Beat Jans

Beat Jans (born 12 July 1964) is a Swiss environmental scientist and politician who currently serves as president of the Executive Council of Basel-Stadt and previously served on the National Council (Switzerland) from 2010 to 2020 for the Social Democratic Party. In September 2023 he announced his candidacy for Federal Council (Switzerland) to succeed Alain Berset. Early life and education Jans was born 12 July 1964, in Basel, Switzerland, to Anton Jans, a metalworker and Maria Jans (née Ober), a sales associate. He was raised in a blue collar family living in Riehen. His mother immigrated to Switzerland after World War II from Germany. He completed his apprenticeship as a farmer in 1985 and followed up on his studies at the Technical college for tropical agriculture from where he graduated as an agricultural technician in 1987. He graduated in Environmental Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 1994. Career He was involved in the development projects of the Swiss in Paraguay and Haiti between 1987 and 1989 and was a member of the board at Pro Natura between 2000 and 2010, when he resigned to assume office as a member of the National Council of Switzerland. Between 2010 until 2015 he was a member of the board at .