The ETH Board has appointed Matthias Gäumann as a new interim member of the Executive Board of EPFL. Mr Gäumann will take over as Vice President of Human Resources and Operations from 1 August to 31 December 2020. Matthias Gäumann is currently Director of Research Affairs at EPFL. He will succeed Etienne Marclay on an interim basis.
The current Director of Research Affairs at EPFL, Matthias Gäumann, is to take over as Vice President of Human Resources and Operations at EPFL. He will succeed Etienne Marclay on an interim basis. By mutual agreement, EPFL President Martin Vetterli and Etienne Marclay have agreed that, in the course of the structural adjustments to the Executive Board and to prepare for their implementation as early as possible, there should be an immediate change in management. Etienne Marclay will therefore step down as Vice President at the end of July. He has been a member of the Executive Board since autumn 2016. At the request of the EPFL President, he will remain responsible for strategic projects.
The ETH Board would like to thank Etienne Marclay for his great commitment to strengthening EPFL’s operational services, and particularly for positioning the university in the area of sustainability and developing a central purchasing system. Etienne Marclay was also significantly involved in the administration of the Quartier Nord district and the SwissTech Convention Center, and supervised the successful operational development of the cantonal branches of EPFL. He also spearheaded the master plan for the Hautes écoles together with the University of Lausanne, which will pave the way for the urban development of the Dorigny campus over the next decades.
The new interim Vice President Matthias Gäumann holds a PhD in materials science from EPFL and an MBA from the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne. He has excellent knowledge of the organisation and culture of EPFL, as well as many years’ experience in operational management, both in the private sector and at EPFL. He has been Director of Research Affairs at EPFL since 2015. In this role he has been able to rapidly reorganise several central services and technological platforms and to make their services available to researchers. As interim Vice President, Matthias Gäumann will also remain as Director of Research Affairs at EPFL.
