During his tenure as UBS' chief executive, Peter Wuffli initiated a foundation with the aim of philanthropic investing. Recently, Wuffli's charity has forged a partnership with a foundation of the industrious Schmidheiny family.

It is a question that continues to resonate at finance gatherings across Zurich: «How is Peter Wuffli faring?» Even 17 years after his departure from the CEO post at UBS in the run-up to the calamitous meltdown of the Swiss bank at the beginning of the global financial crisis. This crisis precipitated a taxpayer bailout and a comprehensive top-management reshuffling at the bank. 

Insights into Wuffli's post-UBS trajectory are seldom revealed, the latest being unveiled through a press release issued by his charity, the Elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization. With an initial endowment of 20 million Swiss Francs donated by Wuffli and his wife Susanna Wuffli, this foundation became operable a few month before his ousting at UBS.

A Fortune From Cement

The Elea Foundation announces its strategic alliance with the Fourfold Foundation, a charitable entity established in 2020 by Thomas Schmidheiny and his four children, with an initial endowment of 500'000 Swiss Francs.

Alongside his brother Stephan Schmidheiny, Thomas Schmidheiny was heir to a Swiss industrial conglomerate rooted in Niederurnen in the Canton of Glarus, whose flagship asset was a substantial stake in the cement company Holcim, formerly known as Holderbank when Mr. Schmidheiny was born in 1945.

«Lifting people out of absolute poverty»

To this day, with an equity stake of approximately eight percent, Thomas Schmidheiny remains the largest shareholder in the publicly traded Holcim Group, which merged with the French giant Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim in 2014 before reverting to the name Holcim.

The Elea Foundation and the Fourfold Foundation jointly declare their «entering into a multi-year strategic partnership» aimed at bolstering Elea's presence in its distinctive domain: charitable impact investing designed to uplift those grappling with absolute poverty.

Deep Engagement

Andreas Kirchschläger, Founding Partner and CEO of elea, says that the foundation is «fortunate to have found in Fourfold and the Thomas Schmidheiny family a partner who shares our values and ambitions to make a lasting positive difference in our world.»

Fourfold seeks to forge «few but deep philanthropic engagements» and to act «as a reliable sparring partner,» as per the press release.

Impact Investing

This collaboration between the two foundations is designed to propel elea's aim «to triple its impact by 2030 and reach more than 100 million people through its portfolio companies.»

On its website, Mr. Wuffli's Zurich-based foundation highlights over 30 portfolio companies it has supported thus far, emphasizing its commitment to invest in «philanthropic capital» and to provide «strategic support to entrepreneurially led ventures that create lasting social impact by giving people living in absolute poverty access to employment, markets, and value chains.»

Over 30 Employees

With a team of over 30 professionals based in Zurich, elea employs individuals who often hold dual roles within the foundation and Schmidheiny charities. Mr. Kirchschläger, elea's CEO, concurrently serves as President of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation.

The foundation's board, chaired by Mr. Wuffli, comprises his daughter Arianne Egger-Wuffli, Attorney and Homburger partner Harold Grüninger, and former senior finance executive Stefanie Blättler. 

A Network of Influence

The «Comité de Patronage», an advisory and networking body, boasts a diverse membership, including automobile magnate Martin Haefner and his wife Marianne Haefner, former ICRC President Peter Maurer, Partners Group's Felix Haldner and his wife Maria Haldner, and Swiss finance entrepreneur Jürg Schaeppi, founding partner of the Bellevue Group, now Chairman at «2Xideas», with his wife Manuela Schaeppi.

Also on the Comité is Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, a venerable figure in the St. Gallen Symposium and former board member of Goldman Sachs International until his retirement in 2017.

For those inquiring about Peter Wuffli's current endeavors: He is leveraging high finance and big money for charitable impact investment.