ZIWA

About ZIWA

Executive Board 2008 - 2009

	Christine Gilbert- PRESIDENT Christine is English, and spent time as a child living in the Middle and Far East. She has worked as an Air Traffic Controller, a Civil Servant, a Nursery School Teacher and before moving to Switzerland with her husband, worked for ten years for the Travel and Tourism industry promoting London and South East England. She has three grown up children. Christine has been an active member of ZIWA for three years and assumed the position of Director of Interest Groups in December 2007. Serving on the ZIWA board as President for the year 2008-2009, she hopes to encourage an increase of membership, especially of younger women.
	Chip Efthymiades - TREASURER Chip is Swiss with a strong link to Latin America. Together with her brother she runs their family business and she is in charge of accounting. She has two adult children. Her board experience with ZIWA includes two years as Director of Interest Groups and three years as President. With Janet Green she was also involved in ZIWA's advertising for two years. She is currently Chairlady of the Travel Group, which she started 14 years ago. Chip served as Treasurer for the year 2007-2008.
	Margaret Brace - SECRETARY Margaret was born of Polish parentage and grew up in England. She worked as a Human Resources Manager for over twenty years, mainly with a large food retailer. Through a major life-changing experience she realised the benefits of a positive mental attitude, and re-trained as a Therapist, Yoga Teacher and Seminar Leader. She spent eighteen months setting up a home improvements business with her husband in New York, and came to live in Switzerland two years ago. She is the Chairlady of Hata Yoga II. Margaret served as Secretary for the year 2007-2008.
	Francesca Wels - DIRECTOR OF MONTHLY MEETINGS Francesca is Swiss Italian and has been living in Zürich for about 20 years. She was born in Rome and grew up in Italy. The family moved to Lugano where her parents still live. She has a diploma as a translator. Her husband is German and they have two teenage children. They lived in Athens for two years and returned to Switzerland in 2002. Francesca joined ZIWA again and became active as a co- chairlady of Arts & Culture. Last year she also took over as co-chairlady of Discovering Zürich and Switzerland.
	Helen Pulm - DIRECTOR OF INTEREST GROUPS Helen is Singaporean Chinese, married to a German with 2 boys. She graduated with an MBA from the United States and worked in management consultancy and asset management research in Germany for 10 years before moving to Switzerland with the family in 2001. Now she manages three men, aged 44, 13 and 6, the household and all financial matters. Helen speaks English, German and Mandarin as well as the Chinese dialects, Hokkien, Hockchew and Cantonese. She enjoys all kinds of sports, particularly golf (hcp 21), tennis and skiing. Helen was chairlady of the Tennis II group in ZIWA for two years.
	Paola Cavallari Beltrami - DIRECTOR WITHOUT PORTFOLIO Paola is Italian and her husband too. They moved to Zürich three years ago after several years in The Netherlands. They have one child who is living in England. Paola graduated in Computer Sciences and has been working with different computer manufacturer companies for twenty-five years overall, both in technical and commercial positions. Now she is a freelance web designer, studying the human factors in the interaction with the computer and the use of the web technology in order to bring people together. Paola served as Director Without Portfolio for the year 2007-2008.
	Brigitte von Weissenfluh - DIRECTOR WITHOUT PORTFOLIO Brigitte was born and raised in Germany. After she had finished her studies in food chemistry she moved to Switzerland in 1978 because of her Swiss husband. She then worked in her profession for various companies mainly in and around Zürich. After she had finished a second education in quality management, Brigitte and her husband moved to Bangkok, Thailand. During the 4 years they lived there she was working as a quality manager for a Swiss company. At the end of 2001 she became member of ZIWA and took over as Chairlady of the hiking group in 2002. She enjoys showing people of all nationalities the beauty of Switzerland's countryside. Brigitte served as President for the year 2007-2008.