Annual individual election of every board member and a binding shareholder vote on pay — the most shareholder-accountable board seat in Europe, on some of the highest fees anywhere.
Swiss listed company boards are elected individually and annually, the chair and the remuneration committee are elected by shareholders directly, and shareholders vote bindingly on board and executive pay. That architecture, carried into the Code of Obligations by the 2023 company law revision, makes a Swiss board seat unusually exposed and unusually well remunerated. Gender guidelines of 30% on the board and 20% on the executive committee apply on a comply-or-explain basis with defined transition periods.
Can a foreign director sit on a board here?
What you have to do
What actually gets in the way
Board composition
Each requirement is stated as arithmetic against the instrument that creates it, with who it binds. Nothing here is characterised as compliance or non-compliance — that is a legal conclusion about a specific company, and it is not ours to draw.
| Requirement | Threshold | Basis | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swiss-domiciled representation | At least one person domiciled in Switzerland with signing authority | Code of Obligations, Art. 718(4) | All Swiss companies — satisfied by a director or an officer |
| Board term | One year, elected individually | Code of Obligations, Art. 698(2) | Listed companies |
| Gender composition | 30% on the board, 20% on the executive board | Code of Obligations, Art. 734f | Larger listed companies, comply-or-explain with transition periods |
| Compensation committee | Members elected individually by the general meeting | Code of Obligations, Art. 733 | Listed companies |
Independence and tenure
Other tests
What a seat pays
Swiss Code of Obligations · Art. 698(2)
The general meeting elects the members of the board of directors individually and annually, and separately elects the chair and the members of the compensation committee.
Swiss Confederation
Swiss Code of Obligations · Art. 735
Shareholders of a listed company vote bindingly on the aggregate compensation of the board of directors and of executive management.
Swiss Confederation
Swiss Code of Obligations · Art. 734f
Listed companies above defined size thresholds should have at least 30% of each gender on the board of directors and at least 20% on the executive board, explaining in the remuneration report where they do not, with transition periods.
Swiss Confederation
Swiss Code of Obligations · Art. 718(4)
The company must be able to be represented by at least one person domiciled in Switzerland — a director or an officer with signing authority.
Swiss Confederation
SIX Directive on Information relating to Corporate Governance
Prescribes the corporate-governance disclosure a SIX-listed issuer must publish, including board composition, independence and cross-involvement.
SIX Exchange Regulation
Diversity requirements
How this regime map is maintained
Every requirement on this page is cited to the instrument that creates it, and the review date states when a person last checked it against the primary source. Nothing here is legal advice: rules change, and transitional provisions frequently apply. Verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
This regime map was last reviewed against primary sources in August 2026.
The demand thesis
This section is our reading of the market, not a statement of law. It is separated from the rules above for exactly that reason.
Why seats open
How you get in
What this market is short of
Most receptive sectors
Switzerland feed
The same sourced stream as the central feed, isolated to Switzerland. Every item cites the authority that made the change.
Article 734f of the Code of Obligations asks larger listed companies for at least 30% of each gender on the board and 20% on the executive board, with the reasons for any shortfall stated in the remuneration report.
Read the full itemLive seats
Statutory board seats, interim leadership and advisory engagements, on one board.
Switzerland·Logistics & Infrastructure
Multinational subsidiary — logistics and infrastructure services organisation
Who may approve what, across a group's entities and committees, is being reset over 18 months, and the board wants an Advisory Board Member to oversee it. The organisation is a logistics and infrastructure services subsidiary within a multinational group, and the role reports to the Board Chair.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will help leadership decide how a hotel should trade while renovation or substantial maintenance is undertaken. The remit concerns commercial and operating choices: which services remain available, what can be promised and how disruption should shape demand and pricing decisions. Technical construction and safety responsibilities remain with the appropriately qualified parties.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Professional services organisation in Switzerland
This is a genuine board appointment with collective responsibility for the enterprise, bringing particular scrutiny to professional practice risk. The director will examine how commercial ambition, engagement acceptance and quality assurance interact. The objective is to ensure that growth does not outrun the competence, supervision or ethical judgement needed to deliver work responsibly.
