Albert Rösti (born 7 August 1967) is a Swiss entrepreneur, association official and politician who presided over the

Swiss People's Party The Swiss People's Party (german: Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP; rm, Partida populara Svizra, PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (french: Union démocratique du centre, UDC; it, Unione Democratica di Centro, UDC), is a nati ...

(SVP/UDC) from 2016 to 2020. He has served as a member of the National Council for the

canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

since

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Rösti resides in

Uetendorf Uetendorf is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Uetendorf is close to the city of Thun, and connected to traffic through the A6 motorway and the BLS AG's Thun-Belp-Bern railway line. Du ...

near

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thoune) ...

. On 7 December 2022, he was elected to the Federal Council.

Biography

Albert Rösti grew up in

Kandersteg Kandersteg is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located along the valley of the River Kander, west of the Jungfrau massif. It is noted for its spectacular mounta ...

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

and studied agronomy at

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

. He graduated in 2002 to study at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

as a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

. Rösti entered the

Department of Economic Affairs in 1998, and he served as Deputy Secretary General from 2001 to 2003 and as Secretary General from 2003 to 2006. He then became the director of Swiss Milk Producers. Since 2013 he is owner and manager of the business and politics consulting firm ''Büro Dr. Rösti GmbH''. From 2007 to 2014, Rösti was president of the Agricultural Information Service (LID). In May 2014. He was elected as the president of ''Action for a Sensible Energy Policy Switzerland'' (AVES). In May 2015, Rösti replaced

Caspar Baader Caspar Baader (born 1 October 1953) is a Swiss politician, attorney and member of the Swiss National Council The National Council (german: Nationalrat; french: Conseil national; it, Consiglio nazionale; rm, Cussegl naziunal) is the lower ho ...

as the president of ''Swiss Oil'', the Swiss association of fuel traders. Rösti lives in

, is married, and has two children.

Political career

From 2000 to 2007, Rösti served as the president of

chapter of the SVP. Since January 2008 he was a member of the local council of Uetendorf, and in 2014 he became the mayor of Uetendorf, replacing Hannes Zaugg-Graf. Rösti ran unsuccessfully in 2010 in the Bernese Government elections. He was first elected in the

2011 Swiss federal election Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 23 October 2011. All of the Federal Assembly were to be elected: all 200 seats in the National Council and all 46 seats in the Council of States. Voter turnout was 49.1%, compared to 48.9% in 2 ...

to the National Council. For the

2015 Swiss federal election Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 18 October 2015 for the National Council (Switzerland), National Council and the first round of elections to the Council of States (Switzerland), Council of States, with runoff elections to the Council ...

, Rösti 2015 was the campaign manager of the SVP for the federal elections, and he ran unsuccessfully for the Council of States for

. In November 2015, the Bern chapter of the SVP nominated Rösti as a candidate for the

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat; french: Conseil fédéral; it, Consiglio federale; rm, Cussegl federal) is the executive body of the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and governme ...

for the

2015 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in the year 2015. Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burun ...

, but he withdrew his candidacy for the Council two weeks later. On 23 April 2016, Rösti was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the SVP, replacing retiring Chairman

Toni Brunner Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name. In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni. In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegia ...

. He resigned from the party leadership in 2020 after the election of

Marco Chiesa Marco Chiesa (born 10 October 1974) is a Swiss politician who has presided over the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) since 2020. He served as a member of the Grand Council of Ticino from 2007 to 2015 and National Council from 2015 to 2019. Chies ...

. On 7 December 2022, Rösti was elected to the Federal Council in the 2022 Swiss Federal Council election, replacing

Ueli Maurer Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer (; born 1 December 1950) is a Swiss politician who has served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2009. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2013 and 2019 ...

. He assumed office on 1 January 2023.

References

External links

Biographical entry on the Federal Parliament website

Personal homepage
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosti, Albert 1967 births Living people People from the canton of Bern ETH Zurich alumni University of Rochester alumni Swiss People's Party politicians Members of the National Council (Switzerland) Members of the Federal Council (Switzerland)