Bio
Urs Gubser started his career with UBS in Switzerland as a front-office developer covering FX, commodities, and equity derivatives. During this time, he launched his first startup (DWC) as a side project. He later moved with UBS to New York and sold the company. His early career phases were largely shaped by the corporate environments of UBS and Millennium Partners, a New York–based hedge fund. He left Millennium and co-founded two internet startups: the first in e-commerce retail, built around a shop-and-chat concept, and the second (Allinstant), focused on unified communications with the goal of combining email and instant messaging into a single platform. While the second startup managed to attract a Series B round, it ultimately faltered two and a half years later amid limited traction and a downturn in the internet startup market. Urs then returned to consulting, working with Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
In 2007, he joined Citi (Citigroup) in a newly formed unit tasked with transforming the bank's operational infrastructure. The focus was twofold: building new platforms for scale and automation, and normalising business data and workflows across the various systems and processes. Urs led a team that developed a new trade-routing platform for all cash securities transactions globally. After three years, he moved with Citi to Hong Kong, where he was charged with mapping Asian cash flows with the eventual goal of driving transformation. While in Hong Kong, he became fascinated by how people used the Octopus payment card — he became a self-described "payment geek" and was determined to make payments his next career. Upon his return to New York, he joined the emerging payments group within the bank's global consumer banking unit, where he built mobile payment wallets.
In 2014, the family decided to move to Switzerland after almost 17 years abroad. Urs joined SIX as Head of E-Commerce Product, where he was responsible for a strategic e-commerce programme of his own design. The programme aimed to close functional gaps, enter new markets and distribution channels, and leapfrog the competition in e-commerce payments (ThingsBy7). From 2017 to 2018, SIX's e-commerce sales margin increased by around 30%, attributable in part to the success of the programme.
Urs's combined knowledge of technology and business gives him a distinctive perspective on any business or business process. Coupled with his forward-looking nature, he brings innovation and strategic thinking to both existing and new ventures.
Urs is often ahead of his time — something that translates into unique opportunities in corporate environments and can be highly valuable to an organisation.
Urs holds an MBA from the University of Manchester, UK. He occasionally gives speeches about the future and writes with passion about changes in society, culture, and technology. He is also an enthusiastic photographer and an all-round tinkerer (retro computing, IoT).