Biography

Petra Jantzer leads Accenture’s Life Sciences Business globally and is the Account CEO for Novartis. Previously she led Accenture Life Sciences Europe, R&D Europe, and Life Sciences DACH. Before joining Accenture, Petra was a senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she led the R&D practice globally and the Pharmaceuticals & Health practice in Switzerland. Petra is also serving on the Boards of Directors for both Accenture AG Switzerland and Accenture Services Switzerland.

Petra’s professional roots are in basic science, she holds a PhD in Tumor-immunology and a master’s degree in molecular biology. Petra’s mission is to support global Life Science Leaders in bringing innovative medicines to patients and ultimately achieve better health outcomes.

Dr. Jantzer has more than 25 years’ experience in the bio-pharmaceuticals sector, both as an advisor and as a researcher. She has profound industry and R&D knowledge, deep business process understanding, and two decades of C-level counseling experience to help clients (digitally) transform their businesses.

Petra believes that diversity is critical to the success of companies, economies, and societies. This belief motivated her to co-found “Advance – gender equality in Swiss business”, a cross-industry association of 150+ mostly blue-chip company members in Switzerland with a joint mission to increase the share of women in senior leadership positions in the Swiss economy. She is honored to represent Switzerland in the G20 EMPOWER initiative to drive gender-equality globally.

Petra is a passionate people developer and firmly believes that leaders need to nurture the next generation to be better than the one before it. During her career, she has been a role model for gender equality in the workplace and beyond and is viewed as a strong force in fostering talent – both male and female.