Hans-Rudolf Merz

Infobox President
name = Hans-Rudolf Merz

---

imagesize = 200px
order = Member of the Swiss Federal Council
term_start = 1 January 2004
term_end =
predecessor = Kaspar Villiger
birth_date = birth date and age|1942|11|10|df=y
birth_place = Herisau, Switzerland
party = FDP
alma_mater = University of St. Gallen|

Hans-Rudolf Merz (born 10 November 1942) is a Swiss politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) and member of the Swiss Federal Council (since 2003). He is the head of the Federal Department of Finance (the Swiss finance minister) and Vice-President of the Swiss Confederation for 2008.

Born in Herisau, Switzerland, he studied at Hochschule St. Gallen and graduated in 1971 with a DEA's degree and as Dr. rer. publ.

Hans-Rudolf was a Boy Scout, and visited the National Jamboree of Switzerland in July 2008. [cite web
title = Hoher Besuch im Pfadfinder-Bundeslager
author= news.search.ch
url= http://news.search.ch/inland/2008-07-25/hoher-besuch-im-pfadfinder-bundeslager
language = German
accessdate = 2008-07-25 ] [cite web
title = «VIP-Tag» im Pfadi-Bundeslager- Lagerleitung empfängt Bundesrat Merz
author= SF Tagesschau
url= http://tagesschau.sf.tv/nachrichten/archiv/2008/07/25/schweiz/vip_tag_im_pfadi_bundeslager
language = German
accessdate = 2008-07-25 ]

From 1969 to 1974, he was party secretary of the Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) in St. Gallen. Since 1977 he worked as a management consultant.

In 1997, he was elected to the Swiss Council of States for the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes. He presided the finance committee and was a member of the foreign policy committee.

Merz was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 10 December 2003. At the time, he was on the board of directors of the Helvetia-Patria insurance company and Anova Holding. He was also member of the board of trustees of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation.

He is married and father of three sons.

On 20 September, 2008, whilst in Eastern Switzerland, Merz was rushed to hospital, having suffered from a heart attack. He was soon flown to Bern University Hospital, where he had a multiple bypass operation. He was also placed into an artificial coma. This lead to a reorganisation of the cabinet and the absence of the Swiss President, Pascal Couchepin from the UN General Assembly in New York. [cite web
title = Cabinet announces reorganisation
author= news.search.ch
url= http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Cabinet_announces_reorganisation.html?siteSect=108&sid=9758381&cKey=1222179725000&ty=st
language = English
accessdate = 2008-09-23 ]

Works

*Merz, Hans-Rudolf: "Finanz- und Verwaltungsvermögen in öffentlich-rechtlicher und wirtschaftlicher Betrachtungsweise, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Staatsrechnungen der Kantone.", St. Gallen 1971
*Merz, Hans-Rudolf: "Die aussergewöhnliche Führungspersönlichkeit: Essay über Elativität und elative Persönlichkeit.", Grüsch 1987. ISBN 3-7253-0297-9
*Merz, Hans-Rudolf: "Der Landammann und weitere Erzählungen aus dem Appenzellerland", Herisau 1992. ISBN 3-85882-072-5

References

External links

*Swiss Federal Councillor|113
*Parliament.ch|398|language=German
*HDS|44859