Who founded elea?
Founders
Established in 2006 and based in Zurich, the elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization fights absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means. Its founders, Susanne and Peter Wuffli, generously contributed the founding capital of twenty million Swiss francs to create the foundation. From the outset, Harold Grüninger, attorney-at-law in Zurich and distinguished expert in foundation law, provided valuable guidance to the organization as a member of the elea Board of Trustees.
Globalization
The idea of founding elea took shape during extensive discussions between 2004 and 2006, as the founders recognized the power and the challenges of globalization as a global megatrend. In particular, they felt their responsibility to support those that did, for whatever reason, not enjoy a similar access to globalization opportunities as they had. At that time, Peter Wuffli held a key leadership role in the global financial industry.
"Globalization is a powerful transformational force. However, the benefits are very asymmetrically distributed. Being born, raised, and educated in Switzerland and having benefitted from attractive professional opportunities, I feel enormously grateful. I wanted to express this gratitude by sharing some of our gains with those that did not have that access.” – Peter Wuffli