Board & Governance
Governance experience, and the time available for it.
Dr Welzel is a physician and group executive whose career has been built inside regulated healthcare systems where clinical accountability, patient safety and financial performance are settled at the same table. He served for five years on the Group Executive Committee of a multinational hospital group with revenue of EUR 4.5 billion, taking proposals to its plc board, and has chaired two company boards. He is seeking non-executive appointments where clinical and quality governance, research ethics oversight, and digital and data governance are material to the board's work.
Board and committee appointments
- Chairman of the Board, Ouroboros Solutions AG, Zug, Switzerland (2020–2025).
- Chairman of the Board, Phoenix Health and Wellness Solutions, S.L.U., Barcelona, Spain (2023–2025).
- Member, Group Executive Committee, Mediclinic Group (2020–2025). Secured Group Executive Committee and plc board approval for a ten-year plan to establish an independent innovation entity, including its funding model.
- Member, Group Growth & Investment Committee, Mediclinic Group (2020–2025). Analysed and recommended acquisition targets.
- Vice Chair from 2013, Institutional Review Board and Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Stellenbosch (2011–2017). Contributed to the review of the committee's terms of reference and to achieving and maintaining accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP).
- Member, Ex-Gratia Review Committee, Remedi Health Insurance, South Africa, administered by Discovery Health (2016–2020). Reviewed exceptional and disputed benefit claims.
- Group lead for clinical governance, clinical standards and the clinical accountability structure across Southern Africa, the Middle East and Switzerland (2016–2019), covering 60 hospitals in three regulatory environments.
- Co-founder, International Centre for Excellence in Emergency Medicine, Bern (2015 – present).
Committee interests
Quality and safety, clinical governance, research and ethics oversight, and digital and data governance. Dr Welzel has not yet served on an audit or risk committee and does not claim that experience, though risk and finance oversight is an area he is actively developing through the INSEAD International Directors Programme.
Sectors and geographies
Healthcare providers, health insurers, health technology and clinical software companies, and healthcare-related foundations. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom. He holds German and South African nationality, is resident in Zürich, and holds an unrestricted right to work in Switzerland and the European Union.
Availability
Two to three days per month, equivalent to approximately 24 to 36 days per year, across a board portfolio.
Independence
Dr Welzel is the founder and managing partner of Acuvera Consulting GmbH, a healthcare consultancy he intends to continue operating alongside a board portfolio. He discloses this at the outset: a nomination committee will wish to assess whether the firm has, or could have, a commercial relationship with the appointing organisation, and he will accept whatever restriction on the firm's business with that organisation a board considers necessary. He holds no current listed-company directorships.