We are a boutique consulting company based in Switzerland working locally and internationally with strong ties in Central Europe, the Nordics and the USA.

  • We are convinced that happiness is key to success in all areas of life.
  • Work represents a large portion of our life and therefore greatly influences overall happiness.
  • Given our past experiences we add value to happiness at work.
  • Work can be looked at from two lenses: the organization and the professionals at work.
  • We therefore foster organizational and professional happiness through executive search, leadership and career consulting.

Given our past professional experiences and passion for the human element we are in a great position to holistically look at happiness from the organizations (executive search and leadership consulting) and individuals (leadership and career consulting) point of view.

Team

Dr. Mike J. Widmer

Founder & Managing Partner

Dr. Patricia Widmer

Founder & Managing Partner

Happiness, wave, aalto

Happiness is defined as a state of well-being and contentment. Like a wave it is not something permanent but fluid. Like a wave rises and falls so do organizations have ups and downs and so do professional careers exhibit highs and lows. Given our Swiss and Finnish roots the word “aalto” (noun), Finnish for wave, was the ideal name to start our journey of fostering organizational and professional happiness. 

Believes
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Aalto AG – Alfred-Escher-Str. 17 – 8002 Zurich – happiness@aalto.ch – www.aalto.ch – +41 43 549 5474

Impressum/Nutzungsbedingungen – Datenschutz

fostering organizational and professional happiness
executive search, leadership and career consulting

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Mike J. Widmer

Founder & Managing Partner

Dr. Mike J. Widmer is Founder & Managing Partner of Aalto AG – fostering organizational and professional happiness through executive search, leadership and career consulting. 

He began his professional career by founding an internet startup and thereafter joined the software company BSI Business Systems Integration AG as a Project Manager and Legal Counsel. After complementing his PhD in law at the University of Zurich, Switzerland with a full-time MBA at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan he joined McKinsey & Company in the USA. Next Mike returned to BSI to set up the company’s German subsidiary in Frankfurt as Country Manager. 

Prior to founding Aalto in 2020 he worked for almost 10 years in two top-tier executive search companies at international and local levels.

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Patricia
Widmer

Managing Partner

Dr. Patricia Widmer is Founder & Managing Partner at Aalto AG – fostering organizational and professional happiness through executive search, leadership and career consulting.

Patricia studied business administration at the University of Zurich with an emphasis on banking and finance and worked for several years in private banking and wealth management for a large Swiss bank. During her subsequent time abroad in the US and Germany, she held leadership positions with several charity organizations. Patricia has been with the University of St. Gallen since 2014, where she established the English-speaking certificate programme “Women Back to Business” (WBB) as well as the “Women’s Leadership Programme” and is now Programme Director for Diversity and Management Programmes. In addition, she is facilitating and moderating workshops as well as presentations about Diversity & Inclusion and unconscious bias. She wrote her dissertation about “Gender Disparity on Top of Companies”.