David de Pury (diplomat)

De Pury was born into a Swiss family that has been nobilitated in 1651 by Henri II. d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville and had their origins in Neuchatel,[2] Switzerland. His father, Jacques de Pury, was an attorney and head of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche for which he led Nippon Roche in Tokyo, Japan. His younger brother is Simon de Pury.

De Pury was a delegate of the Federal Council for Trade Agreements in Switzerland and served as Switzerland's Trade Ambassador,[3] and representing the country at the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade in 1987.[4][5] De Pury succeeded Fritz Leutwiler as the Co-Chairman of ABB, serving in that capacity from 1992 to 1996.[5][6][7] He later served as the Chairman of BBC Brown Hoveri.[8][9] He held a number of government offices, including working in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern.[10] He represented Switzerland in The Hague, Brussels and Washington DC.[10] In the 1980s he served as the Governor for Switzerland at the Inter-American Development Bank.[10] He was a board member of Nestlé, Ciba-Geigy and Zurich Insurance Group and chairman and publisher of Le Temps.[10][11] In 1996 he co-founded the wealth management firm de Pury, Pictet, Turrettini.[10][12]

De Pury was Vice President of the Lucerne Classical Music Festival.[10] In 1995 he called for a liberalization of the Swiss economy and was criticized for trying to "dismantle" the welfare state.[10][13] In April 1993 he spoke to university students at the Harvard Kennedy School about governmental and commercial issues.[8] He was chosen to speak at the school due to his active role in the annual International Management Symposium in St Gallen, Switzerland.[8]

De Pury died from cancer on 27 December 2000 at a hospital in Zürich.[10]