Stephan Schmidheiny

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Stephan Schmidheiny (born October 29, 1947 in Balgach ; entitled to live there ) is a member of the Schmidheiny family dynasty and a Swiss entrepreneur .

Life

Stephan Schmidheiny is the son of Max Schmidheiny (1908–1991) and Adda Schmidheiny-Scherrer († 1997) and brother of Thomas Schmidheiny , Marietta and Alexander Schmidheiny († 1992). He grew up in Heerbrugg in the canton of St. Gallen and attended the Trogen canton school . In 1972 he completed his studies with a doctorate in law at the University of Zurich . Schmidheiny was married to Ruth Schmidheiny (Member of the Board of Directors of Daros Latin America AG) from 1974 to 2002. He has a son and a daughter and lives in Hurden in the canton of Schwyz . He has been married to Viktoria Schmidheiny-Werner since 2012. Schmidheiny realized several book projects, including the bestseller Changing Course in 1992 as part of the UN Rio Summit . Global Business Perspectives on Development and the Environment , translated into over twelve languages. In 2016, the Swiss business magazine Bilanz estimated his fortune at 3.75 billion Swiss francs.

Entrepreneurial engagements

Eternit

In 1972, at the age of 25, Stephan Schmidheiny began his entrepreneurial career in the sales department of the Swiss Eternit Group, which had belonged to the Schmidheiny family since the 1920s and was later transferred to him by his father. In 1976, four years after joining, he became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Swiss Eternit Group.

In 1978 Schmidheiny, now Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced that he wanted to completely avoid asbestos , eleven years before the asbestos ban in Switzerland since 1989. At the same time, he had research into substitutes and within four years he succeeded in developing new fiber blends up to product maturity. In 1989, five years after taking over the group from his father, Schmidheiny had left the Eternit group completely.

Stephan Schmidheiny's “Anova”, successor to the global company “Eternit”, was confronted with massive demands for compensation payments for South African asbestos victims from 2002 onwards. A class action lawsuit was averted with the establishment of a compensation trust, which is said to have been endowed with $ 10-20 million. The settlement was negotiated by the then Council of States and later Federal Councilor Hans-Rudolf Merz after Stephan Schmidheiny resigned as Chairman of the Board of Directors in August 2002.

In Italy, the issue of asbestos has been dealt with extensively in court since 2009. In Turin , Stephan Schmidheiny and Baron Louis de Cartier from Belgium were accused at the end of 2009 of having caused the asbestos death of more than 2000 workers and residents between 1966 and 1986 due to a lack of safety precautions in several Italian Eternit factories. The prosecution accused them of being responsible for 2056 deaths and 833 illnesses. On February 13, 2012, he and Louis de Cartier were sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment and compensation payments of 80 million euros. Schmidheiny laid appeal against the judgment. He later pleaded for the trial to be annulled. Louis de Cartier (* 1921) died during the appeal process in May 2013. On June 3, 2013, the Turin Court of Appeal increased the sentence to 18 years and to 90 million euros. An appeal to the Court of Cassation in Rome has been announced against the judgment . In November 2014, at the request of the public prosecutor, the Italian Court of Cassation annulled the lower court judgment and declared the allegations to be statute-barred .

The now retired public prosecutor Guariniello then filed a second complaint of willful homicide. On November 29, 2016, the responsible judge in Turin decided not to admit this. Different local processes are possible e.g. B. in Vercelli, Reggio Emilia and Naples for negligent homicide.

Swiss watch industry

Schmidheiny provided significant financial support from Nicolas Hayek in taking over the watch holding company SMH (51% stake) to save the Swiss watch industry in 1985, which was agreed with a handshake. This resulted in the later Swatch Group .

FIG

In 1987 Stephan Schmidheiny organized the merger of Brown, Boveri & Cie. As anchor shareholder . with ASEA from Sweden to the newly positioned company ABB. Brown Boveri was able to free himself from a crisis through the merger. In addition to Schmidheiny, the former BBC boss Fritz Leutwiler and ASEA's main shareholder Peter Wallenberg and ASEA boss Percy Barnevik participated in the merger, which was negotiated in 10 weeks.

Landis + Gyr

Also in 1987 Schmidheiny took over two thirds of the capital of Zug's Landis & Gyr Holding AG from the family shareholders, who could not provide a successor as a leader, through his "Anova Holding" . Schmidheiny was aware that significant changes were necessary. The inclusion of new electronic possibilities in the predominantly electromechanical products, the complex company structure of L&G as well as the improvement of profitability had to be addressed. He used his confidants to do this. During the following years these goals were largely achieved, albeit after restructuring and downsizing in several steps. In 1995 Schmidheiny first retired from L & G's board of directors and shortly thereafter sold his stake in Elektrowatt , which at least at this point was still a Swiss solution. Business divisions were later continued from Siemens and via the intermediate stations KKR and Bayard by Toshiba . In 2017 Toshiba Corporation and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) sold these businesses through an IPO. The company has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange as Landis + Gyr (ticker symbol: LAND) since July 21, 2017 .

