Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, every mention

Rolex (Audio) · Acquired Feb 24, 2025 · 17 mentions

• ▶ 1:59 Ben Gilbert They're privately held by a charitable foundation, the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, so they don't have to disclose anything.
• ▶ 1:54:21 David Rosenthal And that is actually when Hans sets up the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation and puts all of his ownership of the company into it.
• ▶ 1:54:30 Ben Gilbert There was no one to pass the company to, so he creates this foundation.
• ▶ 3:23:46 David Rosenthal So in 1944, when Hans's first wife died, he created the Wilsdorf Foundation.
• ▶ 3:23:53 David Rosenthal He put all of his ownership into that foundation.
• ▶ 3:23:57 David Rosenthal Much like the IKEA foundations that we talked about on that episode, the primary purpose of the Wilsdorf Foundation is to ensure the continued operations of Rolex.
• ▶ 3:24:26 David Rosenthal Now, the foundation is also a charitable foundation and disperses huge amounts of money, much of it locally there in Geneva.
• ▶ 3:24:34 David Rosenthal But make no mistake, they are not responsible for shareholder return, profits, you know, number one is continued operations of Rolex.
• ▶ 3:59:52 Ben Gilbert Technically, it's another company owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, but in practice, yeah.
• ▶ 4:19:42 David Rosenthal So the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, of course, doesn't publish any numbers publicly, but they have said, and people have estimated, that they give away around three hundred million Swiss francs every year, which by your numbers would be about…
• ▶ 4:20:00 David Rosenthal And still, that makes them one of the most active annual dispersing foundations on the planet.
• ▶ 4:20:13 Ben Gilbert And it's not like they're just doing things that help Rolex.
• ▶ 4:20:19 Ben Gilbert Not to mention, it seems like they're just giving money away all over Geneva.
• ▶ 4:20:26 David Rosenthal A core part of the mission of the foundation that Hans put in its bylaws is to help the city and people of Geneva.
• ▶ 4:20:35 David Rosenthal And so I think they've found sort of over the years come to a belief that the best way to do that often is just giving people money.
• ▶ 4:20:41 David Rosenthal If people need money, family can't make rent, have a health issue come up or something, they can apply for grants and they'll just give them money and they don't make a big deal about it.
• ▶ 4:47:54 David Rosenthal And then devoted himself to the company and the legacy, even though he never had children, and then putting the foundation together obviously was in very large part motivated by the long-term legacy of the company, but also, like, this…