Bodies & Persons

Foundation Board

The Foundation Board carries responsibility for all the Foundation's activities. The Board members are nominated by the Founder Company for a three-year, reelectable term of office. This senior body consists of representatives of UBS and external members from the fields of culture, arts and society. At present the Foundation Board consists of eight members; it is headed by a Chairman and seconded by a Vice-Chairman. For the purpose of processing grant proposals the Foundation Board may appoint an expert committee consisting of members of the Board.

Management Office

The Management Office assists the Foundation Board in its work; the Office is headed by a Manager who is responsible for the Foundation's operative management; in particular, she settles preliminaries, prepares issues for decision-making by the Foundation Board and implements its decisions. The Foundation Office is responsible for the administration, communication and coordination of activities. The team includes Claudia Bühler (CEO) and Julian Szenogrady (applications).

Roger von Mentlen

Roger von Mentlen

Roger von Mentlen has been a member of the UBS Culture Foundation Board since 2016 and has chaired the foundation since 2020. A qualified banking expert, he joined Union Bank of Switzerland in 1977 and since 1998 has held various management positions at UBS in the Wealth Management & Business Banking Switzerland area. Until 2019, he was Head of Personal Banking in Switzerland and a member of the Executive Committee UBS Region Switzerland. He joined the Board of Directors of UBS Switzerland AG in 2020 and has been its Chairman since November 2023.

Martin Meyer

Martin Meyer

Martin Meyer has been vice president of the UBS Culture Foundation since 2004 and has been a member of its Foundation Board since 1998. He was the editor of the Feuilleton of the Neuen Zürcher Zeitung starting in 1974 and managed it from 1992 until 2015. He is a corresponding member of the German Academy for Language and Literature and the chairman of the committee of the Swiss Institute of International Studies. In 2011, he received the title of an honorary doctor from the University of St. Gallen.

Roman Bucheli

Roman Bucheli

Roman Bucheli has been a member of the Board of the UBS Culture Foundation since January 1, 2016. He has been a culture editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung Feuilleton since 1999, where he is responsible for German and Dutch literature, and books for children and young people. In addition to his work as a journalist, he is also a university lecturer and helps to promote literature in institutions.

After completing his studies in German, philosophy and economic history in Fribourg and Zurich, he wrote his thesis on the Swiss poet Alexander Xaver Gwerder in 1994. He publishes regular articles on literary topics and in 2006 edited the anthology "Wohin geht das Gedicht?" (Where is poetry going?), which includes essays from 14 international authors.

Michael Haefliger

Michael Haefliger

Michael Haefliger has been a member of the UBS Culture Foundation Board since 2007. He has been the director of LUCERNE FESTIVAL (previously the Internationale Musikfestwochen Luzern) since 1999. Next to organizing the music festival SOMMER he is also responsible for the festivals OSTERN and PIANO. He has won several prizes, including the Global Leader of Tomorrow Award (WEF, Davos 2000) and the European Culture Innovation Award (2003).

After studying the violin at the Juilliard School of Music in New York (1983), Michael Haefliger performed as a concert violinist before becoming a musical director (Davos Music Festival Young Artists in Concert, 1986-1998) and director of the Collegium Novum in Zurich (1996-1998). From 1997 to1999 he studied business management at the HSG St. Gallen where he received his Executive MBA HSG degree.

Michel E. Fuchs

Michel E. Fuchs

Michel E. Fuchs has been a member of the Foundation Board since 2016. He has been a professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Lausanne since 2004 (emeritus as of August 2023). In addition to his teaching work, he has led research projects and excavations in Switzerland and abroad. As an internationally renowned expert in ancient wall paintings, he is author of numerous publications and curator of several exhibitions. He supervises doctoral theses and continues his research at national and international level.

After completing his studies in archaeology, Latin and Greek philology, he worked in the Department of Archaeology of the canton of Fribourg and as a research associate at the Roman Museum in Avenches. He wrote his thesis on one area of this Roman settlement in 2004. Over the years, he has devoted himself to the study of everyday inscriptions and graffiti and is co-author of the exhibition catalog ‘Les murs murmurent: graffitis gallo-romains’ (2008).

Karin Oertli

Karin Oertli

Karin Oertli has been a member of the Foundation Board of the UBS Culture Foundation since 2021. She has joined UBS in 2000, currently acting as COO Group Compliance, Regulatory & Governance and Head Compliance & Operational Risk Control P&C and Region Switzerland. Prior to that, she held various leadership positions e.g. as Chief Operating Officer UBS Switzerland, in Wealth Management, Asset Management and Risk Functions. Karin Oertli is member of the Executive Committee GCRG Region Switzerland and the Executive Board UBS Switzerland AG. 

Seraina Rohrer

Seraina Rohrer

Seraina Rohrer has been a member of the UBS Culture Foundation Board since 2013. From 2011 and 2019 she was director of the Solothurner Filmtage, and since the beginning of 2020 she has been a management member of Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council and head of the Innovation & Society division.

For several years she was head of the media office of the Locarno International Film Festival and coordinated the launch of the Swiss pilot project “Réseau Cinéma CH”, a cooperation between Swiss colleges and universities in the field of film education. Apart from that she worked as a free-lance curator and journalist in Switzerland and abroad and was a member on the expert panel “Fiction” for the Zürcher Filmstiftung. In 2012 she received her PhD with a study on “Transnational Low-Budget Productions”.

Claudia Steinfels

Claudia Steinfels

Claudia Steinfels has been a member of the Foundation Board of the UBS Culture Foundation since April 2020. She is the owner and chairwoman of the Board of Directors both of the art consulting firm Steinfels Art Consulting AG that was founded in Zurich in 2012 and of a company with the same name founded in London in 2013. Her specialties are Swiss art, impressionism as well as modern and contemporary art.

Claudia Steinfels studied art history, archeology and East Asian art at the University of Zurich and obtained her doctorate there. She was the Managing Director of Christie’s in Zurich from 1996 to 2000, and from 2001 until 2012 she was the Managing Director of Sotheby’s Zurich, an auctioneer and also the Senior Director of Sotheby’s Europe.