Helene Budliger Artieda

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Helene Budliger Artieda (2023)

Helene Budliger Artieda (* 1965 in Zurich;[1] domiciled in Hitzkirch[1]) is a Swiss diplomat and Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) as State Secretary since August 2022. She is a former Director of Resources at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and was Ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, based in Bangkok, from 2019 to 2022.

Career[edit]

Her career at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) began in 1985 as a secretary in Bern. In this function, Helene Budliger made her first foreign assignments in Lagos in Nigeria, Havana in Cuba and San Francisco in the US.[2] She completed the FDFA stage in Bern and the practical part as a consular employee in Strasbourg.[1] She successfully completed the stage in 1994.[3] Budliger Artieda's first stop after her training took her to Lima, Peru, where she met her future husband.[3]

During her employment at the Swiss Embassy in Colombia, Helen Budliger Artieda studied business administration in Bogotá.[1] She completed her studies with a Master's degree. She returned to Switzerland in 2000 and held various positions in the FDFA's Finance Division. From 1 July 2006 to 2008, Budliger Artieda was Head of Finance at the FDFA.[1] In 2008, Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey appointed Helen Budliger Artieda as the first female director of the FDFA. On 1 October 2008, Budliger Artieda took over the Directorate for Resources at the FDFA from Martin Dahinden,[1] who became head of the SDC. Until September 2015, she headed 380 employees and managed an annual budget volume of three billion Swiss francs.[3]

In September 2015, Helene Budiger Artieda became Swiss Ambassador to South Africa.[4] Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mauritius were also part of her remit.[3] She was also Ambassador to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Gaborone.[4] On 14 December 2018, the Federal Council appointed Helene Budliger Artieda as Swiss ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.[4] She took up the new post in October 2019, succeeding Ivo Sieber.[1] In 2022, she was proposed to the Federal Council by a search committee as the successor to Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch as Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). She took up the post on 1 August 2022.[5]

Helene Budliger Artieda is married and has her second home in Eich LU. She grew up in Dübendorf.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Helene Budliger Artieda zur neuen Direktorin der DRA im EDA ernannt". www.admin.ch. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Helene Budliger Artieda". swissambassador (in French). Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Piazza, Ernesto (4 October 2019). "Eine Wahl-Eicherin vertritt die Schweiz in der ganzen Welt". Luzerner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "New Swiss ambassadors". www.admin.ch. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Wechsel der Staatssekretärin – Helene Budliger Artieda neu an der Spitze des Seco". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). 4 May 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2023.

External links[edit]

Preceded by Schweizer Botschafter in Thailand
2019–2022
Succeeded by