After a chemist apprenticeship, Susanne Sugimoto obtained her Matura (high school degree) and went on to university to study geography and business information technology. Shortly after, she joined the Zürich local council and became secretary for the Swiss Commercial Employees Association where she represented the ground crew of Swissair after the grounding of the company. Out of curiosity, she then moved to the side she used to negotiate wages with: the corporations. She first became head of media relations and then head of communications for supermarket chain Coop. After five years spent at Coop, she worked for the multinational cement company Holcim where she was appointed head of communications for Central Europe. Today, she runs a consulting firm. As managing director of Project R, her job is to keep track of the budget and day-to-day business.