Hans-Rudolf Merz (born 10 November, 1942) was elected member of the Swiss Federal Council on 10 December 2003 as member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He is to succeed Kaspar Villiger on 1 January 2004.

Born in Herisau, Switzerland, he studied at Hochschule St. Gallen and graduated 1971 as Dr. rer. publ.

From 1969-1974 he was party secretary of FDP St. Gallen. Since 1977, he worked as management consultant.

In 1997, he was elected to the Council of States for the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes. He presides the finance committee and is a member of the foreign policy committee.

As of 2003, he is on the board of directors of the Helvetia-Patria insurance company and Anova Holding. He is also member of the board of trustees of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation.

He is married and father of three sons.