Leica

Stephan Schmidheiny took over the Leica group from his brother Thomas Schmidheiny . Her ancestor Jakob Schmidheiny laid the foundation stone for this commitment in 1921 in the Heerbrugg district of the Balgach community, when he co-founded the Heinrich Wild company, a workshop for precision mechanics and optics . The Leica Group later emerged from this through various company takeovers. After the takeover by Stephan Schmidheiny as the main shareholder in 1989, the Leica Group was restructured and split up from the 1990s onwards, and the most important business areas were sold to interested parties abroad. For the region of the family headquarters Balgach / Heerbrugg this was a bitter disappointment.

Further engagements

Stephan Schmidheiny diversified his investments by building up a multinational investment conglomerate with commitments in the areas of forestry, banking, consumer goods, power generation, electronics and optical equipment companies, among others. During this time he shaped various companies and made a name for himself as an industrial architect. He has served on the boards of leading companies such as B. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Nestlé , Swatch Group and UBS .

With the aim of safeguarding his entrepreneurial and philanthropic work in Latin America beyond his own generation, Schmidheiny transferred all of the shares in his industrial holding company GrupoNueva to an irrevocable trust, "Viva", on October 9, 2003 , the beneficiary of which was the Avina Foundation is. The equity of GrupoNueva was estimated at USD 800 million, which together with a portfolio of securities transferred to the Foundation represented a donation of over USD 1 billion. With the establishment of the Viva Trust , Schmidheiny withdrew from all his operational activities, including his functions in GrupoNueva and Avina.

philanthropy

Philanthropic engagement has always been very important in Stephan Schmidheiny's life and has been Stephan Schmidheiny's main field of activity since the 1990s, especially his role at the UN Rio Summit in 1992.

UN Rio Summit 1992 and "World Business Council for Sustainable Development"

In 1990 he was appointed «Main Advisor for Economy and Industry» to the Secretary General of the UN Rio Summit 1992 (UNCED). In this function, Stephan Schmidheiny played a key role in preparing this United Nations conference, better known as the 1992 “Rio Summit”. In order to better perform his mandate, he founded a forum in which leading entrepreneurs from all over the world promoted a business perspective on the challenges of the environment and development. From this forum, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) emerged, an organization to which the 160 most important companies worldwide now belong. Schmidheiny was elected honorary president, also in recognition of his pioneering role in phasing out the production of asbestos-containing building materials ( Eternit ).

In the context of the Rio Summit, Schmidheiny launched the book Kurswechsel in 1992 . Global Business Perspectives on Development and the Environment , translated into over twelve languages.

Further philanthropic engagements

In 1984, Stephan Schmidheiny and the Archbishop of Panama , Marcos Gregorio McGrath , founded the Fundes Foundation based in Panama, an organization that wanted to support small and medium-sized enterprises in various Latin American countries. The first few years of this project, initially limited to Panama, were not very successful. The breakthrough only came with the US invasion of the Panama Canal Zone in 1989 and a subsequent US development aid project in partnership with Fundes . Fundes learned with suitable new employees how to successfully grant microcredits and achieve a high success rate with repayments. The result was a South American microfinance system similar to that of Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh , whom Schmidheiny got to know early on.

In 1994 he founded the Avina Foundation , which contributes to sustainable development in Latin America by promoting profitable alliances between corporate and business leaders and which today has a leading role in this environment. Most of the legacy of his brother Alexander Schmidheiny, who died in the early 1990s, went into this foundation.

criticism

In its history, the Schmidheiny family was exposed to criticism beyond the disputes surrounding the issue of Eternit / asbestos. She is accused of having worked with dictatorial regimes, for example with Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua during the 1970s or with South Africa during apartheid . Due to the commercial involvement of the Schmidheiny family with dictatorial regimes and the hesitant coming to terms with the process, for example the German Eternit AG did not admit the use of forced labor in National Socialist Germany until 2007, and compensation for (health) victims, some view Stephan Schmidheiny's philanthropic commitment critically .

