Johann Georg Wyss, also known as Hansjörg Wyss, is a Swiss billionaire industrialist who supports political liberalism and environmental initiatives in the United States. He founded Synthes Holding AG and served as its first president and chairman.
His Wyss Foundation has assets worth more than $2 billion. According to Forbes, Hansjörg Wyss had an estimated net worth of over $5.1 billion as of March 2022. He is presently Chelsea’s co-owner in the Premier League.
Early Life
Hansjörg Wysswas born in 1935 in Bern, Switzerland. His mother was a stay-at-home mom, and his father marketed mechanical calculators. He was raised with his two sisters in an apartment. Wyss graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich with a master’s degree in civil and structural engineering in 1959.
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He later graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1965. Wyss spent several years working for a variety of organizations, including Monsanto Europe. He had a side business selling aircraft, and it was through this that he encountered a founding member of the Synthes company, which produces precise medical equipment and joined them in the 1970s.
Success Story
In 1977, Wyss established and assumed leadership of Synthes USA, the American subsidiary of the Swiss-based Synthes, a maker of medical devices that includes internal screws and plates for broken bones. After meeting the AO Foundation’s creator, Martin Allgoewer, and securing approval to market the group’s products in the Americas, he established the business.
In 2012, Wyss sold the business to Johnson & Johnson for $19.7 billion. He got 97.4 million Johnson & Johnson shares and $3.2 billion in cash, according to Bloomberg. Wyss is “among the most philanthropic people in the world,” according to Forbes. Businessweek calculated that Wyss personally gave roughly $277 million in donations between 2004 and 2008.
His charitable contributions grew after the 2012 sale of Synthes. In 2013, he pledged to donate the bulk of his wealth by signing The Giving Pledge. His charitable organizations have assets worth close to $2 billion.
His efforts resulted in the founding of the Harvard University Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in 2009, as well as the Wyss Foundation, which works to protect the ecosystem. Working closely with regional allies, the Wyss Foundation has already contributed USD 450 million and made it possible to conserve 16 million hectares across the globe in just 20 years.
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Hansjörg Wyss has also contributed to a plethora of projects that support fresh approaches to global problems in the areas of art, medicine, conservation, and humanitarian causes.
He is a part of the group that established Campus Biotech, a center of expertise for biotechnology and the life sciences in Switzerland. Additionally, he helped his buddy Ernst Beyler establish the Fondation Beyeler, which he presided over.
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