Avenir Suisse

Avenir Suisse is a think tank based in Zurich . The foundation is based on the worldview of classical liberalism and the market economy. Its focus is on the economic and social future. On this basis, she creates analyzes of economic and socio-political issues and organizes appropriate events.

Avenir Suisse is supported by around 130 companies and personalities in Switzerland. Avenir Suisse is managed by Peter Grünenfelder.

The former CEO of the Swiss RE insurance company and the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance , Michel M. Liès , have been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees since May 2020 . He succeeds Andreas Schmid, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Flughafen Zürich AG , who in turn replaced Rolf Soiron in this position in 2014 .

aims

The think tank acts on the Anglo-Saxon model. It adopts a decidedly market economy perspective and is based on a classic liberal worldview. Accordingly, it takes the position that the problems of the present and the future cannot and should not be solved primarily by the state. Rather, this should create framework conditions in which initiative and personal responsibility, competition and private property flourish. The foundation develops and launches its projects independently and independently. This is guaranteed by the funding provided by the sponsors several years in advance, as well as by corporate governance rules and a program committee that guarantees quality. In this sense, the Avenir Suisse motto is: "independent - but not neutral".

In contrast to an interest group, the organization does not take an active part in consultation procedures or voting campaigns. Rather, the think tank wants to contribute to economic and socio-political opinion-forming and thus lay the groundwork for those reforms that, in its opinion, are essential for securing prosperity, quality of life and competitiveness. Avenir Suisse takes a longer-term perspective that is not geared to daily politics and aims to close a gap between science, business and politics with a holistic, scientifically based approach and the understandable processing of findings.

history

In July 2000, 14 international Swiss companies founded ABB , Credit Suisse Group, Groupement des Banquiers Privés Genevois, Jacobs Holding , Kuoni Holding, McKinsey Switzerland, Nestlé , Novartis , Hoffmann-La Roche , SAirGroup , Sulzer AG , Swiss Re , UBS and Zurich Financial Services the "Foundation for the Future of Switzerland" Avenir Suisse is supported by around 160 companies and individuals from all over Switzerland.
Operations began in January 2001 under the name Avenir Suisse and under the direction of the Swiss sociologist Thomas Held .
In 2005 the Board of Trustees decided to continue the activities indefinitely. For this purpose, the originally closed circle of donors was opened in order to sustainably broaden the ideal and financial basis of the foundation.
On November 1, 2010, Gerhard Schwarz took over the position of director from Thomas Held . He did this until the end of March 2016.
Since April 1, 2016, Peter Grünenfelder, former state clerk for the canton of Aargau, has been director of Avenir Suisse.

organization

The highest body is the foundation council, which is made up of 20 to 25 representatives from business, science and public life. It constitutes itself, elects the president from among its members and appoints the chairmen and members of all commissions as well as the director of Avenir Suisse. It also approves the budget as well as the annual report and the invoice.

The steering committee approves the thematic priorities and monitors the project portfolio. It consists of the President of the Board of Trustees, the President of the Funding Foundation and the Chairperson of the Nomination Committee, the Finance Committee and the Program Committee. The nomination committee evaluates personalities for the foundation board, the commissions and the management. The finance committee checks the budget and the financial statements for the attention of the board of trustees. The program committee advises the director and his team on the selection of the topics to be treated, and he guarantees the scientific quality of the projects with his critical support.

The director has operational responsibility for the foundation. He defines the individual projects within the framework of the specifications and ensures the communication of the study results. He represents Avenir Suisse to the public, politics, business and science. A total of around 30 people work at Avenir Suisse, many of them on a part-time basis.

criticism

The trade union Unia sees Avenir Suisse as "the mouthpiece of corporations and large companies."

Publications

The think tank has published the following monographs since it was founded :

The Price of Federalism (2002), Going It alone (2002); Best Practice in School (2003); Construction site federalism (2005), Stadt Land Schweiz (2005); Economic Myths (2006), The Liberated Farmer (2006); Urban Density (2007), The IV- A Medical History (2007); Die Neue Zuwanderung (2008), Agricultural Political Myths (2008); The AHV - A precaution against aging blindness (2009); Energy security without self-sufficiency (2010); Concordance in the Crisis (2011), Securing Social Security (2011), The Value of Values (2011); Tax policy construction sites (2012), More market for the public service (2012), Rejuvenation cure for old-age provision (2012), The strained medium-sized company (2012); Ideas for Switzerland - 44 chances to win the future (2013), makeover for old-age provision (2013), between load and performance (2013); Pioneers of modern Switzerland (2014), Overcoming generational injustice (2014); Citizen State and Citizens (2015), Watch the Swiss (2015), Bilateralism - what else? (2015); Trade instead of homeland security (2016); When the Robots Come (2017); 20 Years of Swiss Urban Policy (2018), White Book Switzerland (2018); Unique dynamics of the Arc lémanique (2019), What if ... - 13 possible developments and their consequences for Switzerland (2019); An International Think Tank Report on Security in Europe (2020), Economic Policy Responses to the Corona Crisis (2020), Roadmap for the Corona Exit (2020), Dead End Re-Nationalization (2020)