Client · Switzerland
EQx: the index that measures elite quality across 151 countries.
I took over the technical lead of the Elite Quality Index, a project of the Foundation for Value Creation under the academic leadership of three University of St. Gallen institutes. I came in to pick up a project already in production and keep it running on my own.
This is the engagement that best shows how I work with a client: nobody handed me the context, it had to be rebuilt by reading the code and measuring what was actually deployed. Today I maintain both the public index site and the private assessment platform, and the client has in writing what used to live in one person's head.
- Client
- Foundation for Value Creation
- Role
- Technical handover and development
- Period
- Since July 2026
- Scope
- Public site and assessment platform
A Swiss foundation publishing an annual academic index.
The Foundation for Value Creation is a non-profit based in St. Gallen, supervised by the Swiss federal authority for foundations. It publishes the Elite Quality Index, which measures how far a country's elites create value rather than extract it.
Academic leadership
Three University of St. Gallen institutes — IIDM, ERP and SBF — plus an international network of academic partners.
Two products
The country index, public at elitequality.org, and the Value Creation Ratings for firms, computed on a private platform.
Working in English
All coordination is remote and in English, on European hours. The assessment platform ships in English, Spanish and Chinese.
From four areas to a hundred and fifty-one countries.
The index is not a survey: it is a measurement chain. Each area opens into pillars, each pillar is measured with indicators, and each country's position falls out of that. Keeping it running in production is the engagement.
4
areas
12
pillars
148
indicators
151
countries
The last rows draw a sample: the real figure is in the number.
Four levels, from a single number to 148 indicators.
The shape of the EQx drives the whole interface: every view on the site — the map, the table, the comparison tool — is a way into and out of this hierarchy.
151
countries ranked
148
indicators
12
pillars across 4 areas
7th
annual edition
Level 1
The index
One score and a global rank per country, plus the Power and Value sub-indexes.
Level 2
Four areas
The first breakdown, used to compare countries without going into detail.
Level 3
Twelve pillars
The level where you see where a country's score actually comes from.
Level 4
148 indicators
The source data. This is what has to be auditable when someone disputes a result.
Pick up a running project and make it sustainable.
The job was not to build from scratch but to take ownership: understand what was there, write it down, and keep shipping without breaking what was already published.
Map the ground first
Measure what is actually deployed instead of trusting inherited documentation. Much of what the repo described was no longer what was in production.
Public index site
A static site with interactive islands: world map, rankings table, country comparison tool and rank evolution over time.
Assessment platform
A private application where a firm answers the survey, its rating is computed and the official four-page report is generated.
Data that has to add up
Rankings come from the foundation's official workbooks. The import is validated against the source: if it does not match, you fix the importer, not the output.
Continuous delivery
Every change ships on merge, and the project moved into the client's own organisation rather than mine.
Handover documentation
What I learn gets written down. If someone else comes in tomorrow, they do not repeat the archaeology I had to do.
Index site
Astro · React · Tailwind · TypeScript
Visualisation
D3 · TopoJSON · TanStack Table
Platform
Next.js · Prisma · PostgreSQL · Auth.js
Delivery
GitHub Actions · Continuous deploy · Vitest · Playwright
The other half: rating firms.
Alongside the country index, the foundation computes a Value Creation Rating for firms. The tool is private and invitation-only, so there are no screenshots here — but I can say what it is made of.
- A multilingual survey with saved progress, so it can be answered across several sessions.
- A scoring engine turning answers into the sustainable value creation score.
- The official four-page report, server-rendered and always faithful to its design.
- An admin console for clients, teams and access links.
This is work under client agreement. The specifics belong in a conversation, not on a web page.
Does any of this fit what you need?
I work remotely, on European hours. If you have something in mind, tell me and I will say honestly whether I am the right person.