The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. held a Global Executive Conversation featuring His Excellency Jacques Pitteloud, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States on Monday, January 8, 2024. Ambassador Pitteloud, the new Chair of the Economic Club’s Diplomatic Advisory Council, participated in a conversation with Chairman David Rubenstein.
Jacques Pitteloud has led a distinguished career of public service in the military and the Swiss Foreign Service. He was appointed as Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States of America in 2019. Immediately prior to this, he was Director for Resources of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (2015-2019) and Ambassador of Switzerland to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and the Seychelles (2010-2015).
A retired lieutenant colonel (General Staff) in the Swiss Armed Forces, Dr. Pitteloud also served as the Swiss government’s first intelligence coordinator (2000-2005), and Director for Arms Control, Disarmament, Security Policy and Intelligence at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bern. He joined the Swiss Foreign Service in 1987.
Born in Zurich Switzerland, Dr. Pitteloud earned a doctorate in law at the University of Zurich, with further education in security policy at Geneva University.