Stephan Schmidheiny

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Stephan Schmidheiny was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 1947 and earned his law degree in his native country. He started his business career at age 25, becoming CEO after four years of work at his family’s construction materials enterprise. Years later he diversified his investments, building his portfolio and adding enterprises related to forestry, banking, and the electronic and optical equipment industries. He became a member of the boards of directors of leading companies such as ABB, Nestlé, Swatch, and UBS.

In the 1980s he created FUNDES, an organization that supports the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in several Latin American countries.

In 1990 he was appointed chief advisor for business and industry to the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), better known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992. To better fulfill his mandate, he created a forum in which leading businessmen from all parts of the world developed a business perspective on environment and development challenges. This forum later became the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), an organization that today assembles the world’s 160 most important enterprises. Stephan Schmidheiny is its Honorary Chairman. In 2003, following the creation of VIVA Trust, Stephan Schmidheiny retired from all of his operational tasks, including his positions in GrupoNueva and AVINA . He travels during most of the year, especially in Latin America. From his mother he inherited his passion for music, and has played the piano since childhood. He enjoys being in contact with nature, engaging in underwater sports, and hiking; he is an avid reader, being history, philosophy and culture his preferred topics.

In order to perpetuate both his entrepreneurial and philanthropic legacy in Latin America, on October 9, 2003, Stephan Schmidheiny donated all his GrupoNueva and other stock to the VIVA Trust. The GrupoNueva stock was worth roughly US$800 million, and the rest brought the total gift to over US$ 1billion.

Stephan Schmidheiny has already received a great number of prizes and distinctions in acknowledgement of his leadership and contribution to sustainable development, among others, stands up the Instituto Centro Americano de Administracion de Empresas (INCAE) PhD Honoris Causa degree, in 1993; the same degree at the Yale University, in 1996; at the Rollins College and Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB), both in 2001.

Schmidheiny was a major donor to the Peterson Institute in 2006.^[1]