Expert jury
The expert jury consists of independent and experienced experts from Switzerland. It combines both practical and theoretical knowledge. The jury is headed by Prof. Dr. Marc Oliver Rieger of the University of Trier.
Prof. Dr. Marc Oliver Rieger, 42, holds the chair of banking and finance at Trier University. He is also chairman of the Swiss Derivatives Award jury.
Before his involvement in Trier, Prof. Dr. Rieger worked in research at Zurich University for several years after he had gained his PhD at the MaxPlanckInstitute for Mathematics in Leipzig and worked as a research scholar at Carnegie Mellon University for two years.
Prof. Dr. Rieger grew up in Constance. In his research, he is primarily interested in financial derivatives, behavioral finance and cultural differences in investor behavior. In the «Handelsblatt» ranking, Prof. Dr. Rieger holds a top position as one of the most research-oriented professors in the field of finance. The second edition of his book «Optionen, Derivate und Strukturierte Produkte – ein Praxisbuch» was issued by NZZ-Verlag in 2016.
Ülkü Cibik is Counsel at MLL Legal AG, a leading law firm in Switzerland. Her practice focuses on banking and financial markets law as well as corporate and commercial law.
Ülkü Cibik has particular expertise in the field of structured products and derivatives and advises domestic and foreign issuers on the issuance, listing, regulation and distribution of structured products. She also advises clients on financings through syndicated and bilateral loans as well as regulatory matters and regularly works on projects related to cryptocurrencies/DLT/blockchain.
Since November 2018, Ülkü Cibik has been mandated by SSPA to support the «Legal & Regulation» business unit.
Olga is a global innovation and finance expert and one of Switzerland's most successful independent specialists in financial education and personal finance. Recognized for transforming the financial services industry for women and gender equality, she has been featured in major media outlets like Sky News, BBC News, CNBC, and the Financial Times. Olga has won numerous awards, including ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year 2019’ by CityWealth Magazine and a 2x inclusion on the Senior Leaders in Fintech Powerlist by Innovate Finance UK and The Swiss Fintech Leaders 2024 by VentureLab.
As a LinkedIn Top Voice in Finance and a TEDx speaker, she inspires thousands through her EduFintech, SmartPurse, and her money column on Watson News, which has reached over 1.2 million readers in Switzerland. Olga recently published her first book, “Rich, Richer…Me!” and serves as a board member at the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. She lives in Zürich and London with her two children.
Sarah Agostini is Chief of Staff at LPA, where she supports the strategic and operational management of the commercial division and works closely with management and internal and external stakeholders.
She previously held several senior positions at LPA, where she was responsible for supporting international clients, developing long-term client relationships and positioning software solutions in the areas of capital markets, regulation and structured products, with a particular focus on the European market. She began her career in consulting, specialising in capital markets and regulatory requirements.
Nicolas Peter is Head of Investments and a member of the Executive Board at Aquila AG. In his function, he manages mandates of institutional and professional investors and is responsible with his team for the development of financial market publications for the Aquila Group as well as for the product and stock selection.
He started his career in Investment Advisory at Coutts & Co. AG in Geneva and Zurich, where he advised international private and institutional discretionary and advisory clients.
Between 2011 and 2016, he led various teams within the portfolio management unit and was Head of Discretionary Portfolio Service before joining Aquila AG in 2016.
Abdel Hamidouche started his career 18 years ago in derivatives and structured products. He has alternated between the sell side, advising banks and external asset managers, and the buy side at banks such as Deutsche Bank or Lombard Odier.
He joined Banque Mirabaud in 2017 to set up the structured products desk for the group's wealth management unit, and has been back at Lombard Odier since 2023.
He holds a master's degree in finance from the Audencia Management School in France.
Sébastien Neukom is Head Structured Products Sales at the Swiss Stock Exchange. He joined SIX in June 2016. Sébastien Neukom is responsible for the acquisition of new participants and product issuers in the structured products area and for the further development of the trading platforms for listed and unlisted structured products.
Prior to that, he worked for Bank Vontobel in Singapore, Zurich and Frankfurt for about eight years as Senior Advisor Financial Products. During his appointment in Singapore he was responsible for business and client development for the Asian Pacific region.
In Zurich, he managed and acquired banks, family offices and external asset managers. Prior to that, the bilingual derivatives specialist worked as a proprietary trader at the Berner Kantonalbank. Sébastien Neukom is a member of the "Retail" working group of the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA).
Peter Keller has been Head of Operations & Standards at the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) since 2008. In this role, he is responsible for the industry's operational and regulatory standards and works closely with issuers, market infrastructures, and supervisory authorities. At the same time, he has been running his own consulting firm since 2008, advising national and international clients in the financial industry.
Peter Keller is also a partner in the Verified Network based in Zug. Verified is developing a digital platform for the issuance and structuring of digital assets, enabling issuers to access capital from decentralized financial platforms. The focus is on the tokenization of structured financial products, private bonds, PE structures, and customized digital investment solutions.
Prior to this, Peter Keller held senior positions at the Swiss Stock Exchange for more than a decade. He was a member of the ExCo of the SWX Swiss Exchange Group and was responsible, among other things, for setting up and launching the international trading platform virt-x Exchange Ltd. in London, which he headed as CEO from 2002. He was also a member of the Executive Board for several years with responsibility for markets and business development.
He began his professional career in investment banking and derivatives trading, including as an options and futures specialist at Citibank in Zurich.
Peter Keller has a solid background in banking and has completed an international executive program with stints at ETH Zurich, the University of St. Gallen, and MIT in Cambridge (USA).
Prof. Dr. Martin Wallmeier holds the chair of finance and accounting at the University of Fribourg. He is member of the jury of the Derivative Research Award.
After his studies at the University of Münster, he obtained his Ph.D. in 1997 with a dissertation on stock return anomalies and his habilitation in 2002 with research on information implied in option prices, both from the University of Augsburg. He was engaged as visiting scholar at the University of Dayton/Ohio and at Université Laval, Québec. Martin Wallmeier teaches finance on all levels (BA, MA, doctorate) at the University of Fribourg as well as in Executive MBA programs. He is co-editor of the Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice and, among other positions, member of the accounting committee in the Verein für Socialpolitik. In his research, he is primarily interested in empirical asset pricing, asset management and firm valuation.
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