Daniel Seelhofer, PhD, is a Professor of International Business at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences' School of Management and Law and a general staff colonel in the Swiss Army. His teaching and research interests revolve around strategy and leadership, particularly in cross-cultural settings.

He was born in 1973 near Berne, Switzerland, and spent most of his childhood in the Upper and Lower Toggenburg regions of Eastern Switzerland, enjoying outdoor activities with his brothers and friends and reading everything that came his way. Starting work as a paper boy at age 11, he bought his first computer that same year and soon taught himself to program in several computer languages. From there on, video games were also among his hobbies, yet as a keen boy scout he still spent a lot of time in the woods. He also began to work part-time for a local small business in an administrative role.
After completing secondary education, he enrolled in a commercial school before moving to the United States, where he earned a high school diploma. After returning to Switzerland for his mandatory military service, he switched back and forth between active and reserve duty, eventually both acquiring a Master's in International Management from the University of St.Gallen (HSG) and becoming a Mustang officer and platoon leader after having served as an infantry squad leader. He then resumed work in the private sector as an IT consultant and software trainer. After graduation, he co-founded a custom software development company and ran it for several years before joining a medium-sized service company in Zurich, Switzerland's commercial center, eventually rising to a board-level position. At the same time, he completed his doctorate in international business after a lengthy and occasionally painful development process of almost six years. During that period, he began to teach part time at a local university and caught the academic bug that would later lead him to enter academia full time.
Continuing his military career in the peculiar Swiss dual-track system, he served as an infantry company commander and gained experience in security and disaster relief missions. He was selected for the Swiss Army's elite general staff academy after a grueling selection process. Having successfully completed this extremely demanding training, he served in the intelligence section of a divisional staff before assuming command of an infantry battalion with, at the time, over 1,500 soldiers assigned to it. After this intensive but highly rewarding period, he returned to divisional staff, ultimately rising to head the operations section (G3) as a full colonel.
He joined the Zurich University of Applied Science's School of Management and Law as a senior lecturer and later served as Chief of Staff and Vice Dean. After leading his business school's successful effort to achieve AACSB accreditation, he is now the director of the Department of International Business and head of the International Management Institute. A professor of international business, he has taught and worked on projects around the world:. in the USA and Canada, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Gulf region, Hungary, Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Serbia.
He now lives in Winterthur and enjoys spending time with his family, sports (particularly outdoors), reading and writing, and listening to and creating music.