Organizational Team
Diana Lagalante - Project Manager
In her current position as an e-business manager, Diana is responsible for all marketing communication activities at Ciba Inc. for the Pigments business.
Her many years of experience in the company, allowed her to gain deep knowledge and expertise in recognizing business needs and successfully promoting business products.
Diana is also leading the webtrends team, which is responsible for measuring the web on www.ciba.com, intranet and extranet.
Additionally, Diana is the project leader of the xymara award event in London.
With this she is responsible for negotiating with the sponsors, organizing schedule plan, travel and hotel arrangements for the guests, be the point of contact for the jury members, external contractors, etc., coordinate the communication activities with the media partner and on all online and offline channels, lead a 10 headed marketing managers organization team for the award, and organize the event with the exhibition team in London.
Before being an E-business Manager, Diana has been working as an highly experienced Web Publisher in the Segment Coating Effects, serving the business lines with all online activities.
Diana lives in Basel, Switzerland. In her free time, she likes to travel, to explore other cultures and working with people.
Annette Bruns & Oliver Spies
Annette Bruns
Born 1977 in Kaiserslautern, Germany
Studies of grafic design and visual communication:
- University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe
- University of Arts and Design in Zurich
Join forces with Oliver Spies since 1998.
Founding visual research in 2001 and the publishing house Alleinverlag in 2004.
Field of activities: research on color trends worldwide; color design; graphic design; corporate design; book design
Oliver Spies, Designer, visual research
Born 1971 in Lindlar, Germany
Apprenticeship and Studies as electronics technician, automation of technical processes, engineering editor, object and industrial design:
- University of Applied Science Cologne
- College of Design in Krefeld
- University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe
- University of Arts and Design in Zurich
Founding his own design company in 1992, working in cooperation with Annette Bruns since 1998. Founded visual research in 2001 and the publishing house Alleinverlag in 2004.
Field of activities: research on color trends worldwide; color design; furniture design; exhibition design; book design; reeditions of furniture; exhibtion, marketing and shop concepts.
Le Vin Chin
Le Vin Chin is the Editor-in-Chief of XYMARA.com and INMYX, the online design magazine. Apart from scouting for and reporting on design trends, he also has a background in technology, management and business, having worked in marketing for 10 years at Ciba. Le Vin Chin read Engineering and Management at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Nicole End
Nicole End holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Basel, where she focussed on asymmetric catalysis. After two years in the Oncology Research Department at Novartis in Basel as a pharmaceutical chemist she joined then Ciba Specialty Chemicals in 1999, where she worked for more than five years as a research project leader at locations in Switzerland and Germany, dealing mainly with catalytic transformations. In 2006, Nicole became part of the Change Management Team as a trainer and coach for the implementation of SAP within Ciba. In April 2007 Nicole took on a new role as Marketing Manager Consumer Goods and since then has been responsible world-wide for the marketing into that segment of the plastics industry of numerous colorant ranges, including effect pigments.
Devakrishna Marco Giollo
Devakrishna Marco Giollo was born in Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland in 1953.
In 1970 he studied at the Architect School STS of Trevano, but left after a year realizing that the intensive technical studies were not going to be his real calling. He then joined in 1971 the School of Art CSIA in Lugano, where he got trained with some of the best contemporary artists and teachers such as Nag Arnoldi, Piergiorgio Piffaretti, Giuliano Togni, Daniele Cleis, Emilio Rissone and Gianni Realini
1973 he then won the second prize for sculpture at the Villa Saroli Exhibition, followed by the Bariffi Prize for his 3*15 m sculpture, exhibited at the Congress House of Lugano.
Marco traveled all over the world, from Oregon to California, from New York to Sydney and from Singapore to Hong Kong, exhibiting a variety of new styles of work in many countries.
In 2000 he returned to Europe. He now lives in Switzerland, works in his two ateliers in Basel and in the Gambarogno area.
Giollo’s art continues to be inspired by Osho’s teaching-more and more concerned with beauty and a peaceful, silent space of meditation. It is this dimension, in stark contrast to the art-worlds ’pretensions' of constant ‘novelty’ and ‘meaning’, which he hopes to share.
As he himself says;
"For me painting is a meditative act. When I paint I am totally lost in the act of painting. It is a ’no- mind’ experience. What I am left with afterwards is a canvas that wants to go, wants to make someone or some place happy. When that happens I feel honored and grateful; I feel I gave a little something, a little beauty to the world."
