Valais State Councillor Jean-Michel Cina becomes new SRG President
Jean-Michel Cina, a member of the CVP cantonal council from Valais, will become the new president of SRG on May 1, 2017. He was elected on Friday by the extraordinary assembly of delegates to succeed the resigning president Viktor Baumeler, as the SRG announced.
The delegates thus followed the proposal of the Board of Directors. They had chosen an "experienced personality with a network of contacts in politics and business," SRG writes. The 53-year-old lawyer and notary stands "for the federalism of Switzerland and the SRG". Cina will take office on May 1, 2017, and will then replace Baumeler as President of SRG.
The Valais native has a successful career as a politician at cantonal and federal level, the statement continues. Among other things, he was a member of the National Council from 1999 to 2005 and has been Director of Economic Affairs for the canton of Valais since 2005. He currently presides over the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK). Cina graduated from the University of Bern with a degree in law and was admitted to the bar and notary's office of the Canton of Valais. He is married and has two children.
Jean-Michel Cina is looking forward to his future task: "I am a convinced representative of the public service," Cina is quoted as saying in the media release. It is "an honor, but also a responsibility to be President of the public media company SRG. All the more so at a time when this institution is facing up to the upheaval in the media.
Baumeler had been elected president at the end of November 2015. It was envisaged that he would hold the office until a definitive successor was found, but until 2017 at the longest. This solution followed the resignation of former SRG President Raymond Loretan in summer 2015. (SDA)