Awards

Stephan Schmidheiny has received prizes and awards in recognition of his leadership and his contribution to sustainable development. These include an honorary doctorate from the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE), Costa Rica, in 1993 , and the same title from Yale University in 1996 and from Rollins College , Florida, and the Universidad Católica Andrés Belllo (UCAB), Caracas in 2001 . In 2007, on the occasion of the PODER-Green Forum, PODER and the Boston Consulting Group presented Schmidheiny with the Philanthropy Award . In 2009 the biography His long way to himself - legacy - entrepreneur - philanthropist was published by Stämpfli-Verlag.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephan Schmidheiny , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 39/2017 from September 26, 2017., in the Munzinger archive , accessed on September 28, 2017 ( beginning of article freely accessible).
  2. ↑ a b Markus Städeli, Charlotte Jacquemart: Empire of clay, sand and stone . ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: NZZ am Sonntag from July 29, 2012.
  3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Müller: Everything is body here. ( Memento from May 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Monopol from August 19, 2010.
  4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Müller: Rio calls. Will the art world answer? In: Welt am Sonntag on January 27, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Tatiana Serafin: Creative Giving - The Bill Gates Of Switzerland . In: Forbes Magazine, September 16, 2009.
  6. ↑ Mention of the partnership in the media release Les Arts Gstaad , accessed on 23 August 2016.
  7. ^ Review of the book «Kurswechsel». In: FAZ from May 11, 1992, accessed on the website of the network headquarters of the network headquarters of the joint library network on August 31, 2016.
  8. ↑ The 300 richest 2016: Stephan Schmidheiny. In: Bilanz , accessed on September 28, 2017.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang E. Höpner: Asbestos in the modern age. Waxmann, Münster 2008 ISBN 978-3-8309-2048-9 .
  10. ↑ The Schmidheinys, (Part 1): Deadly Billions. In: Bilanz , March 26, 2003. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  11. ↑ The Schmidheinys (Part 2): Profits without a conscience. In: Bilanz , April 30, 2003. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  12. ↑ Asbestos: Schmidheiny wants to buy himself out cheaply. ( Memento of April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: work, April 18, 2004. Retrieved on August 27, 2012.
  13. ↑ a b Asbestos time bomb: From miracle fibers to deadly dust. ( Memento of November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Social Medicine, February 11, 2011. Retrieved on August 27, 2012.
  14. ↑ Holcim Press Release South Africa. ( Memento of May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  15. ^ Asbestos process in Italy. "Now everyone is sick". In: Der Spiegel . December 10, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  16. ↑ Nosedive on the honey pots. In: Bilanz, February 8, 2005. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  17. ^ Prelude to the great Eternit trial in Turin. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 10, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  18. ↑ Schmidheiny fears an unbalanced procedure. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 1, 2010. Accessed April 3, 2011.
  19. ^ A b c Andrea Spalinger: acquittal for Stephan Schmidheiny. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from November 20, 2014.
  20. ↑ 16 years imprisonment each for Schmidheiny and de Cartier , nachrichten.ch, February 13, 2012.
  21. ↑ Schmidheiny wants to have the asbestos process canceled , Handelszeitung , August 27, 2012. Retrieved on August 27, 2012.
  22. ↑ Baron convicted in asbestos trial is dead. In: St. Galler Tagblatt of May 21, 2013.
  23. ↑ Nikos Tzermias: Schmidheiny sentenced to 18 years in prison. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of June 3, 2013, accessed on June 4, 2013.
  24. ^ Schmidheiny sentenced to 18 years in prison. In: 20 Minuten from June 3, 2013, accessed June 4, 2013.
  25. ^ New lawsuit against Schmidheiny. In: Tages-Anzeiger from February 25, 2015
  26. ↑ "Torino, Spezzettato il processo Eternit. Omicidio colposo e non più volontario per l'imprenditore Schmidheiny" In: La Repubblica of November 29, 2016
  27. ↑ Andrea Spalinger: New turning point in the Schmidheiny case. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from November 30, 2016.
  28. ↑ a b c Markus Städeli, Chantal Biswas: The Italian Richer compared me to Hitler. In: NZZ am Sonntag, April 20, 2014, p. 29.
  29. ↑ Stephan Schmidheiny as industrial architect ( memento from January 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 8, 2015.
  30. ↑ Werner Catrina: 125 years of ABB. In: Aargauer Zeitung , accessed on October 14, 2016.
  31. ↑ Ueli Kneubühler: The odyssey began with Schmidheiny. NZZ on Sunday, July 8, 2017.
  32. ↑ a b René Lüchinger, Ueli Burkhard: Stephan Schmidheiny. His long journey to himself: heir - entrepreneur - philanthropist. Stämpfli, Bern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7272-1302-1 .
  33. ↑ Measurement technology manufacturer Landis + Gyr with the first trading day on the stock exchange. Cash.ch , accessed on November 16, 2017.
  34. ↑ Fritz Staudacher: Spanned - From the formation and destruction of the Leica Group to Hexagon. In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand technology history. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03823-791-4 , pp. 291-300.
  35. ↑ Stephan Schmidheiny: Stephan Schmidheiny's way and work in short form ( memento from October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 6, 2012.
  36. ^ Stephan Schmidheiny: Industrial legacy. ( Memento of October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  37. ^ Stephan Schmidheiny: Change of course. Global entrepreneurial prospects for development and the environment. Droemer Knaur, 1993, ISBN 3-426-80007-1
  38. ↑ The Schmidheinys (Part 2): Profits without a conscience. Balance sheet , April 30, 2003. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidheiny, Stephan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Balgach