03.07.2024 – 10:30

ESC 2025: the core project team is in place

Bern (ots)

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place in Switzerland. Following the appointment a month ago of Reto Peritz and Moritz Stadler as the Executive Producers of the Swiss ESC, now the core team for the project has also been named. And the bidding process to select the host city is entering the final, deciding phase.

Immediately after Nemo's victory in Malmö, Sweden, on 11 May, an SRG task force began preparing for the 2025 ESC in Switzerland. A month ago, Reto Peritz from SRF and Moritz Stadler from RTS were announced as the Executive Producers who will share overall responsibility. Now the core team for the project, which will replace the current task force, is in place:

Yves Schifferle has been Head of the Show desk in SRF's Entertainment department since 2021 and was also Switzerland's Head of Delegation at the ESC. Now that he and Nemo and the team have brought Switzerland victory in the 2024 ESC, he is taking on the role of Head of Show for the Swiss ESC in 2025. He will be responsible for creating and realising the content for all three ESC shows (e.g. moderating the shows, the opening and interval acts, the flag parade, postcards and voting procedure). For one year only, his role as Swiss Head of Delegation will be taken over by Daniel Meister.

Christer Björkman is a Swedish TV producer. He has had a very strong influence on the ESC over the past 10 years, especially as Head of Contest in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2024, when he and his team were responsible for coordinating and producing the contributions from all 40 participating nations. Björkman will once again take on the role of Head of Contest at the Swiss ESC and will be working closely with Yves Schifferle.

Bernhard Spahni has had an impressive career as an event organiser: he has been Head of Events at Farner Emotions, Global Head of Event Marketing with Red Bull and, since 2022, Head of Experience & Festival on the International Olympic Committee. Spahni is to be Head of PMO for the ESC.

Manfred Winz is Deputy Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) with SRG's General Management team in Bern, a member of the SRG Crisis Team and now Head of Finance for the Swiss ESC.

Tobias Åberg from Sweden is an ESC pro: he was Executive in Charge of Production in Malmö and was also a member of the core team for ESC 2013 and 2016. Over the last eight years, he has served as either Head of Production or a technical expert. He will be Head of Production for the Swiss ESC. In that role, he will be responsible for technical production, stage construction, infrastructure and IT.

Nadja Burkhardt-Tracol worked for many years with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as Event Supervisor for the ESC. She is the Special Event Manager for the Concours Hippique International in Geneva, co-founder of Cosykitchen and, as Head of Event for the ESC, will be the primary point of contact for the host city.

Aurore Chatard is a security expert. She has been the Global Health, Safety and Security Director at the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Risk Manager and BCM at the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU), is currently Business Continuity Manager and Crisis Manager at RTS and will be Head of Security at the ESC.

Kevin Stuber is a lawyer who has been working for two years in the legal department at SRG General Management and he will be Head of Legal for the 2025 ESC.

Thomas Pittino has been at SRF for 12 years, initially as Business Developer, then Head of Sponsorship and today Head of Marketing. He will take on the Head of Marketing & Funding role at the Swiss ESC.

Vassilis Donikian occupied various HR positions at SRF over a period of seven years and now, after a spell working in the Recruiting & Employer Branding team at the City of Zurich's Social Services Department, he will take on the role of Head of HR at the 2025 ESC.

Nicole Beutler is a public affairs specialist with many years of experience, has been a partner with furrerhugi AG and is now co-owner and Managing Director of Les Tailleurs Communication. She will be Head of Public Affairs for the ESC.

Henriette Engbersen, who has been Head of the Public Value team at SRG for the last 18 months, will also be responsible for Public Value at the ESC.

Till Jendly joins us from the biotech company CSL Behring in Bern to take on the role of Assistant for the ESC.

For the time being, all the communication for the ESC will be handled via the SRG Press Office.

Now the project core team will gradually set up the teams for the various areas of work and press ahead with organising the world's biggest music event at the same rapid tempo.

The bidding process to select the host city enters the deciding phase

Those cities interested in hosting the Swiss ESC could submit their bids up until the end of last week. Over the next few weeks, the bids that have been received will be studied and evaluated by a working group set up by the project team and with the assistance of the auditing and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

In the end, an SRG steering committee led by SRG Director General Gilles Marchand, with the support of the EBU, will decide on the host city. PwC will monitor the process and ensure that the decision is based on objective criteria. The other members of the steering committee are Nathalie Wappler, Director of SRF, Mario Timbal, Director of RSI, Beat Grossenbacher, Head of Finance at SRG and Bakel Walden, Director of Development & Offering at SRG.

It is hoped to announce the host city by the end of August.

Contact:

SRG SSR Press Office
Edi Estermann
medienstelle.srg@srgssr.ch
Tel. 058 136 21 21