Kaspar Villiger (; born 5 February 1941) is a Swiss businessman, former tobacco manufacturer and politician. He served as a member of the

Federal Council (Switzerland) The Federal Council is the federal Cabinet (government), cabinet of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and Head of government, government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the F ...

since 1 February 1989 for The Liberals. Villiger served two terms as

President of the Swiss Confederation The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the confederation, federal president or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is as ''primus inter pares'' among the other members of the Federal Council (Switze ...

in 1995 and again in 2002. He previously served on the

Council of States (Switzerland) The Council of States is a house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the other house being the National Council. As the powers of the houses are the same, it is sometimes called perfect bicameralism. It comprises 46 members. Twenty of t ...

from 1987 to 1989 and on the National Council (Switzerland) from 1982 to 1987. Villiger was best known for his involvement into the Swissair bankruptcy in 2001, when he was among the members of the rescue plan task force, which ultimately failed. Between 2009 and 2012, Villiger was appointed chairman of

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

. He has also served on the board of directors at

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

Swiss Re Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countri ...

and

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

. He currently is the chairman of the UBS Foundation of Economics in Society, which invested 100 million Swiss Francs in the Department of Economics at the

University of Zürich 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 ...

. He was a founding member of the

Global Leadership Foundation The Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization consisting of a network of former heads of state/government and other distinguished leaders (GLF Members), who seek to assist developing countries in improving gov ...

in 2004.

Early life and education

Villiger was born 5 February 1941 in Pfeffikon, Switzerland to Max and Dory (née Heiz) Villiger. He was the grandson of Jean Villiger (1860–1902), who founded the tobacco manufacturing concern Villiger Sons in 1888. He has one elder brother, Heinrich (born 1930), and sister Monika (born 1936). He was raised in

Pfeffikon Pfeffikon is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Sursee (Amt), Sursee in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Lucerne (canton), Lucerne in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Pfeffikon m ...

and completed his

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

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 ...

. He then studied

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

graduating in 1965.

Career

In 1966, he entered the family business, after the sudden death of his father Max Villiger (1897–1966) alongside his elder brother Heinrich Villiger, who was responsible for the German market and his sister Monika Villiger, who was export director. He integrated bicycle manufacturer ''Kalt'' in Buttisholz and developed it under the new ''Villiger'' name. Villiger was also the vice president of the ''Chamber of Commerce of Central Switzerland'', several years a member on the board committee of the ''Association of Employers in Central Switzerland'' and vice president of the ''Argovian Chamber of Industry and Commerce''. In 2004, he became member of the board of directors of

and

. On 15 April 2009, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Swiss banking giant

, holding this post until 3 May 2012. His successor was Axel A. Weber.

Politics

On 1 February 1989, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council. He is affiliated to the Free Democratic Party (Liberals). During his time in office he headed the following departments: *

Federal Military Department The Swiss Armed Forces (; ; ; ; ) are the military and security force of Switzerland, consisting of land and air service branches. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are ...

(1989 – 1995) *

Federal Department of Finance The Federal Department of Finance (FDF, , , , ) is one of the seven Ministry (government department), departments of the Swiss federal government. The department is headquartered in Bern and headed by a member of the Federal Council (Switzerlan ...

(1996 – 2003) He was President of the Confederation twice, in 1995 and again in 2002. In 1995 Kaspar Villiger apologized on occasion of an official visit by Dan Culler who was an internee in the Wauwilermoos internment camp during World War II. Dwight Mears, a U.S. Army officer, covered the apology in his 2012 PhD thesis on the American internees in Switzerland. In September 2003, he announced he was to resign on 31 December 2003.

Other activities

Kaspar Villiger is a Member of the

, an organization which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law. It does so by making available, discreetly and in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today's national leaders. It is a not-for-profit organization composed of former heads of government, senior governmental and international organization officials who work closely with Heads of Government on governance-related issues of concern to them.

References

External links

*
Business activities of Kaspar Villiger
, databot.ch {{DEFAULTSORT:Villiger, Kaspar 1941 births Living people Members of the Federal Council (Switzerland) Presidents of the Swiss Confederation Defence ministers of Switzerland Finance ministers of Switzerland Directors of Nestlé Swiss Protestants UBS people People from Sursee District Swiss chairpersons of corporations ETH Zurich alumni