Switzerland·Consumer & Retail
Large-cap listed consumer, retail and distribution organisation
Reliable operations come before further volume. Across an 18-month horizon an interim leader of supply chain and operations will hold to that order for a large-cap-listed consumer, retail and distribution organisation, answering to the Board Operations Committee.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Non-profit funds and asset management organisation
Three separate streams, the deal thesis, the integration and the day-to-day continuity of a non-profit asset manager, need to become a single value agenda within 12 months, and the Interim Chief Transformation Officer appointed to join them will answer to the Regional President.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Restructuring and turnaround organisation in Switzerland
The adviser will evaluate competing turnaround interventions for investment decision-makers. The work requires a prospective assessment of value, funding and execution, avoiding the assumption that every stressed business deserves more time or capital.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Industrial technology organisation in Switzerland
The director will help the board assess whether the product and solution portfolio is creating customer value or accumulating avoidable complexity. Industrial technology businesses can carry overlapping offerings, bespoke variants and legacy commitments that consume engineering and support capacity while obscuring the economics of growth.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Independent private agribusiness and food systems organisation
Oversight of the evidence its board relies on is the purpose of a new Nominee Director seat at a privately held, independent agribusiness and food group; the director answers to the Nomination and Governance Committee Chair over a 12-month horizon.
Switzerland·Banking & Financial Services
Multinational subsidiary — banking and financial services organisation
Conduct, operational and financial risk should climb to the top through one escalation model. Building it over 24 months falls to an Interim Chief Audit Executive at the banking arm of a multinational group; the Group Chief Executive Officer is the reporting line.
Switzerland·Healthcare & Life Sciences
Non-profit healthcare and life-science services organisation
Every end-to-end service outcome should have a supplier or site that answers for it. Building that accountability across a non-profit provider of healthcare and life-science services is the 24-month task of an Interim Chief Operating Officer who reports to the Country Managing Director.
Switzerland·Healthcare & Life Sciences
SIX-listed life sciences company
Members of the compensation committee are elected individually by the general meeting under CO Art. 733, and shareholders vote bindingly on aggregate compensation. The company needs a member who can defend its pay architecture to international investors annually.
Switzerland·Logistics & Infrastructure
Private-equity-backed logistics and infrastructure services organisation
Delivery has to stay reliable while the product and platform model changes. A logistics and infrastructure services business backed by private equity wants an Advisory Director to give that counsel to its Technology Committee Chair, to whom the role reports, across 24 months.
Switzerland·Industrial Manufacturing
Mid-cap listed industrial manufacturing organisation
Counsel on how to lead its next phase is what a mid-cap listed manufacturer wants from an Advisory Chair over 12 months; the role reports to the Investment Committee.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will help a hospitality leadership team improve how service failures are recognised, resolved and learned from. The engagement concerns the operating design of guest recovery, including frontline authority, information flow and the consistency of responses. It must protect guest trust without creating uncontrolled commitments or a culture in which compensation substitutes for fixing recurring defects.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Board succession and governance organisation in Switzerland
The director will help the board understand whether leadership development and succession are sufficient to support the organisation's strategy. The focus is not the volume of talent programmes, but the credibility of the pipeline for roles whose absence or weakness would materially affect performance.
Switzerland·Consumer & Retail
Private-equity-backed consumer, retail and distribution organisation
Setting the leadership structure for the next ownership phase is the centrepiece of this 24-month appointment. The Interim Group Chief Executive Officer answers to the Investment Committee of a private-equity-owned consumer, retail and distribution organisation.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Aviation, travel and hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The director will join the board and its audit and risk work with a focus on financial information, liquidity and operational dependencies in travel services. The role must connect transaction risk with the reporting and controls that allow directors to respond. It is intended for a finance leader who can ask precise questions without becoming absorbed in routine management activity.
Switzerland·Public-Interest & Regulated Services
Venture-backed public-interest and regulated services organisation
Engineering capacity needs an owner. For 12 months, an Interim Chief Information Officer at a venture-backed public-interest and regulated services organisation will set how it is allocated and where it stops serving legacy demand, answering to the Technology Committee Chair.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Aviation, travel and hospitality organisation in Switzerland
Can the business meet service and payment commitments when customer receipts, supplier demands or banking arrangements change unexpectedly? This director will help the board answer that question through independent oversight of liquidity and treasury risk in aviation services. The role is grounded in operating cash flows, not merely the size of reported cash balances.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Multinational subsidiary — agribusiness and food systems organisation
How conduct and control matters reach the board, and whether they are resolved once they arrive, is what an incoming Independent Director will oversee for 12 months at this agribusiness and food company within a multinational group. The seat answers to the Nomination and Governance Committee Chair.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Non-profit technology and digital platforms organisation
Under the Group Chief Executive Officer, an Interim President, International Markets, will spend 24 months leading international growth for a technology and digital platforms organisation that operates on a not-for-profit basis.
