1814

The history of Fondation Guilé goes back to the year 1814, when Martin Burrus started a tobacco business that would remain in the family for almost 200 years.

In 1931, his successor Léon and his wife Marguerite Burrus built a country manor to give a home to the spirit, values, and legacy of the family. They named the manor GUILÉ, a combination of their first names. The Domaine de Guilé became the place where the Burrus family hosted their large social network of relatives, friends, industrialists, politicians, philanthropists, military officials, and academics.

The tobacco magnate F.J. Burrus became a pioneer of corporate responsibility in Switzerland. For example, his company was the first in Switzerland to provide family allowances and corporate pension schemes.

1996

After the family company was sold in 1996, Charles (1929-2011) and Bernadette Burrus felt a need to give back to society. They created Fondation Guilé to continue their family heritage and provide entrepreneurs with the necessary strategies and tools to become ethically responsible players in today’s international markets.

The couple inspired the foundation’s work towards peace and justice in order to give hope to future generations. Charles Burrus passed away on 9 May 2011. His spirit will live on in the activities of Fondation Guilé.

Léon Burrus

Leon was an industrial and urban planning visionary. As early as 1938 he began originating and creating cutting-edge production facilities.

In his capacity as mayor of Boncourt and president of the community of mayors of Ajoie for many years, he helped successfully manage numerous urban planning and development projects, including the hospital in Porrentruy. In addition, Leon guided the fate of the Collège Saint-Charles Catholic secondary school in Porrentruy, which he renovated. He built the classroom building, the gymnasium, and the pool, and offered scholarships to underprivileged students. Lastly, Leon supported local and regional sports clubs.

A staunch philanthropist, Leon Burrus was tireless in his pursuit of the social commitments begun by his predecessors within the company. In keeping with this tradition, in 1960 the Burrus Group revised the terms of pension funds for all its workers: laborers, employees, and upper management. Burrus partners added a “reserve foundation” to these funds at their own expense to even out the returns from the three funds. At the time, these pension funds were at the forefront of pension plans in Switzerland.

F.J. Burrus never built worker housing, but the company drafted a rule to offer construction loans at preferred rates compared to current rates on the real estate market. These loans would allow young workers who wanted to establish themselves to build their own home. The initiative was a huge success. For over 40 years, many heads of family made use of these loans to achieve every man’s dream: owning his own home. Two rental properties intended mainly for staff were also built in Boncourt.

David Rochat

ENGAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER

David Rochat began his career with the industrial ecology and life cycle group at EPFL. In 2005 he joined EMPA (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) where he coordinated various projects in India and Africa. In 2008 he co-founded Sofies, a rapidly growing sustainability consulting company that he is heading since 2015.
 An entrepreneur at heart, David has contributed to the creation of several companies and associations in the field of sustainability.

Sébastien Marquet

ENGAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER

Sébastien Marquet has an Executive MBA degree of the Toulouse Business School and a Postgraduate degree in International Economics from the Université Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble. As a Senior Consultant at EthiFinance, he advises investors and companies in their management of Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. Sébastien is especially interested in the role of corporate governance and business ethics policy as a way to perform and has particular expertise in Social Responsible Investment (SRI). He has been a member of the Guilé Engagement Team since 2015.

Dr. Cornelis T. van der Lugt

ENGAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER

Dr. Cornelis T. van der Lugt is Senior Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University Business School, South Africa, and Senior Associate at BSD Consulting, Switzerland. He has over 20 years of experience working at international level in the field of sustainability standards. As former representative of the UN Environment Programme and UN Global Compact he was deeply involved in developing industry initiatives and guidance standards such as the GRI and ISO 26000. His work has included developing guidance for managers and benchmarking ESG reports on good practices with partners such as SustainAbility, Standard & Poors, KPMG, World Resources Institute and AccountAbility. He holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University and Masters in Business Administration from the Haute Ecole de Commerce (HEC, Paris). 

RICHARD DION

ENGAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER

Richard is a consultant based in Germany, who has worked in natural resource management, transparency, human rights and development over the last 20 years. Some of his experience includes managing Shell’s human rights portfolio and its response to the UN Guiding Principles and advising the company on new business development in Central Asia. He equally worked as a Regional Director for Central Asia at the Oslo-based  Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

JIANG SHAN

ENGAGEMENT TEAM MEMBER

Jiang Shan studied philosophy and software engineering at Wuhan University in China, after graduation he studied MBA and Information & Media Technology with IBM Sponsorship at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. With internships in Deutsche Post DHL and Allianz SE, he pursued the profession as sustainability officer at CEO office of China Minmetals Corporation in Peking, China. He is now making the research project of International Climate Protection Fellowship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, focusing on Corporate Sustainability Strategy in Europe and China. Since August 2014 Jiang Shan works in the Guilé Engagement Team.

Stefan Schembera

ANALYST

Stefan is a PhD candidate at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Zurich (UZH). His research focuses on the UN Global Compact and the role of Multinational Companies in fighting corruption. Stefan Schembera has gained practical work experience as analyst at TalentSpy (executive search firm) and intern at Ernst & Young (CSR department) and UNICEF Germany. He has gained international experience during research & study stays in Australia, Southeast Asia, Canada, France and Germany.

Janka Ruzicka

ANALYST

Janka Ruzicka has a Master’s degree in Marketing and Communication gained during her studies at the Faculty of Art in Bratislava, Tel Aviv University, Amsterdam University and University of Michigan Business School. Before joining Guilé Engagement Team, she worked as sustainability trainer and consultant almost 10 years in different organizations such as in Pontis Foundation, Business Leaders Forum and Denkstatt Consultancy working with almost 500 international as well as SME clients in the area of corporate social responsibility, mainly in community engagement, cleaner production, CSR reporting and strategy, stakeholder engagement…etc. During 2010-2012 she was a trainer certified by Global Reporting Initiative.