Cristina's professional journey started as Radio Moderator, while studying English, French and Pedagogy at Transilvania University in Brasov, Romania. Fascinated by languages and the science of communications, she entered the field of public relations in 2005, when moving to Switzerland. Employed at first in a Swiss PR agency, she managed projects for world class interior design and architecture companies.

 

Sensing that the emerging social media would have a tectonic effect on communications, in 2010 she enrolled in the Executive Master of Science in Communications Management at USI - Università della Svizzera Italiana and UCLA - University of California, Los Angeles. During her studies she worked on pioneering projects focusing on social media communications for Swiss public authorities and international companies. After graduation, she joined Silicon Valley based tech company Evernote, inspired by Phil Libin's vision to "build the world's second brain". She led communications, marketing and sales and held the role of General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa during the company's hypergrowth phase.

 

Animated by a desire to contribute to positive change in the world through education innovation, Cristina founded in 2017 the nonprofit Educreators (born as We Are Play Lab). Developed as a pioneering purpose driven organization, Educreators Foundation supported until December 2023 together with its strategic partners - Swiss foundations, universities, cantons and schools - innovative public primary and secondary schools across Switzerland. Among its flagship projects, the open education initiative Project Square, developed for five years together with researchers from EPFL, SUPSI, ETH and HEP Vaud, contributed to the integration of computational thinking in primary schools in Western Switzerland. In parallel with building Educreators, Cristina managed the launch of Switzerland's first hub for edtech entrepreneurs - the Swiss Edtech Collider at EPFL Lausanne - and was part of the Strategic Development team at ETH Zurich, contributing to launching strategic foresight projects at the intersection of science, technology and education.

 

Passionate about human development, diversity, equity and inclusion, Cristina has coached hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs in the past decade, in programs such as Kickstart Accelerator, Inosuisse Venturelab Early Stage Startups Training, Unleash and Connectology. As an expert in strategic innovation, foresight and communications, she advises today purpose driven public and private organisations. Current projects include expert mandates for the European Union, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the European Edtech Alliance and Talkspirit. Former Board Member of the EIC - the European Innovation Council between 2021 and 2023, Cristina is currently an EIC Ambassador.

 

A lifelong learner by design, Cristina holds a lic.phil. in English and French with teacher certification from Transilvania University (1996) and a Master of Science in Communications Management from USI - Università della Svizzera Italiana and Strategic Management at UCLA - University of California Los Angeles (2011). She is a certified Reputation Institute professional (2010), a Hasso Plattner Institut design thinking professional (2015) , a certified strategic foresight and futures design professional of the Institute for the Future IFTF (2018) and an IMD Mastering Board Governance alumna (2022). Her mentoring methods are anchored in the Evolutionary Dynamics Advanced Training (2020).

 

With a deep love for music, design, architecture and art, Cristina enjoys being on a perpetual discovery

and evolutionary journey.