Marisa Schiestl-Swarovski is a fifth-generation member of the Swarovski family. She studied international business in Vienna and New York and graduated from Durham University in the UK with a Bachelor of Business.

Her professional career began as an events and marketing manager in Austria, organizing e.g. a large cultural event for the city of Vienna. Marisa completed her education with a master’s degree from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with a focus on exhibition and cultural communication management. During her master’s degree, Marisa realized several projects for cultural institutions across Austria.

In 2010, Marisa founded the Swarovski Family Council, which aims to foster bonds between the widespread members of the Swarovski family, to improve the understanding of the family business among shareholders, and to prepare successive generations for their role as owners. After several years in Spain and Switzerland, Marisa now lives again with her family in Vienna, Austria and acts as Chairwoman of the shareholders of the Swarovski group.

Ms Evelyn Haim-Swarovski, a fourth-generation member of the founding family, was born in 1954. The youngest of the five children of Hilde and Manfred Swarovski, Technical Director of the family business at the time, she was born in her parents’ home in Wattens. It was here that Evelyn’s great-grandfather Daniel had established himself and his crystal cutting factory in 1895 due to the availability of the water power he needed to drive his machinery.

Evelyn became a shareholder of the Swarovski company in 1976 and obtained her first job as a young translator with the company Tyrolit in the summer of 1981, tasked with training French-speaking employees from Libya. She served as chairwoman of the “Fritz Swarovski” shareholders’ association between 1979 and 2011 and was a member of the newly founded family council from 2012 to 2015 with responsibility for the history of the company and its archive. After completing her degree in foreign languages (translator/interpreter in French and Spanish) in Innsbruck, she set up a translation agency there in 1981, which she ran until 2006.

Since the “Riding Section” of the WSG Swarovski Wattens factory sports club was established in 1985, Evelyn – herself an active competition rider and horse breeder – has organised national and international dressage horse shows in her role as its president together with her husband Klaus Haim and their two children. This international equestrian event has gained a global reputation over the past 27 years. 

Having campaigned for animal welfare and conservation of nature ever since her younger days, Evelyn is now looking forward to serving as a trustee of the Swarovski family’s Foundation, a role that carries a great deal of responsibility, to support underprivileged and  distressed humans and animals.

Anouchka Rafail-Vogiatzakis was born in 1967 in Basel, Switzerland from a Swiss father and Austrian mother. She graduated school in Basel and continued to study History of Art and Psychology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She is fluent in five languages, German, English, French, Italian and Greek. Since 1996, she permanently lives in Athens, Greece and has two children with her Greek husband.

In 2009, Anouchka published her first book, Nature and Water, where all the proceeds were donated to various families in the Maldives which were affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. From 2015 to 2021, she was responsible for Public Relations at Swarovski Hellas in Athens. Since October 2021 she was appointed Managing Director of the Swarovski Family Holding. Over the past 15 years, she has been involved in various Greek non-profit organizations and charities such as MDS, Elpida, Elepap and Penelopeio Foundation.

Ambassador Helene von Damm grew up in a small town in Austria and immigrated to the United States as a young woman.

After becoming a US citizen, she became interested in politics and began working at the American Medical Political Action Committee. There she met Ronald Reagan who had just announced his candidacy for Governor of California. Being inspired by his vision for America, she joined his campaign and stayed at his side in a variety of positions during his entire political career.

They included Personal Secretary, Northeast Regional Finance Director during the 1976 presidential campaign and, as the first woman, Assistant to the President for Personnel in the White House.

She ended her political career with her appointment as US Ambassador to Austria in 1983 before becoming an international business consultant. Helene attended Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of California in Los Angeles. She has participated in the prestigious Business Executive Seminar of the Aspen Institute in Colorado and has an honorary doctorate in Law from the University of New Hampshire. Her hobbies include mountaineering and reading, and she has a single engine pilot's license.

Heinz Fassmann is President of the Austrian Academy of Science. He has been serving as Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research between January 2020 to December 2021 and served in the same capacity from December 2017 to June 2019.

Fassmann concluded his studies in Geography and Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna with a PhD in social history and a habilitation in Human Geography and Spatial Planning. In 1992 he became the director of the Institute of City and Regional Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

After being appointed Professor of Applied Geography (Geo‐Informatics) at the Technical University Munich in 1996 and a Professor for Applied Geography, Spatial Research and Regional Planning at the University of Vienna in 2000, he was nominated the Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences, Geography and Astronomy of the University of Vienna in 2006.

In 2011 he became the Vice‐Rector for Human Resources and International Relations and in 2015 the Vice‐Rector for Research and International Affairs of the University of Vienna. Fassmann was the Chair of the Expert Council for Integration at the Austrian Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, a founding member of the Expert Council of German Foundations for Integration and Migration in Berlin and member of the Commission on Migration of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior.

He is a permanent member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea and his achievements have been recognized with a number of awards.

Before founding LeaderLy, Lynda was the CEO of the MAVA Foundation, a family philanthropic foundation working on nature conservation and sustainable economy. For 13 years, Lynda led a team of 20 people to grant over € 1.17 billion to over 500 organisations to support work in favor of nature and people.

Lynda has conducted training over the years in leadership, management, team building, negotiations, conflict within teams, motivation, and change management. She serves on the boards of ICF Coaching Education, Unearthodox, and Fondation Audemars Piguet, and is an advisor to the Sky Blue Leadership programme and to the Cartier for Nature initiative.

Lynda is American and Swiss and has made Switzerland her home for over 30 years.

Ryan Gawn is Head of the Positioning and Outreach Division for the European Central Bank’s Digital Euro Directorate, as well as Co-Founder of Stratagem International, an international public affairs consultancy. Formerly Director of The LEGO Foundation, he designed and led a $70m philanthropic initiative, and as Head of International Communications for ActionAid International, he provided senior leadership to a global team working across the federation’s 46 markets. He has previously led international campaigns, served as a UK diplomat, and advised leading nonprofits and businesses. He is an advisor to the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, education charity Big Change, and former Council Member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Educated in Scotland, Sweden, the United States, and Argentina, he is a Rotary World Peace Fellow (MA International Relations) and a Salzburg Fellow.