Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Catalina Rojas. I come from Costa Rica and I am a pharmacist.

Before joining Roche Basel a year ago, I worked as a Regulatory Affairs Officer at the Roche affiliate in Costa Rica for five years, managing countries in Central America and the Caribbean. Before that, I held Quality Control and Quality Assurance positions in manufacturing plants in Costa Rica and Spain. I also have some experience working in pharmacy offices and hospital pharmacies.

In my professional and personal life, my ambition is always to enjoy what I am doing and do it as well as possible with a positive attitude. I am convinced that having a positive attitude can create great opportunities for you and those around you.

I love to spend time with my family; it's like meditation to me and reboots my energy to keep on going. I also enjoy traveling as a way of trying to understand other people’s culture. Music, sport and languages are also among my hobbies.

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Navid Nazemian and I am working in Group HR since February 2012 as a Global HR Business Partner, supporting HR and Communications globally. I started my career working in commercial and sales roles for about six years, as a customer of HR. My sales peers were quite surprised when I told them that I had discovered my passion for HR by accident. Since then, I have worked in HR for over a decade without any regrets.

I have been fortunate enough to have worked across many industries as a HR professional. I learned a thing or two about the sporting goods industry, the commercial finance sector and, lately, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) before joining Roche. I have lived and worked in a number of countries and consider myself a global citizen.

I’ve worked for Roche/Boehringer Mannheim for 20 years now, mostly in various support functions in the US. In 1997 we created the very first Point of Care data management system for hospital testing.

I was tasked with creating a training programme for Point of Care Coordinators (POCC) implementing regulatory compliance in Near Patient Testing (NPT) for the first time. I had the privilege of facilitating 2-day workshops and also helping Roche understand customer needs. I was fortunate to be able to organise workshops in various warm and sunny locations around the US, which was always a bonus during the cold winter months in Indianapolis. After 10 years of training I came back in-house and took on a leadership role in the Accu-Check Customer Care department. I inherited a group of technical specialists and we worked together to forge a progressive and well-knit team.

In my free time I really enjoy hiking here in Switzerland and I also scuba dive whenever I have the opportunity.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Volker. I live in Freiburg (Germany) and am currently working on a project in Shanghai, which is why I spend a lot of my time there. I have a passion for Motorcycles.

When I am here in Europe and not working in Shanghai on my current project, I love driving my Motorcycle through the mountains –the Schwarzwald is a beautiful mountainous region in Germany and is one of my favourite places which everyone must see at least once in their lifetime.

Erzählen Sie uns ein wenig über sich

Ich bin Manuel Schwager, 32 Jahre alt und verheiratet. Ich arbeite seit fast einem Jahr bei Roche als Consumables Project Leader. Davor war ich über 5 Jahre Projektleiter für die Entwicklung von medizinischen Implantaten zur Behandlung von Knochenbrüchen am schweizer Standort einer amerikanischen Firma. Während meines Studiums habe ich in Brasilien und den USA gelebt. Zusätzlich war ich beruflich für fast ein Jahr in San Francisco, bevor ich zu Roche kam. Die Zeit im Ausland hat mich geprägt und mir erlaubt, viele neue Dinge zu sehen und auszuprobieren. In meiner Freizeit mache ich so viel Sport wie möglich, z.B. Apnoetauchen, Downhill Mountain Biken und Snowboarden. Im Sommer bin ich fast jeden Tag am Zürichsee und in den Ferien zieht es mich an abgelegene Orte irgendwo am Meer, auf der Suche nach grossen Fischen und Wellen beim Speerfischen und Surfen.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I come originally from Ireland and have worked in Roche Basel for over six year. I joined Roche as a statistical programmer working in early product development and then later as a statistician working on a product treating breast cancer. After four years in this position, I moved to the Modeling Outcomes Research Statistics and Epidemiology group (MORSE) to work as a statistician and health economic modeler.

Since moving to Basel, my sporting activities have changed to what Switzerland has to offer. I also like living close to the Rhine and I enjoy swimming in it during the summer months.

For the first time, and from over 1000 companies participating, Roche Brazil has entered the top 100 "Best Companies to Work for - Brazil 2012" at 71st position.

Announced at the ceremony in São Paulo on August 13th, this is an important award as it represents, among other things, our culture, work environment and our best practices.

Great Place to Work® has been publishing the list of the best companies to work for in Brazil since 2006, and this year almost 1.8 million employees answered the questionnaire.

http://www.greatplacetowork.com.br/

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello, my name is Thomas Wicki and I work as electrical team leader in the Engineering Department at Roche Basel. Together with eight team colleagues we are responsible for planning and setting up electrical systems. I started my career at Roche in 1997 as project engineer in the Engineering Department. Previously I had been working in various engineering firms in Zurich and became familiar with planning and implementation from the company’s side.

In my free time I enjoy a good meal and fine wine. In summer I like to go mountain-biking and together with my wife I go on interesting and challenging rides. In winter I love to ski in the Swiss mountains.

My grandfather was Swiss but I was born in Peru, where I lived until the age of 14. My family emigrated from Peru to Toronto Canada, where I lived until I was 29 before coming back to Switzerland. I always wanted to travel the world and see different cultures, something my current job has definitely provided.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Girisha Fernando and I am 23 years old. I work for Group IT in the area of Financial Compliance. My origins lay in Sri Lanka, the country I was born in and in which I spent the first 3 years of my life. Our family moved to Switzerland, and I lived near Basel in the countryside until I started my studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Lucerne. I’ve been working for Roche for almost two years now and plan to return to university to continue my studies in the area of International Management.