Beat Jans is the new Federal Councillor

Beat Jans was born Riehen near Basel, Switzerland. He completed his apprenticeship as a farmer in 1985 and followed up on his studies at former Technikum für tropische Landwirtschaft, from where he graduated as an agricultural technician in 1987. He then graduated in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich in 1994.

He worked for ten years as head of department and member of the executive board at Pro Natura, the Swiss Federation for Nature Conservation, based in Basel and was later Managing Director of ecos.ch. He was a lecturer at the University of Basel and an independent consultant in the field of environmental protection and communication.

Beat Jans has also held various political mandates. He was Vice President of the SP Switzerland from 2015 to 2020. He was a member of the National Council for a total of 10 years until 2020 and finally became President of the Government of the Canton of Basel and Head of the Department of Presidential Affairs in 2021.