Team Zurich / Switzerland

Diego Salmeron, CEO and Member of the Board

Diego Salmeron as worked many years as researcher in spatial and environmental planning at ETH Zurich. His research activities focus mainly on sustainable regional and urban development, including environmental planning issues. He has a broad working experience in Asian countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, where he was managing and leading several training and research programs in the fields of regional and environmental planning.

Mr. Salmeron graduated in Rural Engineering at ETH Zurich (MSc ETH). He is registered planner (REG A) and member of the Swiss-Chinese Association. Furthermore, Diego Salmeron has a mandate as an Associate Expert of the Sino-Swiss Management Training Programme.

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Suman Rana, CTO and Member of Executive Board

Suman Rana is one of the founding partners of LEP Consultants AG and a professional in the field of urban and real estate planning. Before LEP, she has worked for many years as Researcher in spatial and environmental planning at ETH Zurich. Her working experience covers developmental projects of varied scale and complexity at regional, sub-regional and local levels in many countries. Her academic, professional and research fields include urban planning, smart cities, real estate development, business planning, sustainable development and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Ms. Rana has education in Civil Engineering followed by Masters in Urban Planning from India and a second Masters of Real Estate from NUS, Singapore. She is trained and hands-on with diverse software tools and techniques on GIS and remote sensing.

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Intercultural Communication

Wei Grueber-Wang, Communication Expert and Partner

As an Intercultural Consultant for China and an interpreter with over twenty years of experience, Mrs. Grueber-Wang gains a great variety of competence in different fields: financial services, international trading, urban and spatial planning, architecture, sustainable development, transportation, Public Private Partnership, public management, communication, publishing.

Master degree in Economics at the University Zurich, German language and literature study at the Beijing Foreign Languages University. She has a broad working experience in project consultancy and management. Working as Project Manager for a Swiss Insurance company, she developed strong skills as project consultant.

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Team Kunming / China

Lian Wang, General Manager

Graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen, Germany, Wang Lian holds masters degree in urban planning. He has a strong urban planning experience and competence collating from working in Europe and China. In China, he has worked with Planning and Design Institute, Kunming and Kunming University of Technology for about 5 years. He has been associated with Kunming - Zurich sister city cooperation projects for many years (from 2007), where he has been responsible for project coordination, communication and organizational management. He is supporting LEP since 2011 as project coordinator and became General Manager of LEP Kunming subsidiary in March 2016.

Mr. Wang operates from Kunming, China and supports LEP strongly on its business activities in China.

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Zheng Xi, Chief Planner

Kunming University of Science and Technology, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Department of Planning, Lecturer: 2015.04 to 2016.05,
Qujing City Planning Bureau, Deputy Director responsible for the project Qujing City, Nanpanjiang protection and utilization planning (2015-2018,); Head of the planning bureau, Qujing City, Yuquoshan protection and utilization planning (2015-2018);
2012-2013, Jinghong Dongfeng Farm master plan, control detailed planning, project leader.

Chen Yi, Project Assistant

She graduated from Dianchi College of Yunnan University with a bachelor's degree in urban and rural planning. She is proficient in CAD, PS, SU, AI, GIS and other professional software. From December 2018 to present, she worked as an assistant to the planner at Kunming LEP Consultants Co.Ltd., she participated in practical projects such as the protection of the ancient tea-horse village and Dali City Master Plan. She has extensive experience in urban design and land space planning.

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Zhang Guoyan, Project Assistant

In June 2019, she graduated from Dianchi College of Yunnan University with a bachelor's degree in urban and rural planning. From 2017 on, she gained professional work experience at the Engineering Technology Management Office of the Yunnan Jiangzhao Expressway Expansion Construction Project Headquarters at the Yunnan Provincial Design Institute Group and at the Kunming Urban and Rural Planning and Ecology Design and Research Institute.

With strong professional knowledge and ability, she has accumulated rich project experience in urban and rural planning, urban design and land space planning.
She is working as a project assistant at Kunming LEP Consultants Co.Ltd.

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Zhang Ying, Project Assistant

She graduated in 2019 from the Kunming University of Science and Technology, with a bachelor's degree in Architecture. She started to gain professional experience at Yunnan Shi Li Holding Group Co., Ltd. from 2019-2020, where she assisted the team to complete the preliminary planning and positioning and research report of high quality residential products.

From 2020-2022 she worked at Kunming Science and Technology Fanya Design Group Co., Ltd. (KFD) and participated in the construction drawing design of public construction projects such as hotels, middle schools and exhibition halls. She also gained knowledge in BIM technology for residential building design.

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Advisors

Prof. em. Dr. Willy A. Schmid

Advisor and Partner

Broad working experience as professor for spatial planning at ETH Zurich. Prof. Schmid has extensive experience in working abroad, especially in China and other Asian countries and has published widely in related fields. His key interests are ecological and environmental planning, decision-making in the context of infrastructure and spatial development, development of rural and urban areas and development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as planning instruments.

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Laurenz Schmid

Advisor and Partner

An established entrepreneur owning two Five Star Wellness and Spa Hotels in Switzerland:

Hotel Beatus, Merligen at Lake Thun

Hotel Ermitage in Schönried close to Gstaad

Being a successful businessman since several decades in Switzerland, Mr. Laurenz Schmid has enriched LEP portfolio with valuable business knowledge and a specific competence in hotel business development and operation.

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