Corina Casanova Corina Casanova Corina Casanova (born 4 January 1956) was the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland between 2008 and 2015. Born in Ilanz, Graubünden, Casanova worked as a lawyer in the practice of the former President of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Giusep Nay, as well as a Red Cross delegate in South Africa, Angola, Nicaragua and El Salvador. She was also a federal parliamentary official and advisor to Federal Councillors Flavio Cotti and Joseph Deiss, both of the Christian Democratic People's Party. In August 2005, she was elected to the office of Vice-Chancellor by the Swiss Federal Assembly. In December 2007,
Federal Council (Switzerland) 2007 till 2010, when Simonetta Sommaruga was elected as the fourth woman in government in place of Moritz Leuenberger, putting men in minority for the first time in history. Also remarkable is the fact that the eighth non-voting member of government, the Chancellor, who sets the government agenda, was also a woman. In total, there have been seven female Councillors in the period 1989 to present: Until 1999, the Constitution mandated that no canton could have more than one representative on the Federal Council. Until 1987, the place of origin was used to determine which canton a Federal Councilor was