Corine Mauch (born 28 May 1960) is an American-born Swiss politician who currently serves as Mayor of Zurich since 2009. She previously served on the city council of Zürich between 1999 and 2008 for the

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (, SP; ), also called the Swiss Socialist Party (; , PS), is a List of political parties in Switzerland, political party in Switzerland. The SP has had two representatives on the Federal Council (Switzerl ...

(of which she was a member since 1990). Mauch is the first female and first openly

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

person to be elected mayor of the city.

Early life

Corine Mauch was born 28 May 1960 in

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, fifth-most populous c ...

to Samuel Mauch, an engineer, and Ursula Mauch (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Widmer), a chemistry teacher. Mauch lived in Boston, where her father worked at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

as a doctoral student, until age four. Her family then moved back to the rural village of Oberlunkhofen in Switzerland, though Mauch spent another year in the US at age ten. In Oberlunkhofen, Mauch and her two younger brothers were the only protestant students in the school. In 1976, Samuel and Ursula Mauch founded , a research and consulting agency focused on sustainable development. In 1979, Ursula Mauch became the first woman to represent

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

in the National Council, serving until 1995. From 1987 to 1995, Ursula Mauch was also the first female

parliamentary leader A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislature, legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. ...

of the

Education and career

Corine Mauch graduated from gymnasium in

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

. From 1980 to 1988, Mauch studied

agricultural economics Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, also completed four semesters of

sinology Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

, graduating with an engineering ''

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

''. She then worked internships in agriculture and development in Nepal and the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

. From 1997 to 2000, Mauch studied at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

, earning a

Master of Public Administration A Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a specialized professional graduate degree in public administration that prepares students for leadership roles, similar or equivalent to a Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the ...

; her thesis was in "city development politics". Mauch's first job was at Infras, the consulting agency founded by her parents, where she worked between 1986 and 1989. Mauch also worked as an assistant at the Economic Research Institute of ETH Zurich between 1987 and 1988. From 1989 to 1993, Mauch worked for the city of Uster, managing waste disposal and the environment. From 1993, Mauch worked as a researcher and lecturer in the Human Ecology Group at the Geographical Institute of ETH Zurich. In 2000, she moved to the University of Lausanne, continuing to research environmental politics and resource management. From 2002 to 2008, Mauch worked as an environmental consultant in Luzern, later doing similar work at the federal () in Bern.

Political career

Mauch was elected mayor in March 2009, after ten years on the city council. In the first round of balloting, she finished in second place, barely 1,300 votes behind Kathrin Martelli, the candidate of the Free Democratic Party. In the second round, she received 41,745 votes, beating Martelli by 58 percent to 42. In the March 2018 elections, Mauch received 63,139 votes, and she was re-elected as mayor of Zürich until her terms ends in 2022.

Personal life

Since 2014, Mauch is legally married to her long-time partner Juliana Maria Müller. Mauch began the procedure to renounce her United States citizenship in 2012; her office confirmed media reports of the renunciation in April 2013.

Notes

References

External links

*
Corine Mauch's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauch, Corine 1960 births Living people People from Aargau ETH Zurich alumni Social Democratic Party of Switzerland politicians Swiss LGBTQ politicians Lesbian politicians Swiss lesbians LGBTQ mayors Women mayors of places in Switzerland Mayors of Zurich Former United States citizens American emigrants to Switzerland Swiss city councillors 20th-century Swiss women politicians 20th-century Swiss politicians 21st-century Swiss women politicians 21st-century Swiss politicians 21st-century Swiss LGBTQ people