Switzerland·Logistics & Infrastructure
Mid-cap listed logistics and infrastructure services organisation
Counsel on the operating model and on delivery discipline is what the board of a mid-cap listed logistics and infrastructure services company wants, for 18 months. The Advisory Chair reports to that Board of Directors and advises; the board decides.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Agricultural commodities organisation in Switzerland
The adviser will assess the integrity of traceability and sourcing assurance across agricultural supply chains. The assignment is to determine what the organisation can support with evidence, where information is incomplete and what changes would make future claims more reliable. It is not a certification exercise and should not be presented as an independent guarantee of every supplier's conduct.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Venture-backed funds and asset management organisation
Bringing entity governance into line with where decisions are really owned is the 12-month brief for an Interim Group Chief Legal Officer at a funds and asset management firm funded by venture capital. The role reports to the Regional President.
Switzerland·Industrial Manufacturing
Mid-cap listed industrial manufacturing organisation
This mid-cap listed industrial manufacturer needs someone to decide how its transformation portfolio is funded across an 18-month delivery programme. The seat is an interim one, Transformation Executive, with the Regional President as the reporting line.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Software engineering organisation in Switzerland
The board seeks a director who can assess competing claims for engineering investment in technical renewal and new product development. The remit is to improve strategic judgement where management must choose between visible near-term features and work that preserves future speed, reliability or security. Neither category should receive automatic priority without an explanation of value and consequence.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Agricultural commodities organisation in Switzerland
Candidates need integration or operational-change leadership in agribusiness, commodity distribution or a closely related physical-product environment. They should demonstrate the ability to reconcile detail, manage competing priorities and maintain continuity while changing processes. Generic programme experience without understanding of physical transactions will need to be supported by strong relevant operating exposure.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Family-owned funds and asset management organisation
Integration benefits that never reach daily operations are the concern behind this 24-month interim appointment: a family-owned asset manager wants a Chief Integration Officer, reporting to the Regional President, who will make those benefits show up in ordinary work.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The final advice should state what the property can plausibly become, what it would take and what remains uncertain. Success means leadership can authorise a coherent programme with explicit trade-offs, rather than a collection of enhancements lacking a shared commercial logic. The operating plan must remain viable after the initial launch attention fades and ordinary demand patterns reassert themselves.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Family-owned business and professional services organisation
When should a claim be settled, when defended and when exited? A family-owned firm in business and professional services wants an Interim Chief Governance and Legal Officer to set that approach over 24 months, answering to the Regional President.
Switzerland·Healthcare & Life Sciences
Healthcare providers and healthcare technology businesses
A healthcare organisation is expanding digital services and adopting AI-enabled tools. The director will help the board scrutinise value, operational readiness and assurance, ensuring management can explain how significant deployments are evaluated and monitored.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Venture-backed funds and asset management organisation
Settling the portfolio choices of a venture-funded asset manager, and then putting its transformation into a workable order, is an 18-month assignment for an Interim Transformation Executive who answers to the Regional President.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Large-cap listed funds and asset management organisation
Value cases and stop rules for a transformation portfolio are what an Interim Transformation Executive will set over 24 months, answering to the Regional President of a large-cap listed funds and asset management group.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Board succession and governance organisation in Switzerland
This adviser will help a board or authorised appointment body define a director search that reflects the contribution actually needed. The work is intended to prevent a familiar failure: a broad wish list produces a large candidate pool but no clear basis for choosing among credible people.
Switzerland·Energy & Utilities
Independent private energy and utility services organisation
Where engineering capacity goes, between the systems that already exist and the demand that is coming, is the question an Interim Chief Information Officer will settle over 24 months for an energy and utility services organisation that is privately held and independent. The appointee reports to the Regional President.
Switzerland·Industrial Manufacturing
Cooperative or mutual industrial manufacturing organisation
Its local plans pulled into one accountable operating agenda within 18 months: that is what a member-owned industrial manufacturer expects of an Interim Chief Executive Officer who will report to the Investment Committee.
Switzerland·Property & Real Estate
Hospitality and property investment organisation in Switzerland
This director will bring investment discipline to media holdings where rights, distribution and audience relationships determine commercial value. The role requires scrutiny of the cash-generating rights actually owned and the obligations attached to them.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Audit and financial reporting organisation in Switzerland
The director will contribute to a board's evaluation of management forecasts, performance explanations and resource-allocation information. The seat requires distinguishing a useful estimate from a negotiated target and understanding how uncertainty affects decisions. It is a collective governance appointment rather than an executive planning or financial-analysis role.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Board succession and governance organisation in Switzerland
This independent director will strengthen collective oversight of board composition and succession. The appointment is for a practising governor who understands how directors contribute, how boards lose effectiveness and how future needs can differ from the experience represented around the table today.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Aviation, travel and hospitality organisation in Switzerland
Candidates should bring senior finance or board experience in hospitality or a closely related service environment, with direct understanding of cash cycles, property expenditure and operating performance. The seat requires someone who can challenge investment and financing assumptions while recognising the service and people consequences of financial decisions.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Enterprise technology and AI organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will assess how an AI-enabled workflow changes work, responsibility and managerial oversight. The engagement is designed for leadership teams considering wider adoption, where the technology case may be more developed than the operating model. The advisor must determine what people need to know, decide and challenge for the process to remain dependable.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will provide operating and commercial diligence for a hospitality investment under consideration. The engagement will assess the quality of current performance, the credibility of improvement assumptions and the management capability required after completion. It is independent advice to decision-makers and does not include valuation certification, transaction negotiation or an operating appointment.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Agricultural commodities organisation in Switzerland
Candidates should bring substantial agricultural trading, commodity finance, risk or board experience with direct understanding of physical flows. They must demonstrate the ability to challenge commercially experienced executives while recognising the practical uncertainty of the market. Generic corporate governance experience without exposure to commodity transactions is unlikely to provide the required depth.
