Boring, He's Not

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Flamboyant and Swiss are adjectives not often found in close proximity to each other, particularly when the individual being described is a career diplomat. Thomas Borer, who is both these things and was until April his country's ambassador to Germany, thinks this is a problem. "If you're a diplomat of a small country like Switzerland, you have to work on bringing a new image across, on raising the country's profile," he says. "You can only do this through your own personality. You have to make people have an interest in you."

During his three-year stint as Swiss envoy to Berlin, Borer, 45, did just that. He and his wife Shawne Fielding, 34, a former Texas beauty queen, became fixtures on the German capital's party circuit and in the popular press. Establishment figures back home may have been perturbed by Fielding's appearance in a German magazine photo spread, but Borer makes no apology for the shots of his glamorous blonde wife in a strapless gown astride a horse and toting toy guns in a red miniskirt — a dollar sign above her cleavage — on the roof the newly refurbished embassy. "Thanks to those pictures we had about 200 journalists at the inauguration of our embassy and a lot of positive press," he says. "Meanwhile, my colleagues who didn't do anything comparable had about two journalists and no mention. That's what I call a new way of doing diplomacy."

Borer's groundbreaking approach to statecraft was not an unqualified success — he was recalled to Bern when a Swiss paper published details of an alleged affair with a topless model. Though he denied the story from the beginning and has since received a sizable out-of-court settlement from the tabloid, which admitted fabricating the story, he quit government and remains bitter over his treatment. "I will never go back under this minister," he says when asked if he would ever return to the diplomatic corps. "But fortunately ministers change."

The press frenzy over his alleged indiscretions marked the second time in his career that Borer became the most high-profile of Switzerland's diplomats. For nearly three years he headed the task force that handled claims arising from Swiss banks' dealings with Nazi Germany during World War II. He prides himself on his "tough but fair" negotiating stance that won him the support of his countrymen for "standing up for Switzerland" as well as the commendation of several Jewish organizations.

Now Borer, a lawyer by training, is putting his talents to use in his new career as a Berlin-based investment banker and lobbyist. Swiss, the national airline that replaced the bankrupt Swissair, has just hired him as a consultant in a bid to revamp its image. An interesting choice, considering all that Borer has personally done to shake up his country's staid reputation.

Q&A

TIME: The Foreign Minister criticized you for how you handled the tabloid incident and for mixing your personal and professional lives.
Borer: This is a ridiculous allegation. My minister, Joseph Deiss, didn't stick up for me. One of the scandals is that the ministry was informed five days earlier that this story was going to run and instead of giving me the chance to prepare my defense or maybe file an injunction, they wouldn't tell me anything.

TIME: You handled negotiatons over Switzerland's World War II banking role. Do you think the country's reputation has recovered?
Borer: I wouldn't say it was damaged. What has happened in recent months — Swissair's grounding, the revelations of mismanagement at several companies — is more damaging to the credibility of the country as a place with the best and most serious business people.

TIME: There is still a lot of criticism of Swiss banking regulations.
Borer: We've taken unprecedented measures over the past three years to deal with the issue of money laundering. It's difficult nowadays to abuse Swiss banking secrecy if you are a criminal. Of course, you still can do it. But we are doing our best, and we now have better laws than the U.S. and Britain.