Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and his wife Brigitte sit in the Royal Box, before the start of the Men's Singles final between Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal, on the Centre Court at Wimbledon, Sunday July 6 , 2008.
Pascal Couchepin and President of the Confederation in 2003 and 2008.
Background
Couchepin is a native of Martigny.His father was a member of the Swiss cantonal parliament, his grandfather (Jules) was Mayor of Martigny and the National Councillor, his great-grandfather was a Mayor and District Judge. His cousin François Couchepin was a chancellor from 1991 to 1999.
Education
College of St. Maurice, 1954-1962. University of Lausanne, Bachelor of Law, 1962-1966. Articles in Law, 1966-1968, qualified to practice as lawyer.
Spoken languages: French, German, English.
Career
In the same year he started to practice as a lawyer and was elected to the executive council of Martigny; from 1984 to 1998 he was Mayor there. In 1979 he was elected to the National Assembly and from 1989 to 1996 he was a president of the Liberal Democratic Party in the Federal Assembly.
On the 11th of March, 1998 he was elected by the Federal Assembly to the Bundesrat. Pascal Couchepin was a Federal president of Switzerland in the years 2003 and 2008 and Vice President in the years 2002 and 2007. As the head of the Department of Economic Affairs, he represented Switzerland in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and served as a Governor of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He was also the president of the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, and took an active part in various disability organizations.
(The Bilderberg meetings are informal, private assembly of influential people in business, army, politics, media, academia and nobility).
Politics
He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on March 11, 1998 as a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) and the canton of Valais.
Views
Quotations:
"Leadership cannot be imported , it can be helped "