← Mathieu Van de Catsije

Curriculum vitae

Doctoral researcher at the University of St. Gallen, based in the joint HSG–ETH–Zurich AI Lab, working on what a firm becomes when most of its work is done by AI. Before that, two years of executive-facing strategy work at Zurich Insurance across Zurich and Singapore. Trained in mathematics and physics, then in innovation and technology management. Six industries in seven years, the same habit each time: get curious, learn the business fast, then improve how it runs.

Contents
  1. Experience
  2. Education
  3. Writing & building
  4. Skills & languages
  5. Otherwise

Experience

  1. Jun 2026 – present

    Doctoral Researcher

    University of St. Gallen, Zurich AI Lab — the joint lab of Zurich Insurance, ETH Zurich and HSG

    St. Gallen & Zurich

    • Doctoral research on how organisations work when some of their members are AI agents, alongside people or in their place; first studies in progress.
    • Exploring how employees collaborate with AI agents, starting with the data from Zurich’s firm-wide AI hackathon.
    • Support the lab’s venture incubator, where two AI-first insurance start-ups are being built, with research and working software.
  2. May 2024 – May 2026

    Strategic Project Manager

    Zurich Insurance Group, Group Strategy — the group’s strategy and innovation talent programme

    Zurich & Singapore

    • Led the programme’s Asia-Pacific region from Singapore: four strategy projects, each sponsored by a regional executive, with fourteen project members reporting to me from scoping to final recommendation. Two of the four reached implementation.
    • Built the growth strategy for a commercial line of business with a four-person team across three regions; wrote the recommendation, adopted by the line’s leadership.
    • Seconded to the regional Head of Strategy: owned the macro-economic and market analysis behind the Regional CEO’s executive briefings, and contributed to two market-opportunity assessments.
    • Led a group-wide AI strategic-monitoring programme, advising executives on AI strategy for their functions.
    • Designed and taught a four-day strategy curriculum - project management, design thinking, the craft of a good deck - to over 130 high-potentials and senior leaders.
  3. Oct 2023 – Dec 2024

    Independent Consultant

    Studio APG — a B2B video studio

    Paris & remote · Part-time, alongside the MSc and then Zurich.

    • Repositioned the studio’s offer by mapping its production workflow against delivery risk, and re-pitching it on what buyers actually paid for.
  4. Dec 2022 – Aug 2023

    Bar Manager

    The Noble Hops — a craft beer bar

    Sydney

    • Ran the (in my unbiased opinion) best beer bar in Sydney: hired, trained and managed a team of five, and was offered a partnership in the business.
  5. Apr 2022 – Oct 2022

    Founder’s Associate

    Bubble — a comics and manga e-commerce start-up of eight people

    Station F, Paris

    • Raised the international delivery margin by five points by analysing 100,000+ sales records in Python and redesigning the pricing; automated the marketing workflow, saving a day a week of operations.
    • Built the publishing arm’s website.
  6. Oct 2019 – Mar 2020

    IT Consultant Intern

    Wavestone — a consulting firm

    Paris

    • Built vendor API integrations for the firm’s Azure data-governance platform - the youngest hire in the firm’s history, at nineteen.

Education

  1. 2026 – 2029 (expected)

    PhD candidate, Management & Strategy

    University of St. Gallen (HSG)

    Institute of Management & Strategy, in the joint HSG–ETH–Zurich AI Lab.

  2. 2021 – 2024

    MSc Technology & Innovation Management

    Mines Paris PSL & Université Paris-Dauphine

    Highest honours, top 4 of 36; thesis on evaluating corporate innovation training. Includes a mandatory gap year, spent in Sydney.

  3. 2017 – 2021

    BSc Mathematics & Physics

    Université Paris-Saclay, Institut Villebon-Charpak

    High honours; a selective, project-based cohort of 35 students.

Writing & building

Skills & languages

Research
Field-study design, interview and survey instruments, agent-based modelling, Monte Carlo simulation, pre-registration and research ethics.
Analysis
Market research, financial and survey analysis in Python and SQL; decision papers and executive presentations.
AI engineering
Anthropic and OpenAI APIs, agent harnesses and multi-agent orchestration, evals and deterministic replay, memory and retrieval design.
Building
Python (FastAPI, pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch), TypeScript, React and Next.js, Astro, SQL, Git, Docker, Vercel, Railway, Azure.
Languages
French (native), English (fluent), German (beginner, in lessons)

Otherwise

Lived and worked in France, Australia, Singapore and Switzerland. Long-distance running in the mountains, bouldering, manga and bande dessinée, and the physical newspaper.

Download as PDF ↓ LinkedIn vandemathieu@gmail.com