(New York) March 15, 2016. – Robert Giuffra was elected Chairman of the Board of the American Swiss Foundation at its Annual Meeting in New York on March 14, 2016. Mr. Giuffra succeeds Steven G. Hoch who served as Chairman for five years.

An alumnus of the Foundation’s Young Leaders Conference of 1996, Robert Giuffra is a partner of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York. He is a member of the Firm’s Management Committee, with overall responsibility for its global litigation practice. A graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School, he has served in all three branches of the U.S. Government, including as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Ralph Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and in the Reagan White House.

“It is a singular honor to chair the Foundation and to help further its important mission of building life-long friendships between the future leaders of United States and Switzerland. The United States has no better friend than Switzerland, and we Americans must never take that friendship for granted,” said Robert Giuffra.

“I am delighted that Bob Giuffra is the new Chairman of the American Swiss Foundation. He is a devoted friend of Switzerland. I also want to thank Steven Hoch for his outstanding leadership of the Foundation over the past five years,” said Ambassador Faith Whittlesey, Chairman Emeritus of the American Swiss Foundation and two-time U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland (1981 to 1983 and 1985 to 1988).

Founded in 1945, The American Swiss Foundation is a private non-profit organization that seeks to preserve and to strengthen the historic friendship between the two countries. Through its annual Young Leaders Conference, the Foundation promotes person-to-person exchange and mutual understanding among the next generation of leaders of the United States and Switzerland. Alumni of the Conference now number more than 1,100 and include members of the U.S. Congress, the Swiss National Council and senior business executives.