Ruth Metzler

Ruth Metzler-Arnold (2014)

Ruth Metzler-Arnold (born May 23, 1964 in Sursee ; resident in Reiden / formerly Richenthal , Willisau and Balgach ) is a Swiss manager and politician ( CVP ). She was a member of the Federal Council from 1999 to 2003 and headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police .

Education, job and private life

Metzler graduated from high school in Willisau and Sursee from 1977 to 1984 . From 1984 to 1989 she studied law at the University of Freiburg and graduated with a licentiate . After graduating, she moved to the eastern Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. From 1990 to 1999 Metzler was an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in St. Gallen . In 1994 she obtained her federal diploma. Certified auditor . She lived and worked in Bern, Paris and Basel. From 1991 to 2010 she was married to Lukas Metzler. She lives in Appenzell and has been married to Stephan Zimmermann since 2015.

Canton politician

Metzler was also a district judge from 1992 to 1995 and a cantonal judge from 1995 to 1996. In 1996 she was elected to the professional ethics committee of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden by the local community and appointed "Frau Säckelmeister" (head of the finance department). The government office in Appenzell Innerrhoden is not a full office and allows other professional activities in addition to political activities.

Federal Councilor

Ruth Metzler-Arnold (2003)

In the spring of 1999, the two CVP Federal Councilors Arnold Koller and Flavio Cotti resigned from their office at the same time. This gave the party the chance to campaign with two new federal councilors nine months before the ordinary elections. The double vacancy made it possible for the CVP parliamentary group to meet their own demand for another woman in the state government, which they had put forward a year earlier in the replacement election for FDP Federal Councilor Jean-Pascal Delamuraz . The parliamentary group put the candidates for election as the successor to Koller and the men to succeed Cotti. In addition to the St. Gallen economics director Rita Roos , Ruth Metzler-Arnold made herself available. Metzler was still little known outside of Eastern Switzerland, but was involved in intercantonal bodies and federal expert commissions. In the replacement elections on March 11, 1999, the United Federal Assembly (Council of States and National Council) elected her in the fourth ballot and with a majority of eight votes (126: 118) as the youngest Federal Councilor since Numa Droz (elected in 1875). One of the decisive factors was the support of the members of parliament from western Switzerland who wanted to win over Joseph Deiss from Freiburg in the election for the seat of Flavio Cotti . Like Rita Roos, this was more likely to belong to the social wing of the party, which is why one saw better chances for him if Ruth Metzler, who is considered to be business-friendly, was elected beforehand. It was confirmed in the general election on December 15, 1999.

In the state government she took over the Federal Justice and Police Department FDJP. There she immediately had to work on several current dossiers, especially in connection with the wave of refugees in the wake of the Kosovo war . In the following years, all 14 parliamentary proposals submitted by the FDJP were adopted in referendums. Metzler also pushed through the negotiations for Switzerland to join the Schengen and Dublin agreements with the EU. In 2003, Metzler was Vice President of the Federal Council.

The 2003 National Council elections led to further losses in the CVP. In contrast, the SVP again grew strongly. She again claimed a second seat in the state government and demanded it for her party leader Christoph Blocher . In the general election of the Federal Council on December 10, 2003, the SVP attacked the first of the two CVP seats. Since Ruth Metzler was elected before Joseph Deiss in 1999, she was the first of the two CVP magistrates to be re-elected. With five votes difference (116: 121) she was defeated by Blocher. After Ulrich Ochsenbein (voted out in 1854) and Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel (voted out in 1872), Metzler was only the third member of the Federal Council who was not re-elected. Four years later, Christoph Blocher was also not re-elected.

Further professional career

After leaving the Federal Council, Ruth Metzler-Arnold accepted a teaching position at the University of St. Gallen in 2004/05 . In April 2005 she became Head of Legal and a member of the Executive Board of Novartis France in Paris. From November 2006 to the end of March 2010, she was head of Investor Relations for the company's relations with analysts and major investors at the Novartis headquarters in Basel . Metzler has been the owner of the consulting and communications company Metzler Strategy, Management, Communication AG in Appenzell since 2010 . Since 2011 she has been working with partners as Klaus-Metzler-Eckmann-Spillmann .

