By Edward Krudy <\/p>\n
NEW YORK Thu Feb 6, 2014 7:23pm EST <\/p>\n
Swatch Group Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek Jr addresses the company's annual general meeting in Biel some 45 kilometres north of Bern May 29, 2013. <\/p>\n
Credit: Reuters\/Arnd Wiegmann <\/p>\n
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The eccentric chief executive officer of Swatch Group, one of the world's top watchmakers, was so incensed by recent allegations of mass U.S. spying that he chastised a top New York official over the matter in a letter late last year. <\/p>\n
Nick Hayek's comments seemed odd coming in response to a letter from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who administers the state's $161 billion pension fund. <\/p>\n
DiNapoli had asked Hayek and nine other Olympic sponsors to take a stance against Russia's recent clampdown on gays ahead of the winter games in Sochi. <\/p>\n
Most corporate executives balk at open political conflict. But not the cigar-chomping Hayek. He vigorously defended his Omega subsidiary's role as a politically neutral timekeeper at the Olympics. And that's not all. He also gave DiNapoli a dressing down over the spying scandal surrounding the U.S. National Security Agency. <\/p>\n
DiNapoli released Hayek's comments this week, along with those from five other companies that responded to his request. <\/p>\n
\"As you claim you are an investor with Swatch Group you should be equally preoccupied about what has been publicized lately: the massive collection of data of the NSA worldwide including Switzerland,\" fumed Hayek, whose first language is not English, in a letter dated December 13. <\/p>\n
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