Felix Gutzwiller

Felix Gutzwiller      (academic, politician, doctor)
Born	22 February 1948 Basel, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Alma mater	Humanistisches Gymnasium, University of Basel, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University
Spouse	Sylvia Gutzwiller-Uebersax
Party	The Liberals (Switzerland)
Swiss Bilderberger public health leader. In March 2020 was on TV answering public questions about COVID-19  Member of the Council of States (Switzerland) In office 2007 - 2015  Member of the Swiss National Council In office 1999 - 2007  Head of the Biological Service In office 1985 - 1996 Employer Swiss Army  Director of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine In office 1988 - 2013 Employer University of Zurich Preceded by Felix Gutzwiller  Director of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine In office 1983 - 1988 Employer University of Lausanne Succeeded by Felix Gutzwiller

Felix Gutzwiller is a Swiss public health leader and politician with a close relationship to the pharma industry He has been a long time proponent of drug decriminalization.

In March 2020 he was on Swiss TV answering public questions about COVID-19. He attended the 2013 Bilderberg meeting.

Background

Felix Gutzwiller is the son of the classical philologist and Hans Gutzwiller, former Basel constitutional councilor and school principal of Humanistisches Gymnasium, one of the most schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and teacher Annemarie Gutzwiller-Kätterer. Felix Gutzwiller graduated from the Humanistisches Gymnasium in 1967. After the state examination at the medical faculty of the University of Basel, he spent four years in the USA. He received his Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University in Boston and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Career

From 1983 to 1988, Gutzwiller was director of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Lausanne. In 1988 he succeeded Meinrad Schär as Professor and Director of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich. He retired on July 31, 2013, and was succeeded by Milo Puhan. At the same time, Gutzwiller was head of the Biological Service of the Swiss Army from 1985 to 1996, lecturer in human nutrition at the ETH Zurich from 1990 to 2002 and research advisor in the Department of Biology and Medicine of the Swiss National Science Foundation from 1991 to 2000.

In 2012, he was part of a Council of State commission that proposed compulsory vaccination "for particularly vulnerable groups of people". The Commission emphasized that it is not a question of coerced vaccination. The difference between obligation and coercion is that there would also be sanctions in the event of coercion. Felix Gutzwiller spoke of "two poles of values" that played a role in this issue: individual freedom and protection of the public. He said it is also correct from a “liberal point of view” to introduce an obligation for cases of possible contagion.

Felix Gutzwiller is married to Sylvia Gutzwiller-Uebersax.

Lobbyist positions

He was appointed to the Board of Directors of Bank Hofmann and to the Swiss Advisory Board of Credit Suisse (CS). Attending two annual meetings of the CS advisory board alone gave him an income of 120,000 Swiss francs. (US$120,000).

He also became member of the advisory board at Coca-Cola, for an attendance fee of CHF 300 (US$300) per hour. "I basically assume that you have to talk to all sides," the he justified the position.

Gutzwiller sits on the board of directors of the pharmaceutical company Siegfried AG and the medical technology company Rahn AG. In addition, he has recently been advising the Association of Importers of Pharmaceutical Specialties (Vips) on “health policy issues”. Gutzwiller also has strong ties to Roche. Roche finances part of the annual budget of the Institute for Preventive Medicine. Gutzwiller is also a member of the board of trustees of the foundation for talented young people set up by Fritz Gerber, who has been Chairman of the Roche Board of Directors for many years. Gutzwiller claims that working for the pharmaceutical industry does not cloud his view of health policy.

Politics

His political career began in 1972 when he joined the The Liberals (FDP) in Basel. From 1985 to 1987 he was a municipal councilor in Belmont-sur-Lausanne, canton of Vaud. After moving to Zurich for work, he joined the FDP Zurich, of which he has been a member ever since. Since1985 he has chaired the health policy working group of the FDP Switzerland, in which he is particularly involved in the areas of drug policy and genetic engineering. From 1996 to 2000 he was chairman of the drug policy working group of the federal party.

In the 1999 elections, Gutzwiller was elected to the National Council. In 2002 he became vice-president of the FDP parliamentary group, since then he has been a member of the executive board of the FDP Switzerland. From 2005 to 2008 he chaired the liberal parliamentary group in the Federal Assembly.

Between 2007-2015 he was a member the upper house, the Council of States. There, he was member the Commission for Social Security and Health, the Foreign Policy Commission and for a time President of the Commission for Science, Education and Cultureand a delegate of the Interparliamentary Union. On December 7, 2015, Gutzwiller left the Council of States.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2013	6 June 2013	9 June 2013	Watford UK	The 2013 Bilderberg group meeting.

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References

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