Jelena Tasic Pizzolato works at the intersection of innovation, organisational transformation, and executive decision-making, where complexity, uncertainty, and human dynamics converge. Swiss-based, with extensive experience in international contexts, she brings over twenty years of work across fashion, luxury, technology, and finance, supporting executive teams and boards in strengthening how they think, decide, and act through structured, human-centred approaches to innovation.
Her work is grounded in design thinking, which she uses as her primary innovation methodology. Rather than treating it as a creative exercise, she applies design thinking as a rigorous leadership and organisational tool that enables executives to reframe problems, align stakeholders, test assumptions, and make better strategic decisions under conditions of uncertainty. This lens allows her to translate innovation from aspiration into disciplined practice, embedded in how leaders think, decide, and work together.
Experience
Jelena’s professional path spans senior roles in both public and private organisations, often at moments of transition, growth, or structural change. She has worked closely with CEOs, leadership teams, and boards on strategic repositioning, post-merger integration, organisational design, and governance-level initiatives. Across these contexts, she has consistently acted as a bridge between strategy and execution, and between technological potential and human systems, helping organisations move from intent to action.
A significant part of her career has been dedicated to innovation programs and digital transformation initiatives, particularly within consumer-driven and lifestyle industries. In this context, she has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies, supporting leadership teams in exploring emerging technologies and new business models with a strong focus on adoption, alignment, and organisational readiness. Her approach emphasises that innovation creates value only when it is understood, owned, and governed by leadership—not delegated to functions or isolated units.
Alongside her advisory work, Jelena is deeply engaged in executive education. She designs and facilitates learning experiences for senior leaders and their teams, focusing on innovation, transformation, and leadership in complex environments. Her work in this area is deliberately discreet, tailored, and dialogical, often developed in close collaboration with executive leadership teams to address specific organisational challenges. She is a permanent university lecturer and regularly collaborates with international academic and professional institutions.
Her perspective is informed by a strong academic foundation, combining an MBA in Finance, an Executive Master for Board Members of Public and Private Companies, and a background in the humanities. This interdisciplinary education underpins her interest in how leaders exercise judgement, govern complexity, and make decisions under uncertainty, complementing her extensive executive and organisational experience.
Operating in a strongly cross-cultural context, Jelena has worked across multiple European countries and organisational cultures. This international exposure informs her ability to mediate between perspectives, professional languages, and decision-making styles—an essential capability when working with diverse executive teams facing high-stakes decisions.
Within the Swiss Institute for Alternative Thinking, Jelena serves as Director of Executive Education, where she designs and curates premium executive education programs for senior leaders and leadership teams. Her focus is on creating high-quality, confidential learning spaces in which leaders can step back from operational pressure, challenge assumptions, and strengthen their individual and collective capacity to think, decide, and act with clarity. Through this work, she contributes to translating Alternative Thinking into practical, high-impact educational experiences that support leaders in navigating complexity with discipline, responsibility, and confidence.
