Swiss national, born 1946. Beat Kappeler works as a journalist for the weekly Sunday newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag and as commentator for Le Temps in Geneva. He also is an author of several books.
Prior to his current activities, he gained a profound and wide experience as a freelance and salaried journalist in all parts of Switzerland. Being equally interested in politics, economics, sociopolitical topics and science, he also had a professorship in Social Policy at the Institut de Hautes Etudes en Administration Publique (IDHEAP) in Lausanne from 1996 to 2000. Between 1997 and 2007 he was a member of the Federal Communications Commission (regulator). From 1977-1992 he had been National Secretary of the Swiss Trade Union Confederation. In 1970 Beat Kappeler obtained a degree in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva and Berlin. Additionally, he has an honorary doctorate in economics of the University of Basle (1999). His journalistic merits were awarded with the Zurich Award for Journalism (1999), the German Award „informedia“ for Journalism in Economics (1996) and the Award for journalists on finance (2003).