Zuzana Dobbie PhD ACC

Born and raised in Slovakia, I moved to Switzerland in my early twenties to pursue a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Basel. Shortly after graduating, I found myself managing two hospital laboratories, leading a team of 15 scientists at various stages of their academic and clinical careers.

Driven by a curiosity for business, I transitioned from the laboratory to a biotech start-up, stepping into the role of Head of Marketing and Sales. The passion, ability to make a difference and energy of a start-up were truly inspiring.

I then joined Roche, a Top-5 global Pharma and Diagnostics corporation, as a member of the Investor Relations team. Here I had the privilege of working closely with the company’s most senior leaders within the Corporate Executive Committee – gaining a first-hand view of C-suite governance, investor pressures, and macroeconomic decision-making. Subsequently, I held various senior roles in Executive Communications, R&D Strategy and Medical Affairs, leading high-stakes, cross-functional projects across multiple geographies. One of the most fascinating moments of my career came during the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic when I served as a key member of the company’s COVID-19 taskforce, contributing to critical decision-making and rapid execution.

Alongside my corporate achievements, I am the proud mother of a wonderful young man. Having managed the pressures of motherhood and executive career for many years, I understand the challenges that modern leaders face.

My Path to Coaching
The turning point came gradually, then all at once. Across every role I kept returning to the same observation: the biggest lever in any organization is the quality of its leadership and the cohesion of its teams. No strategy, product, or process outperforms the human system running it. When I discovered coaching as a discipline, something clicked. Here was a structured, evidence-based way to develop what I had seen mattered most.

My formal coaching path began over five years ago, initially as an internal business agile coach within Roche, supporting numerous international leaders and leadership teams on their development journeys.

Today, as the founder of zeta, I bring a combination of scientific training, start-up agility, corporate executive wisdom, and over 600 hours of credentialed coaching to my clients. For large-scale organizational projects, I collaborate with a handpicked network of seasoned fellow coaches, scaling the zeta team to meet the scope of each engagement.