Since May 2011 she has been President of the Board of Directors of the foreign trade promoter Switzerland Global Enterprise (formerly OSEC ). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of AXA Winterthur , the Bühler technology group and, since 2012, the University Council of the University of St. Gallen.

Since 2015 she has been a member of the Board of Directors of FehrAdvice & Partners AG (founded in 2010 by  Ernst Fehr  and the CEO of FehrAdvice, Gerhard Fehr), an economic and management consultancy specializing in  behavioral  economics.

Since July 1, 2018, Metzler has been President of the Foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard , which was previously presided over by the former Federal Councilors Flavio Cotti and Pascal Couchepin .

In addition, she is named on the website of the asylum support organization ORS AG as a member of the «Advisory Board».

Previous activities

• In November 2017, Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais's Quantum group was listed in the Paradise Papers for doing business in Angola . After relevant press releases, Metzler resigned from the group's advisory board on the grounds that for them the “business environment that can only now be assessed” is no longer compatible with their criteria for mandates.
• From 2015 to 2017 she was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aquila & Co. AG, a bank and service platform for independent asset managers.
• From 2008 to 2011, Metzler was a member of the Board of Directors and also a member of the Audit Committee of the SIX Group .

documentation

• The 7 federal councilors. In: SRF 1 , DOK of November 29, 2018 (50 min) ( video excerpts ).

Works

• Grissini and alpine bitter. My years as a Federal Councilor. Appenzeller Verlag, Herisau 2004, ISBN 3-85882-388-0 .

literature

• Franz Xaver Bishop: Metzler (-Arnold), Ruth. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Marc Comina: Power and Discord in the Federal Palace. The background to the voting out of Ruth Metzler. Werd-Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-85932-476-4 .
• Ruth Metzler-Arnold in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : Ruth Metzler-Arnold  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ruth Metzler-Arnold on the website of the Federal Department of Justice and Police FDJP
• Ruth Metzler-Arnold on the website of the Federal Assembly
• Literature by and about Ruth Metzler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ruth Metzler-Arnold's website
• Interview with Ruth Metzler , NZZ, August 10, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Curriculum Vitae. Ruth Metzler-Arnold website, accessed May 6, 2016 . 
2. ↑ She said yes to her banker. Blick , August 3, 2015, accessed May 6, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Former Federal Councilor Ruth Metzler: “I had to learn a lot” In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from 10 August 2016.
4. ↑ Ueli Kneubühler: Ruth Metzler: Renamed. In: Bilanz 17/2013 from 23 August 2013.
5. ↑ Olivia Kühni and Lucienne-Camille Vaudan: Ruth Metzler is back in the spotlight. In: Tages-Anzeiger from May 28, 2011.
6. ^ Former Federal Councilor Ruth Metzler on the Board of Directors of Axa Winterthur. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet from June 29, 2012.
7. ^ Ruth Metzler is a new member of the Bühler Board of Directors. Media release of December 16, 2011.
8. ^ Ruth Metzler-Arnold , member of the board of directors at FehrAdvice & Partners AG.
9. ↑ Ruth Metzler becomes President of the Swiss Guard Foundation , nzz.ch, May 14, 2018, accessed on May 6, 2019.
10. ↑ Ruth Metzler's membership in the “Advisory Board” of the ORS Group , ORS AG website, “Advisory Board”, accessed December 31, 2019.
11. ↑ sda: Ruth Metzler leaves the Quantum Group. (No longer available online.) Luzerner Zeitung, November 8, 2017, archived from the original on November 10, 2017 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Christian Brönnimann: The questionable Angola mandate of the SBB President . Tages-Anzeiger , November 6, 2017, accessed November 7, 2017.
13. ^ An ex-Federal Councilor for Aquila. In: Finnews of March 30, 2015.
14. ^ SHAB: Pub. No. 3519911 of May 12, 2017
15. ↑ Barbara Kessler new to the Board of Directors of SIX Group AG. ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Media release of May 26, 2011 (PDF file). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Arnold Koller	Member of the Swiss Federal Council 1999–2003	Christoph Blocher