Change of State Secretary – Helene Budliger Artieda new at the head of Seco – News

  • The Federal Council appoints Helene Budliger Artieda as the new State Secretary of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).
  • On August 1, she succeeds Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, who is retiring at the end of July after around eleven years.
  • The 57-year-old is currently the Swiss ambassador in Bangkok.

Until 2019, Helene Budliger Artieda worked as an ambassador in Pretoria, South Africa. From 2008 to 2015 she was Director of Resources in the Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and thus a member of the Executive Board.

Budliger Artieda grew up in Dübendorf ZH, holds a trade diploma and completed internal training at the FDFA to become a consular employee. She completed her business studies at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá in 2000 as Magister en Administración de Empresas (MBA).

She brings with her “many years of broad and well-founded practical, specialist and management experience in a wide variety of areas at home and abroad,” writes the Federal Council. As director of the Directorate for Resources in the FDFA, she led a large unit and led extensive reform and change processes. “As Swiss Ambassador to South Africa and Thailand, she was able to broaden her international experience at diplomatic level, maintain contact with very different stakeholder groups and build up a network with the Swiss economy, especially in the area of ​​export promotion,” the Federal Council further justified its choice.

39 candidates from all over Switzerland

The head of the Department of Economics, Education and Research (EAER) Guy Parmelin set up a search committee to look for Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch’s successor. The position was also publicly advertised. According to the WBF, 39 applications were received from all language regions. The selection committee carried out a multi-stage selection process including an external assessment and finally recommended a selection of candidates to Federal Councilor Parmelin.

After talks with these candidates, he proposed Helene Budliger Artieda to the Federal Council for appointment.

Thanks to the outgoing Secretary of State


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In its statement, the Federal Council already thanks the acting State Secretary Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch “for her great services to the Confederation and in particular to Seco”. She was instrumental in the success of free trade agreement negotiations. Under her aegis, Switzerland signed more than 20 free trade agreements and a good dozen agreements on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, writes the Federal Council.

“As head of the Foreign Trade Directorate, she was always committed to an open and competitive economy and to safeguarding Switzerland’s interests at home and abroad.” Ineichen-Fleisch has been in charge of Seco since the beginning of April 2011 and will continue to manage around 800 people in this position until July.

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