About
From idea to funded reality — senior innovation advisory, grounded in Switzerland, with a genuine bridge to China.
The firm
The practice is an extension of our ecosystem. Over three decades, we have cultivated a network of technical experts, public funding specialists, and strategic partners who can be activated according to each project's specific needs. We don’t just offer advice; we provide the structure and the community required to turn innovation into a funded, functional reality.
Lan Zuo Gillet Founder & Principal
Experienced Innovation leader, mentor of Swiss Innovation agency, board member, founder and director of several national and international initiatives, in both private and public sectors
Lan is a senior innovation leader with thirty years’ experience across Switzerland’s public and private sectors. As Consul for Scientific Affairs at the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai, she opened Swissnex China and put in place the Sino-Swiss Science & Technology Cooperation programme for ETH Zurich and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. For eleven years she was Deputy Managing Director of EPFL Innovation Park, leading its start-up training, incubation and acceleration and founding the Tech4Trust, Tech4Eva and Tech4Growth programmes.
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From 2018 to 2025 she served as an expert for the Swiss Innovation Agency (Innosuisse), assessing national innovation-funding applications; in 2025 she was accredited as an Innosuisse Innovation Mentor. She holds a Ph.D. from EPFL and an MBA from HEC Lausanne, with postdoctoral experience at Stanford, and works fluently in French, English and Chinese. For the people she advises, that background is not decoration — it is the network, judgement and reach she brings to your project.
How we work
LanShan works as a strategic partner to leaders, helping them refine their innovation models, select the right partners, and articulate the value of their projects to the right funding bodies. She brings a combination of Swiss process and high-level execution to every engagement.
Core values
The advice matters, but so does the way it's given. These four principles shape every engagement, whatever stage your project is at: we ask the hard questions before offering answers, hold your funding case to the standard Switzerland's system genuinely demands, and stay alongside you from first conversation to funded reality. They aren't claims to live up to so much as the way we choose to work — the way a good mentor does, measured by your success rather than our own.
Innovation
Grounded in Swiss excellence and forward-thinking technological solutions.
Integrity
Built on transparency and long-term trust in every advisory engagement.
Bridge-Building
Actively connecting the Swiss and Chinese innovation ecosystems.
Excellence
Committed to professional rigor and strategic international growth.
