“I love working with passionate individuals”

When asked how she would define well-being in the workplace, Marianne Wannier replies that “it’s when you’re happy to go to work in the morning and leave satisfied in the evening, and when you look forward to seeing your colleagues the next day, picking up on your projects where you left off.”

Marianne Wannier herself embodies this goal. Her office days start early and finish late, but she enjoys what she does. “I’m really attached to EPFL and the people who work here,” she says. “It’s a truly unique place with passionate individuals who do amazing things. It’s not easy to find this kind of environment. We’ve got all these young people on campus, great energy, the lake – it all comes together into something incredible.”

EPFL is a truly unique place with passionate individuals who do amazing things. It’s not easy to find this kind of environment.

The Vice Presidency for Human Development (VPH) is part of the vision that the new president, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, has for EPFL, and is designed to help the School connect the dots between HR issues and other topics affecting the entire community, such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), mental health and psychosocial-risk prevention. The VPH also aims to better enable those who work and study at EPFL to develop their potential, in particular through continuing education for employees and an expanded career center to benefit everyone at the School.

Accustomed to moving

Marianne Wannier had been working at EPFL as an HR manager for nearly 12 years when she took a job with the Swiss Federal Roads Office in Bern. She spent four years there before returning to the School in 2023. “What drew me to the position in Bern was the chance to work for my country,” she says. “But part of me has always been tied to the Lausanne area. My family was also really happy to come back to the region.”

Moving house is nothing new for Marianne Wannier, who changed countries frequently as a child owing to her father’s work as a geologist. She has lived in Latin America, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Malaysia. “Our house is filled with crafts from around the world, and that’s a good reflection of who I am,” she says.

You can’t work at EPFL and be apathetic – being here means being passionate about what you do.

That’s also part of why Marianne Wannier enjoys EPFL so much – it’s a multicultural university with “a rich array of career backgrounds.” The common denominator is “engagement at all levels of the organization,” including among the technical and administrative staff. “You can’t work at EPFL and be apathetic – being here means being passionate about what you do. And I love working with passionate individuals.” What Marianne Wannier finds particularly gratifying is watching people gain experience and progress in their careers – “like going from tenure track assistant professor to EPFL president!”

Living in the moment

Calm and collected by nature, Marianne Wannier seems to have found the secret to managing the stress inherent in a dynamic environment like EPFL. How does she cope, especially given her new responsibilities? “I try to really live in the moment – whatever I’m doing at the time gets my full attention,” she says. “When I’m at work, I’m not really available for anything else. And when I’m with my daughters, I’m fully with them. I also love to cook; for me it’s important that our family has dinner together in the evening when I’m home in time. Then I usually go back to work.”

Whatever I’m doing at the time gets my full attention. When I’m at work, I’m not really available for anything else.

Marianne Wannier adds that she enjoys the simpler things, like when people walk out of her office happy that they were able to resolve a problem. “Every little achievement counts,” she says. However, she admits to being someone who needs time to think things through. “If I don’t make a decision quickly, there’s usually a good reason.” Attention to detail and a job well done are more important in Marianne Wannier’s view than rushing things through.

Teamwork and a shared culture

That doesn’t mean her sights aren’t set high. “There are so many things we want to do that we’ve got to prioritize and channel our energy,” says Marianne Wannier. Now that she’s formed her team – the four department heads in the VPH and her office staff – she can focus on building cohesion within the vice presidency and instilling a shared culture. “My goal is for each person within the VPH to be an attentive ear for our community and a force for spreading this approach across the School,” she says. As a starting point, the approximately 100 people at the VPH take part in various types of team building events designed to help them get to know each other and form bonds.

I believe students form an integral part of our mission at the VPH. (...) Not being connected to them isn’t an option.

What about the students in all this? “I believe students form an integral part of our mission at the VPH, although it took me a while to realize that – it wasn’t clear to me at first,” she says. “But the more I thought about it, the more it became obvious. Students are part of everything we do because at the end of the day, they’re our ‘end customers.’ Not being connected to them isn’t an option.”

Marianne Wannier is confident that EPFL’s new leadership team will be able to coordinate efforts among the School’s various divisions. “Teamwork is a priority for our new president,” she says. “It’s all been set up very quickly and smoothly. We’re all very complementary.”

Rethinking the status quo

Marianne Wannier agrees with Anna Fontcuberta i Morral that the budget cuts can actually be an opportunity. “Of course, we’d like things to continue as they were, but the cuts will force us to rethink how we do things, make sure we operate efficiently, and focus on what really matters: our people,” says Marianne Wannier.

EPFL strives for excellence – which is what we have and what we’ll keep developing – but it comes at a cost.

What changes would she like to see for the many individuals who make up EPFL and who are the raison d’être of the new vice presidency? Marianne Wannier takes a deep breath before replying in her usual calm, soft-spoken manner: “I’d like to lighten the mental load here. EPFL strives for excellence – which is what we have and what we’ll keep developing – but it comes at a cost. We see it at all levels of our organization: among students, staff, faculty members – everyone. The lights are still on here at night; people are working and they want to work because they’re passionate. So our role is to say, Ok, but there comes a point when you’ve got to stop. And people have trouble with that here.” Starting, perhaps, with Marianne Wannier herself.