Special Edition 4: Great Philanthropists - Hansjoerg Wyss, Looking Beyond Yourself to See the Need

It's great to have you back here on another edition of “Around with Randall.” Today we take a step out of the normal process to do another one of our podcasts in the series on great philanthropists. We’ve talked in this series about those that have used data to really drive their decisions.  We’ve also — that would be the Arnold's — and then we also had a conversation about Azim Bemidji and being caretaker who are the people that care about your community and view it as part of their being and social responsibility to take care of all those entities that make a difference. And then we've talked about Charles Feeney who actually has given away billions of dollars in his lifetime because why would he wait until the end. Today we're going to talk a little bit about looking into the future and today's great philanthropist is maybe a name you're not as familiar with that's Hansjoerg Wyss. 

Mr. Wyss was born in Switzerland back in 1935 grew up in a very modest apartment with two sisters. He demonstrated a great deal of intellect and became a graduate of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and then went on to be an MBA — received an MBA from Harvard. His fortune came from the starting of his company that was a medical device company and in doing so, starting in 1977, it grew massively and in the early part of the 20th century he sold it to Johnson & Johnson for just short of $20 Billion dollars.

Currently, he lives in, as this podcast is being recorded, in Wyoming, and is an outdoor advocate, which we're going to talk a lot more about. He also has some strong interests in flight and flying and has been involved with various non-profit efforts for most of his adult life. The reason that I picked Mr. Wyss is that he talks about the importance of philanthropy in a way to help people that maybe he doesn't ever really get to feel or know. Being born obviously in 1935, he is an older gentleman and yet a great deal of his philanthropy is driven towards the idea of conservation.

He has dedicated, recently, a $1 Billion gift to create — in an effort for conservation of land and water to protect the earth, for which he says he won't be around most likely to see the benefits of. Let me give you a quote to frame what Mr. Wyss says about why this is important, and i quote, “this is an important time. We need to embrace the radical time-tested profound democratic idea of public land protection that was invented in the United States, tested in Yellowstone and Yosemite, and now proven the world over. For the sake of all living things, let's see to it that far more of our planet is protected by people, for the people, for all time.”

So, what drove this passion in him early on in his life? As he began his adulthood he came to the United States and worked in Rocky Mountain National Park. I have great affinity for Rocky Mountain National Park, kind of over the top of the Continental Divide, certainly with Estes Park on one side and Grand Lake on the other if you go over Fall River Road. It struck him about the beauty and the the way in which this land was being protected for all time, and as his fortune grew, through organizations like the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, he has made this a priority.

It's interesting because we're finally economically getting to the point where things like power is cheaper to do through renewable energies than it is through what we think of as, beginning in the industrial revolution around coal and and other power, natural resources that generates power. We're finally seeing an economic issue and an advantage in doing things like solar and wind and others. Why do I bring that up? Because there are people who are driven by different issues than just saving animals or the land —  all things that probably we should be more aware of, and this is kind of where I think Mr. Wyss is headed.

This public private partnership in being able to protect land is an investment in the economies of our world and in how we can protect the world, and when you start seeing the merging of economic rationale for doing so with just the base love of wanting to do it like John Muir talked about when founding Sierra Club, what we get is this middle ground where I think there's a natural move to be more aware of our environment by both those who have been there for a while and by those that are maybe a little late in the game and look at it for economic reasons. 

Mr. Wysss, through his Campaign for Nature and that $1 Billion gift, his goal is to conserve 30 percent of the world's land and oceans by 2013. That's a pretty auspicious and and and amazing goal I think the thing that is important to realize is that, and what we can take from this, is that he may not be the beneficiary but he's not going to be most likely the beneficiary directly but he's looking into the future and seeing challenges that are most likely on the horizon for everyone and the question becomes what are we going to do to protect the one single thing we all have in common this earth ,this planet where we live. As others have said, the earth or the air that we breathe, the water that we drink the land that we stand upon.

I appreciate the fact that Mr. Wyss looks at this in a very futuristic way setting up a foundation to take care of that legacy well beyond his time here on this earth with us. He foresees that this money can be a catalyst, and the other thing that I appreciate is is that he really values as his quote indicated this idea of public private partnerships that will make that possible. I would be remiss if I also didn't talk about his other passion, which comes out of his professional life and that is the idea of medical advancement research. 

That's a smaller part of his philanthropy but the second largest piece, but in some ways it's very similar.  It's looking into the future even though he can't see all the solutions and saying we need better medical research that's going to help people. We need to find better solutions to health challenges and isn't that ironic in a pandemic that if we look at the amazing work that was done by the researchers and by the medical professionals to develop a vaccine for Covid 19 so quickly? That's the kind of thing we're talking about … why we can't predict, how can we be more ready for what's going to come? And in some ways that's exactly what Mr. Wyss is promoting.

So the tactical piece is maybe for you, in learning from these great philanthropists, who are the people in your community that are looking into the future? But the second piece is probably even more important.   What is it that your organization, as a non-profit, does whether you're a board member or an executive, a fundraiser, whomever, what is it that you're doing that's going to meet those kind of futuristic futurists so to speak, where they are to better your community, to better the world for whatever's to come?

I spend a lot of time talking about education and health care. Today we are way outside of that, although it affects it what is it that your organization is doing that prepares your community to meet the challenges of tomorrow. And then who are the people that have the same futuristic look and even though they can't answer all the questions, they want to invest in places that are going to help their community be ready for whatever comes.

If you can frame your thought process around that, if you can frame the way in which you look at your community, potential funders, granters, and if you see them trying to solve a problem that doesn't even exist yet, getting ready for it then this is the kind of Hansjoerg Wyss- type of personality you should be thinking about because he's certainly very generous. He’s end up giving all $20 Billion of his dollars away and i think his net assets are you know somewhere in the six to seven billion dollar range and he's trying to get rid of those as well. But he's he's giving him towards future thought. So today's transactional kind of moment for us is, what is it we do to look into the future to be prepared and if we do that there are people out there that'll fund it.

Don't forget, please email me if you have a thought or a suggestion podcast how philanthropy.com and if you have a complaint reeks r-e-e-k-s philanthropy.com, and as always the blogs are up go up about every three days just different commentary about different uh things going on in our professional world both non-profit and sometimes just things that are happening every day. Appreciate your time. Thank you today for joining me on this edition of the philanthropist as we celebrate and and and give a nod to Hansjoerg Wysss and his thought process of looking into the future for taking care of us when maybe those of us don't spend enough time thinking about what it'll mean into the future and how conservancy and the world are important.

Don't forget my favorite all-time saying some people make things happen some people watch things happen then there are those who wondered what happened. Mr. Wyss is a perfect example of someone looking to make things happen for a lot of us. I’m not sure that we're wondering what happened but we're not even thinking about it because this is a futurist and that makes him a great philanthropist. We’ll see you next time here right around the corner on “Aound with Randall, and don't forget you make it a great day.

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