HEC Lausanne, coaches startups from Bangladesh to Senegal, and built a programme that teaches 10-to-18-year-olds to think like entrepreneurs.     Open to UNIGE Executive MBA alumni, current students and their guests, this conference will offer candid insights, practical perspectives from the field, and a chance to reconnect with the EMBA community. We hope to see you there. With our best wishes,Association Alumni EMBA UNIGEYour organising team :Zheng Zhou-Gabrielli, Marzena Lapka, Lone Le Floch-Andersen, Joelle Morlet, Yousri El Antri, Alain SigristContact: events@alumniembaunige.orgWith the support of:Geneva School of Economics and Management