Denis Keller
Denis Keller has been graduated of European School of Chemistry Polymer and Materials in Strasbourg, France in 1998. Denis first worked 5 years for PolyOne as Technical Service Engineer for additive masterbatches, responsible for Northern and Eastern Europe. In 2004, Denis worked for Toyota Brussels, Belgium as project engineer for plastics in car, responsible for the evaluation of internal and external plastic parts. Denis joined Ciba Specialty Chemicals Basel, Switzerland in 2006. Denis is currently Marketing Packaging – EMEA.
Tom Landuydt
Tom Landuydt is the marketing manager new product developments and market introductions for transportation coatings at Ciba. He joined Ciba in 1995 and has held various positions in sales and marketing for the paint industry. He concentrates on the transportation coatings industry since 2001.
Yvonne Mayoraz
In her current position as promotional material manager, Yvonne is responsible for the production of promotional material within the Ciba Inc. pigments business world-wide.
She coaches and supports the business marketing managers in all printed promotional activities.
Her many years of experience in the company, allowed her to gain deep knowledge and expertise in the field of corporate identity and cooperating with internal and external suppliers.
Yvonne lives in Rheinfelden, Switzerland. In her free time, she likes to dance, to travel and be with her two cats
Alison Metzger
Alison Metzger studied modern languages at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and English Literature at Grenoble University and Queen Mary College, University of London. She spent a number of years teaching English at the Universitires of Grenoble, Lausanne and Geneva. She subsequently joined Ciba-Geigy as a technical translator, later taking on the role of Media Relations Manager in the Communications department at Ciba.
Ana Paula Perroni Laloe
As Global Marketing Manager Effect Pigments, Ana is responsible for strategic plans and market positioning of Ciba’s XYMARA range in the Inks & Printing industries.
Chemical Engineer by background, Ana has spent most of her 10 years at Ciba in the sales force. With experience in various markets, from Coatings and Electronic Materials to Inks, and regions, from Latin America to United Kingdom…she finds in her marketing role a unique opportunity to merge her diverse market knowledge with the company’s strategic plan in order to drive the future of the XYMARA Effects business. In her previous position she was Imaging & Inks Sales Head Latin America.
For Ana, XYMARA is not just a new effect pigments range; it is a new way to communicate with people in many different industries, a two way road with no limits for creativity. XYMARA captures people’s emotions and needs and transforms into visual reality, while expanding Ciba’s capabilities as a full solution provider and as a business partner.
Before moving to calm and quiet Basel in Switzerland, Ana used to live in hectic Sao Paulo, Brazil. Having also lived in London, UK for a couple of years, she speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.
Traveling and exploring cultures is still a passion, but currently her major interest is in spending quality time with friends and family.
Friederike Sommer
As a senior trainer and coach, Friederike develops, directs and implements a wide range of global initiatives and trainings. After more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, she has started her own consultancy company, focusing on coaching and mentoring, leadership training & development, strategic project management and communication.
In addition, Friederike provides moderation and facilitation for large scale events in the global business environment.
Before starting her own company, Friederike was the Director of Learning & Development, Europe, at ResMed Corporate.
Prior to joining ResMed, Friederike was with Novartis Pharma, Global Organization Development based in Basel, Switzerland where she held several global positions and had the fortune to lead and implement new training and meeting technologies. Acting as an expert & consultant in all projects related to Development, Change Management & Communication, as well as Leadership Development to build a culture of continuous learning and growth.
Friederike started her career as a faculty manager & coach in the world largest growth center dedicated to human relations & individual transformation in India. During her many years in India, she became very skillfull in the ability to effectively listen to people & remain flexible in a constantly changing environment. Customer satisfaction & passion are key for her and she anticipates client’s needs to fulfill their expectations.
Friederike lives in Basel with her partner. In her free time, she likes to travel back to India, motorbike in the Himalayas & Meditation.
Dirk Stirnberg
Responsible mainly for color development in the automotive area and also for projects such as trend color development of mobile phones and highly saturated wood samples for furniture. Project leader of Ciba's Color Trend Vision.
In styling now since 2002, before that worked in the Technical Service / Color Development Group at PPG for Daimler Chrysler in Germany.
I studied chemical engineering with a Diploma degree at the University of Krefeld in Germany.
