Four young talents in the final for the NextGen Hero Award
Who is in the running for the coveted 'NextGen Hero' Award? A preliminary decision has now been made: The jury announced the finalists on 4 September.
The next generation of young digital heroes is ready and waiting. Switch is presenting the 'NextGen Hero' award for the third time as part of the Digital Economy Awards. Four young men and women aged between 20 and 28 are in the final. With their innovative strength, courage and potential for impact, they were best able to convince the jury of how they are driving forward the digital transformation in Switzerland.
Live pitching in the Hallenstadion Zurich
The young talents are among the 20 organisations and nine individuals who will be competing for one of the coveted awards in six categories at the final of the Digital Economy Award Night on 13 November 2025 in the Hallenstadion Zurich. They will pitch their projects live in front of a large audience. The audience will decide which young man or woman will take home the title of NextGen Hero by voting in the hall.
As jury president in 2025, I was once again impressed by the large number of inspiring personalities and their passion for making a tangible contribution to the digitalisation of Switzerland – and with a wide variety of topics. This year, talents from the HSG, BFH, OST and HSLU universities managed to inspire the jury with their ideas and performances. I'm really looking forward to the four – promised – very different live pitches at the Digital Economy Award Night.
Who are the four finalists? The jury statements provide exciting insights into how they are helping to shape the digital future with their innovative ideas, visions and solutions:
Nathalie Kern
Nathalie is on a mission to harmonize digital solutions in the Swiss public sector. Working as an Enterprise Architect at the Canton of St. Gallen, she has already developed a modular solution to harmonize the software landscape used within the Canton. Having already presented her solution to other cantons, Nathalie sees potential to scale to all 26 Swiss Cantons. This makes her a true go-getter with heart.
Dr Alexandra Allgaier
Studyond is an AI-powered platform that connects companies, students and universities for practical theses. Developed from an Innosuisse project with the University of St. Gallen, ETH Zurich and OST, it promotes knowledge transfer. Co-founder Alexandra builds bridges between science and business and represents a new generation of female founders: value-oriented, action-oriented and anchored in systemic thinking.
Simon Weigold
Simon unites data engineering, visualization, and data science with a strong moral compass to democratize legal knowledge. His open-source tool supports people with limited access to legal advice, making it available for everyone to use and benefit from. He gives law students and experts alike the opportunity to discover and use AI-driven legal tech responsibly.
Michael Jakob
Michael Jakob is addressing the need to further the innovative collaboration between startups and corporations in an increasing technological, and competitive world.
Actively supporting corporate venturing and with growing expertise that he has acquired in academia and industry, we believe that he is well positioned to foster the innovative power of Swiss industry.
