Former Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr becomes a permanent visiting professor at HSG

Walter Thurnherr has been closely associated with the University of St.Gallen (HSG) for some time. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen since 2020. In this role, he supports various projects to promote Law and Economics at HSG. In March 2022, shortly after the opening of SQUARE, the experimental field for new forms of learning and teaching at HSG, he was a guest for several days as a ‘Personality in Residence’. This made him one of the first people in this function at SQUARE, and at that time, he was still an incumbent Federal Chancellor. On this occasion, he then opened the SQUARE dialogue series together with Dr. Felix R. Ehrat, also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen, with a discussion on the topic of ‘Russia - Ukraine: background and effects on our foreign and foreign economic policy’. Finally, in the spring semester 2024, together with Prof. Dr. Peter Hettich, he held the compulsory elective course ‘Governing in Crisis’ in the Master in Law and Economics.

HSG and the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen are delighted to have Walter Thurnherr as a permanent guest professor. He has played a decisive role in shaping Swiss politics in recent years and can provide our students with unique insight into the Swiss state and political processes. "I am delighted and thank the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen and HSG for their trust. My experiences so far at various events at the University have been very positive. And the topic of ‘foreign policy at the interface with domestic policy’ appeals to me," says Walter Thurnherr about his new commitment.

Personal commitment with a transformative effect 

"The special thing about this collaboration is that, with Walter Thurherr, a distinguished and experienced personality from the public service sector will enter into a lasting dialogue with students for the first time," says Dr. h. c. Thomas Schmidheiny, Honorary Senator of HSG and President of the Board of Trustees of the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen. HSG would like to thank him and the Foundation for their generous support. This is one of a long list of sponsorship activities, including support for the Max Schmidheiny Foundation, SQUARE, the St.Gallen Symposium and the St.Gallen Endowment for Prosperity through Trade. The Thomas Schmidheiny Visiting Professorship enables the engagement of a distinguished personality without burdening the University's core budget. Such initiatives are important for HSG, around 50 per cent of which is financed by third-party funds. "With his training in theoretical physics and a professional career at the interface of law, regulation, economics and politics, Walter Thurnherr epitomises precisely what we understand and promote as interdisciplinarity. We are therefore particularly pleased that he will be the first permanent Thomas Schmidheiny Visiting Professor," says Suzanne Dvořák, director of the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen.

About the person

Walter Thurnherr was born on 11 July 1963. After studying theoretical physics at ETH Zurich, he joined the diplomatic service of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1989. In the years that followed, he held numerous positions with close links to Eastern Europe and Russia in particular. From 1995 to 1997, he also represented Switzerland in the OSCE's mediation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In 2002, he was appointed Secretary General of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs by the Federal Council. This was followed by his appointment as Secretary General of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs in 2003 and his appointment as Secretary General of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications in 2010. Walter Thurnherr was elected federal chancellor in 2015. In this role, he supported the President of the Swiss Confederation and the Federal Council in the fulfilment of their governmental duties. He stepped down from his office as Federal Chancellor at the end of 2023. He was appointed as a permanent visiting professor at HSG at the suggestion of the Law and Economics Foundation St.Gallen and at the request of the Law School at the Senate meeting on 27 May 2024.