Celebrating Women Who Lead, Innovate, and Inspire

Introduce yourself and your role at SMG

Hi, I’m Jessica. I am the SMG’s Chief Corporate Officer. In our ELT team, I represent the shared services HR, Legal & Compliance, Data Protection, Communications & Public Affairs, Sustainability as well as Board Affairs.

What has been the most pivotal moment in your leadership journey, and how did it shape your approach to fostering diversity

I started my career in investment banking as – no joke – the bank’s first-ever female intern in corporate history. It was also pretty clear that I came from a very different socio-economic background than my peers. This made the experience feel a bit strange and lonely until I was eventually « adopted by the pack. »

Looking back, I now realise that what they saw as my creativity and ability to connect with clients was really a reflection of how I viewed the world from a completely different perspective and noticed things others didn’t.

About ten years later, I was fortunate to be offered my first senior management position as CFO of Ringier’s business in Africa and Asia, where I built structures and trained teams on the ground. It was a crash course in understanding cultural differences.

These were key moments for me – I realized how valuable diverse teams are when it comes to solving problems. And diversity doesn’t stop at gender; it includes all the small and big things that make us who we are.

How do you see gender diversity in leadership evolving in the coming years?

Diversity and inclusion went through years of great hype, followed by the significant backlash we see today. Many companies are now scaling back the DEI efforts they once launched with much fanfare. As a quote I find particularly fitting these days puts it: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”

I believe we can move beyond these extremes toward a more rational and honest approach – but two things need to happen:

First, we must collectively realise that being inclusive is not just the right thing to do – it’s a business imperative. Take SMG, for example: We serve all of Switzerland – an incredibly diverse country. How could we do that effectively without approaching the task from different perspectives?

Second, we need to account for human nature. You often hear people say, “We just want the best person for the job.” But in reality, it’s not that simple. As long as we, as hiring and people managers, remain biased, true meritocracy will remain out of reach. We must recognize our own limitations and actively work toward fair and transparent decision-making within our organisations.

What would real progress in gender diversity at SMG look like to you in the next five years?

We are actually in a very good position – we got the basics right. One major factor limiting women’s career development in Switzerland is the still-prevalent trade-off between family and career. Our flexible working conditions and our everyday commitment to part-time jobs are key enablers in this regard.

In addition, our company culture is a huge asset – we are curious, open to learning new things, and we value different perspectives. Changing these fundamentals would be difficult, but we already have them in place.

Now, we can focus on additional measures. It’s great that our company culture already promotes equal treatment for everyone. But we need to go beyond that and address specific needs to truly create equal opportunities. To identify and put in place the right initiatives is our task for the next years.

Do you have a role model of a female leader?

We are standing on the shoulders of giants today – and these giants come in all shapes and sizes. For me, one of them is my late grandmother.

In the 1950s, she founded the first women’s sports club (“Damenriege,” for the Swiss!) in her village. It was a huge scandal – men forbade their wives to join, and the village priest condemned it in his Sunday sermon. But she did it anyway, and the club is still alive and kicking (literally) today.

I treasure the memories of her giggling about those times, and her courage inspires me to do my part – no matter how small – in building a future where gender equality in business is as ordinary as women exercising.