Johannes Koch grew up near Zürich and got his PhD in Economics at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He started off his professional career as a teacher of Economics at the Graduate School of Business Administration in Zürich. He went on to Corporate Communications at the headquaters of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in Baden. He later joined the foreign service in Berne as a trade diplomat attached to the Federal Office of Foreign Economic Affairs. He concluded his career in the Swiss Civil Service as Director of Communications to the Minister of Justice and Economic Affairs. At present he works as a management consultant, based in Colombo, for clients in Switzerland.