Leadership Journeys: Meet Mark Thommen from the Leaders4Tomorrow Program

We kicked off this year’s Leaders4Tomorrow Program at the Talentor Global Summit in Warsaw in October 2024, followed by an intensive leadership camp. Over the year, the group took part in global keynotes, two company challenges, and many learning opportunities. In June 2025, the second group, including talents from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Austria, successfully completed the program. We’re proud to have run Leaders4Tomorrow for two years now!

One of the top talents within the Talentor Community who participated and recently culminated the second cohort of the Leaders4Tomorrow Program was Mark Thommen.

As Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant at Coopers in Basel, Mark Thommen plays a vital role in connecting top IT talent with Switzerland’s public sector - federal administrations, public energy providers like Swissgrid, and organizations in telecommunications and infrastructure.

With Mark’s deep involvement in public sector recruitment, we were curious to hear his perspective. What makes hiring in this space unique?

And what are the key success factors that help organizations like Coopers deliver outstanding results to public clients across Switzerland?

Hiring top tech talent for public institutions comes with its own set of dynamics - and high expectations. At Coopers, Mark sees three key success factors when working with these clients:

• Structured Communication & Compliance Awareness 
  Public sector clients often require precision, process compliance, and transparency. Our recruiters are trained to speak both technical and administrative language, ensuring seamless communication between candidate and client.
• Talent Relationship Management & Market Understanding 
  We operate in talent-short markets, especially in roles like Security Engineers, Network Engineers, System Engineers, Project Managers and Solution Architects with experience in the public sector. That’s why we constantly engage with candidates - even when there is no immediate role - so we can react fast when new mandates open.
• Dedicated Account Teams 
  Our team setup allows us to focus specifically on public clients. This creates industry insight, faster briefings, and a trusted partnership dynamic. We adapt our sourcing processes to reflect changing project scopes and tech stacks.

Mark summarizes: “For us, it’s about being prepared - both technically and personally. When the right candidate comes along, we move quickly. That’s what our clients rely on.”

• Navigating Change – and Leading It
  Mark’s challenge in the Leaders4Tomorrow (L4T) program was both technical and strategic: during the program, he focused on the test phase and implementation of an internal AI-driven recruitment assistant. He was deeply involved, joining weekly update calls, working 1–3 hours a week in exchange with the lead developer and project manager, and helping guide the project from concept to demo-ready.

“Being close to the development process gave me valuable insights into how sprints work and how developers think,” Mark explains. “It made me a better recruiter for tech roles.”