Lucas Zehnder joins Rockstar - psychology meets tech recruiting.

In 2020, Horizont covered a hire that said a lot about where Swiss tech recruiting was heading: Lucas Zehnder joining Rockstar Recruiting. A seasoned executive-search consultant and career psychologist, Zehnder brought eight years of headhunting at hans hofmann & partner, plus earlier years in research and active sourcing.

Rockstar had started in 2016 as a University of Zurich spin-off and grew up rooted in the ETH ecosystem. A personal approach and a commitment to sustainable recruiting built a strong candidate portfolio fast - serving VC-funded startups and international technology companies based in Switzerland, across full-stack engineering, data science, computer vision and blockchain.

What set the team apart was the mix of backgrounds - psychology, computer science and economics. Zehnder, who also runs the long-running career vlog Lucas Training, added a human and psychological dimension to technical hiring. His view at the time: Rockstar builds a community-oriented, personal platform for IT experts and innovative companies - and strengthens Switzerland as an innovation hub.

That blend - deep technical understanding paired with a real grasp of people - is the foundation techxecutive is built on today. Lucas now leads executive searches alongside the team.