Stephan Schmidheiny’s Life and Work in a brief

Stephan Schmidheiny is a descendant of a Swiss industrialist dynasty, which has made industrial history in a way that is second to none. He has continued this tradition in his own special way. The young graduate lawyer entered Eternit Switzerland when he was only 29 years old, took over its leadership after only a short time and immediately began to drive forward the exit from asbestos processing, which was considered to be a worldwide pioneering achievement. His pioneering spirit was equally apparent in his industrial activities such as his role, together with others, as saviour of the Swiss Watch Industry (SMH) or in the merger that later became ABB.

Further highlights of Stephan Schmidheiny’s life were the Rio Summit 1992, which he had helped to shape, and the founding of the “World Business Council for Sustainable Development”. In his bestselling book “Changing Course - A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment” he first coined the phrase “Eco-efficiency”. The book has since been translated into many languages. Also considered to be unforgettable is his substantial conceptual and financial commitment for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, which joined forces with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Tokyo to form the “Alliance for Global Sustainability”.

His life as an industrialist was rounded off with a completely different area of endeavour – philanthropy, which brought forth his renowned Avina Foundation, among others. It was not without cause that “Forbes” heralded Stephan Schmidheiny as “The Bill Gates of Switzerland” in 2009. Since 2001 Stephan Schmidheiny has successively withdrawn from all his Executive functions and placed the leadership of the family activities in new hands and arranged the settlement of his inheritance.