Speaker – Ambassador Benedikt Wechsler
Ambassador Benedikt Wechsler
Head of Digitalization
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland
Biography
Born in Basel in 1967, Benedikt Wechsler held several journalism and editorial positions upon completion of his traineeship at the European Commission as well as in the private sector.
After studies in Business Administration and Political Science at the University of St. Gallen, he received his PhD in 1995.
One year later, he joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. His early diplomatic career took him to the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN and EU in New York and Brussels.
Benedikt’s professional portfolio includes his appointment as five-time Diplomatic Advisor to Swiss Presidents (2001/2002 and 2006-2007) and Ambassador Chief of Staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2008-2012). Under his leadership (2016-2019), the Swiss Embassy in Denmark invented the “Open Embassy and Pop-up Embassy” approach, which won the Danish Design Award in the category of Game Changer. He strengthened the science diplomacy in Greenland and initiated a multistakeholder expedition to the Arctic. From 2019-2021, Benedikt Wechsler has been serving as the Consul General of Switzerland in San Francisco representing his country in 13 U.S. States and pioneering in the Silicon Valley in the field of tech diplomacy.
Since July 2021, Benedikt Wechsler is heading the first Division for Digitalisation as an Ambassador within the State Secretariat and is charged with the implementation of the Swiss Digital Foreign Policy Strategy.