David de Pury (diplomat)

Patrice Lancelot David de Pury^[1] known as David de Pury (December 4, 1943 - December 27, 2000) was a Swiss businessman and diplomat. He was the Swiss trade ambassador, representing Swiss interests at the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade and at the Inter-American Development Bank. He was the chair of ABB, and chair and publisher of Le Temps.

David de Pury
Born	Patrice Lancelot David de Pury (1943-12-04)December 4, 1943 Basel, Switzerland
Died	December 27, 2000(2000-12-27) (aged 57) Zurich, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Businessman
Relatives	Simon de Pury

Biography

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]

References

1. Authier, Olivier. "Jean-Jacques de PURY". Geneanet. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
2. Inderwildi, Frédéric. "Pury". Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
3. "Europe Awaits US Trade List". Christian Science Monitor. 25 May 1989.
4. "Agreement on trade and tariffs" (PDF). www.wto.org. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
5. . Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. "ABB announces record results for 1995". UPI.
7. Turrell, Mark (18 July 1996). Lloyd, Peter; Whitehead, Roger (eds.). Transforming Organisations Through Groupware: Lotus Notes in Action. Springer. pp. 39–45. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-3052-9_4.
8. "Business Must Work for Trade | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com.
9. "Nexus Bilderberg article back matter".
10. "Swiss industrialist and diplomat, David de Pury, dies". SWI swissinfo.ch.
11. Rattner, Steven (18 July 2000). Promoting Sustainable Economies in the Balkans: Report of an Independent Task Force. Council on Foreign Relations. ISBN 9780876092675 – via Google Books.
12. "Geneva WM reveals how being an ESG pioneer paid off".
13. Pury, David de; Tribune, International Herald (23 August 1995). "Opinion | The New Multilateral Trading System Needs Urgent Attention". The New York Times.