Career
President (speaker) of the Council of States in 2003/04. In November 2007, Schiesser was appointed President of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule -Board for 2008-2011. The function being incompatible with the membership in the Council of States, Schiesser has to resign from the Council, despite his re-election a few weeks earlier.
In November 2011, he was reappointed as President of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Board for 2012-2016.