Hansjoerg Wyss
Hansjoerg Wyss was bornon 19 September 1935 in Wilson, Wyoming, Switzerland. Hansjoerg Wyss is #329 in List Billionaires People In The World. Hansjoerg Wyss is among the most philanthropic people in the world, with charitable foundations that have assets of nearly $2 billion. Wyss' fortune stems from his 2012 sale of medical device manufacturer Synthes -- which he founded -- to Johnson & Johnson for $20.2 billion in cash and stock. He's been ramping up his giving since the Synthes sale. In 2014, he pledged $120 million to two Swiss universities, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, to establish a center to accelerate medical breakthroughs. In 2013, he pledged $125 million to Harvard University -- on top of the $125 million he contributed to the university in 2009 to establish a biological institute bearing his name to research how nature builds, controls and makes things. The longtime Wyoming resident and noted conservationist also donated $4.25 million in 2013 to The Trust for Public Land, a U.S. nonprofit group, to purchase oil and gas leases on 58,000 acres of land in Wyoming's Hoback Basin to protect it from development. Over the years, Wyss has been an international elections observer in Kenya, an outspoken African peace advocate and a generous contributor to many European museums.
| 2009 | $5.7 Billion |
|---|---|
| 2010 | $6.1 Billion |
| 2011 | $6.4 Billion |
| 2012 | $8.1 Billion |
| 2013 | $8.7 Billion |
| 2014 | $10.5 Billion |
| 2015 | $6.1 Billion |
| 2016 | $6.1 Billion |
| 2017 | $5.5 Billion |
| 2018 | $5.68 Billion |
As of 2017, Wyss ranks 281 on the Forbes list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately $5
In 2016, Wyss made another donation to the Trust for Public Land that resulted in the expansion of Saguaro National Park in Arizona by 300 acres, including a mile and a half of Rincon Creek
The ranch hosts tours and was named "Best Vineyard Experience" by Sunset Magazine in 2015
In 2014, Wyss donated $120 million to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the University of Zurich for the new Wyss Translational Center Zurich
news site The Daily Caller accused John Podesta, who was at the time an advisor on environmental issues to the Obama administration, of an ethics violation for pushing the advocacy agenda of a former employer, because he had previously received $87,000 as a consulting fee for work he did for Wyss' HJW Foundation in 2013 (that organization was later merged with the Wyss Foundation)
In 2012-13, he announced the creation of the Campus Biotech and of its Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-engineering in Geneva, Switzerland
In 2011, Wyss won the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society for his conservation work
In 2010, Wyss personally gave The Nature Conservancy $35 million to purchase 310,000 acres in Montana as part of one of the largest private conservation purchases in the United States
In 2009, top executives at Synthes were indicted by U
In 2007, he received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, and in fall 2008, it was announced that Wyss donated the largest single endowment from one source in Harvard's history when he gave $125 million to found a multidisciplinary institute, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
By 2006, via the initial efforts of the foundation, almost 4,400,000 acres (18,000 km) of public land had been labeled as national monuments and national conservation areas
Between 2004 and 2008, Businessweek estimated that Wyss personally donated nearly USD$277 million
In 1998, he created the Wyss Foundation to establish and sponsor informal partnerships between non-governmental organizations and the United States government to place large swathes of land under permanent protection in the American West
In 1977, Wyss founded and became president of Synthes USA, the U
After receiving a master's degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in 1959, Wyss earned an MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business in 1965
in 1958 as a student and taking a summer job as a surveyor with the Colorado Highway Department
