Election Of Peter Gomez As Chairman Of The Board – Changes In The Board Of Directors Of SWX

On Friday, 5 May 2006, the General Assembly of the SWX Swiss Exchange Association elected Peter Gomez as its new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Gomez has been Dean of the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law at the University of St. Gallen since 2005 and will continue in that post. He has been a full professor of business economics since 1990 and headed the university as its rector from 1999 through 2005. Apart from his academic credentials, he also has experience in the entrepreneurial world. He was a member of the Executive Committees of Ringier and the Distral Group, as well as the founding partner of Valcor AG, Küsnacht, a consulting firm specialised in strategic management and M&A. By electing Gomez, the General Assembly unanimously endorsed the proposal made by the Board of Directors on 24 March. Simultaneously, Gomez was also elected as a member of the Admission Board.

Walter Berchtold stepped down from the SWX Board of Directors and Committee of the Board of Directors on 5 May 2006. He has held the former post since 13 June 1996 as a representative of Credit Suisse, and the latter since 23 June 1998. Jacques de Saussure, Vice-Chairman and Chairman ad interim of SWX, thanked Walter Berchtold on behalf of the Board of Directors and all of SWX for his collaboration, which was always marked by his resolute, clear-cut yet balanced contributions.

Christian Gell, Managing Director of Credit Suisse, was elected as a new member and representative of Credit Suisse on the SWX Board of Directors and Committee of the Board of Directors. Christian Gell headed the Trading & Execution division of Credit Suisse for a number of years. Effective 1 January 2006, he took over as head of the bank’s entire Investment Banking Trading Switzerland division, and is considered a proven expert in the Swiss financial markets.