Urs Ziswiler serves as Switzerland’s Ambassador to the United States. He arrived in the US in May 2006. Ziswiler holds a law degree from the Universities of Geneva and Zurich and has a post-graduate diploma on developing countries from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

 

He began his career as a junior expert for the World Bank in Madagascar, and later served as a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut, Gaza, Tel Aviv, and Kampala.

 

From 1980-1985, Ziswiler was Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss embassies in Kinshasa, Lagos, and Oslo, and also served at the Swiss Mission to the European Union in Brussels.

 

He has managed relationships with the EFTA countries and the former Yugoslavia (1985-1988), was the chairman of the EFTA Trade Committee (1987), and head of the Information Department of the European Integration Office (1990-1992). From 1995 to 1999, Ziswiler was head of the Political Division for Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy and coordinator for International Refugee Policy in Bern.

 

Ziswiler has also served in Tel Aviv (1988-1990) as Chargé d’affaires in Zagreb for Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, and Deputy Head of Mission in Buenos Aires (1994-1995). He was appointed as Ambassador of Switzerland to Canada and the Bahamas

(1999-2004), and has also served as a Senior Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister of Foreign

Affairs, Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey.

Prior to his current posting, he served as head of the Political Directorate of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern. In this capacity, he was also vice chairman of the Presence Switzerland (PRS) Commission, Switzerland’s public outreach agency.

 

Ziswiler is fluent in German, English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and has a basic knowledge of

Arabic.