22.12.2023 - The head of the DDPS, Federal Councillor Viola Amherd, has appointed Manuel Suter as Deputy Director of the NCSC as of 1 January 2024. The Federal Council was informed of the appointment at its meeting on 22 December.
Manuel Suter, 44, is currently co-head of the Office of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). From 1 January, he will take up the post of deputy director of the NCSC and head of the Managerial Staff Office. He will be responsible for setting the NCSC’s political, legal and strategic direction, strategic cooperation projects with the cantons, universities and businesses, and designing the content of the National Cyber Strategy.
Mr Suter graduated from the University of Zurich with a degree in Political Science, History and Constitutional Law. In 2012, he received his doctorate from ETH Zurich for his dissertation on the governance of cybersecurity. From 2006, he worked as a researcher and doctoral candidate at the Centre for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, and from November 2011 as a senior researcher in the CSS’s New Risks research group, where he specialised in critical infrastructure and risk management. From September 2012 to October 2014, he worked for WIF Partner AG as a project manager in infrastructure management. In January 2015, Mr Suter joined the Federal IT Steering Unit (FITSU) as coordinator and project manager of the National Strategy for the Protection of Switzerland against Cyber Risks. Since July 2019, he has been co-head of the Office of the NCSC at the Federal Department of Finance (FDF).
Due to the growing importance of cybersecurity and thus the NCSC, the Federal Council decided on 2 December 2022 to transform the NCSC into a federal office and to transfer it from the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) to the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). The National Cyber Security Centre will take up its activities within the DDPS on 1 January.
