Traders fear image damage by the new director

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The accusations against the recently elected director of the trade association (SGV), Henrique Schneider (45), are harsh. According to several media reports, a plagiarism investigator caught him copying – he would not have taken it too seriously when it came to his resume, the “NZZ am Sonntag” reported. In his publications he adorned himself with academic titles that he did not even hold. Schneider denies these allegations.

But the allegations in the media are now clearly causing stomach ache for several members of the association. Nine members of the Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter to Fabio Regazzi (60), the chairman of the trade association and central national alderman. In it they express their concern about the latest developments regarding the Schneider personality.

Schneider will succeed Hans-Ulrich Bigler (64) as director of the trade association on July 1. The members of the Chamber of Commerce voted him unanimously for this position last February – now the mood among some of them has turned against Schneider.

“No palace revolution”

The signatories demand an investigation into the allegations against Schneider. During these clarifications “nothing should be embellished” and “everything should be on the table”. “The SGV must not suffer permanent damage to the image of the director’s staff, especially now that we are in an election year,” the letter says.

The letter was co-signed by the president of the Swiss electronics industry EIT.swiss, Michael Tschirky. “It is by no means a palace revolution, we just want the allegations made in the room to be taken seriously and refuted,” Tschirky tells Blick.

Why did he appear at the AfD?

The letter was also signed by Alois Gmür (67), secondary national councilor and beer brewer. As announced in the letter, he also thinks: If the SGV’s plagiarism investigation concludes that the image damage for the SGV would be great, “it would be necessary to propose an appropriate alternative” to Schneider.

Schneider’s closeness to the German party AfD is also raised in the letter by the traders. One “explicitly welcomes a personal statement from Henrique Schneider” on this. A member of the Chamber of Commerce said he wanted to know why he had prepared an expert opinion for the German party and what his connections to the AfD were.

The SGV announced a week ago that it wanted to investigate the allegations against Schneider itself. The association will not answer any further questions until this investigation is complete.

Source:Blick