How the Swiss toilet tycoon became the most important start-up promoter

Who would have thought that Switzerland owed so much to a toilet company! Have you bitten into a Planted burger lately? Or maybe you have flight mile CO via Climeworks₂– Were the emissions from the last holiday compensated? All this and about 1,260 Swiss innovations or companies could not exist without one man: Heinrich Gebert (1917–2007).

It has been 25 years since the Rapperswil visionary entrepreneur founded the Gebert Rüf Foundation. The endowment capital is 220 million Swiss francs and stems from an unprecedented success story: in 1953 Gebert and his brother took over the plumber’s shop to which their parents were heavily indebted and turned it into a multinational corporation and Europe’s largest supplier of sanitary products. Sold «Geberit» at the age of 81. He wants to “do something for Switzerland” with some of the money. Gebert understands this to foster innovation – first and foremost. At that time, foundations were mostly charitable in nature or promoting the arts.

The vision worked

25 years later, it’s time to post a posthumous wreath to the “toilet king” for his foresight: grants distributed by the foundation over the course of 25 years triggered subsequent investments of 8.4 billion francs, thereby creating countless jobs and raising millions in taxes. . (tss)

The Blick information podcast Durchblick is sponsored by the Gebert Rüf Foundation.

Source :Blick