Switzerland·Property & Real Estate
Property investment organisation in Switzerland
The committee seeks a member who can form an independent view of property investments and explain it clearly, including when the conclusion is to decline. Candidates should have substantial underwriting or investment-approval experience and a record of reviewing outcomes after capital was committed.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will examine alignment between asset ownership priorities and hotel operating requirements. The engagement focuses on how budgets, service standards, capital needs and commercial decisions are discussed and resolved. It should improve the quality of the relationship without replacing either party's contractual responsibilities or acting as an informal adjudicator.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Industrial software and technology-enabled engineering
An industrial technology business is expanding recurring software and service revenues alongside established products. The director will challenge the commercial strategy and ensure growth assumptions reflect customer buying behaviour, delivery capability and sustainable economics. You will assess management’s ability to translate technical differentiation into measurable customer and financial value.
Switzerland·Funds & Asset Management
Consumer and industrial investments organisation in Switzerland
The adviser will help investment decision-makers evaluate turnaround needs across operating businesses without forcing dissimilar problems into one recovery playbook. The central question is which interventions are economically justified, executable and appropriately supported by ownership.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
The advisor will evaluate how a hospitality group should define and maintain service standards across properties. The engagement must distinguish the elements essential to the guest promise from those that should reflect local context. It concerns practical operating standards, management capability and assurance rather than creating a large manual that employees cannot use.
Switzerland·Technology & Digital Platforms
Deep technology and semiconductors organisation in Switzerland
The director will help the board govern financing and investment decisions in a deep-technology business. The remit is to examine whether the capital plan reflects development uncertainty, commercial timing and the capabilities needed to deliver. It is a board role for someone who can evaluate both technical milestones and financial resilience without reducing one to the other.
Switzerland·Tourism, Hospitality & Entertainment
Luxury hospitality organisation in Switzerland
This engagement will advise a hospitality leadership team on whether its commercial and service arrangements are ready for opening. The focus is the guest-facing operating promise: what has been sold, what can be delivered and how early demand will be managed. The advisor will provide independent readiness judgement without assuming executive control of the opening team.
Switzerland·Business Services & Diversified
Board succession and governance organisation in Switzerland
The adviser will support a deliberate chair succession process by helping the board define the leadership it needs, the evidence it should seek and the transition conditions that will allow a successor to work effectively. The mandate does not confer a director appointment or authority to select the next chair.
Switzerland·Agribusiness & Food
Agricultural commodities organisation in Switzerland
The board seeks a director able to connect the quality obligations of food ingredients with commercial decision-making. The seat concerns oversight of sourcing, product specifications, claims and the consequences of a failure to meet customer requirements. It requires an understanding that a profitable contract can carry disproportionate exposure if the controls supporting its product promises are weak.
Mobility corridors
A corridor is a directional pair of markets between which experience is genuinely legible — and every one of them carries a friction, because a corridor with nothing to bridge would be a corridor nobody had thought about.
Shared language across much of Swiss business, adjacent industrial and pharmaceutical economies, and Swiss boards that routinely include German directors.
Friction — Swiss annual individual election exposes each director to a public vote every year, which is a materially different accountability model from a German supervisory term.
Questions
Yes. Under CO Art. 698(2) the general meeting elects each board member individually for a one-year term, and separately elects the chair and the compensation committee. Shareholders also vote bindingly on board and executive pay.
Not on any individual director. The company must be capable of being represented by at least one person domiciled in Switzerland with signing authority, and an officer can satisfy that requirement.
Swiss non-executive fees are among the highest in the world, particularly at SMI constituents, reflecting the scale of the companies, the annual individual accountability of each director, and a market that pays for board capacity rather than for attendance.
ID Exchange of Switzerland
The mobility index scores it against your own record across four named components — corridor strength, legal openness, what this market is short of, and the language its boards work in — and tells you plainly when the answer is no.