Ambassador Manuel Sager appointed new head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Bern, 02.04.2014 - The Federal Council has appointed the current Swiss ambassador in Washington, Manuel Sager, as the new head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Manuel Sager has long experience in the international, financial policy and economic fields and in particular gained a very solid understanding of the challenges of development policy during his posting at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He will take up his new post on 1 November 2014, succeeding Martin Dahinden, who will become the new ambassador in Washington.
Ambassador Sager, who was born in 1955 in Menziken, canton of Aargau, entered the diplomatic service in 1988 after completing a doctorate in law, and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) at Duke University Law School in North Carolina, USA. Following an internship in Bern and Athens, he worked as a diplomatic desk officer in the Directorate of International Law, becoming head of the International Humanitarian Law Section in 1993. He completed postings as deputy consul-general in New York, as head of information at the embassy in Washington and as head of the International Humanitarian Law Coordination Office within the Directorate of International Law, before he was appointed head of information at the Federal Department of Economic Affairs on February 1st 2003.
In 2005, he was appointed ambassador and executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Before taking up his present post as head of mission in Washington, he was head of Political Affairs Division V, responsible for coordinating the sectorial foreign policies of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Bern.
The skills Ambassador Sager has acquired in his long diplomatic career qualify him ideally for the role of head of the SDC. He has wide-ranging professional experience and an excellent network of contacts in the international, financial policy and economic fields. In particular during his four-year posting at the EBRD he gained an in-depth understanding of development policy challenges. Ambassador Sager is also very well informed about domestic policy issues.
He succeeds Martin Dahinden as director-general of the SDC; Mr Dahinden will be the new ambassador in Washington. In October 2013, the Federal Council appointed Ambassador Sager head of Swiss Cooperation with Eastern Europe with the SDC. This post will now be re-advertised.
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