Core areas: Fundraising, Marketing
„There is enormous potential in development co-operation that is not yet utilised. For example environmentally- and socially responsible products.“
Jürg Webers two daughters were born in Arusha, Tanzania. They spent the first years of their life there, where their father first managed a farm and later a travel organisation. That was between 1980 and 1985. After completing his training at business college Weber gathered professional experience as a businessman, and also undertook voluntary agricultural work in Ecuador as well as spending a season in the Swiss Alps as a herdsman. Nature and commerce are to this day important cornerstones of his multifaceted professional life. So it is hardly surprising that shortly after returning to Switzerland from Tanzania with his wife and children, Jürg Weber entered the commercial section of WWF Switzerland. During the eight years that he led this department, it developed further and worked intensively in marketing organic products from Africa. „With the sale of these products I not only wanted to generate funds for important projects, but also to manufacture products in the projects themselves which could be marketed in Switzerland.“ The principle of two birds with one stone - fundraising and development aid through building production centres on site - resulted in 1994 in the foundation of WWF Panda SA. As a member of the management body, Jürg Weber was responsible for strategic planning. Trade in eco-social products was to remain vital to him: in 1995 he founded together with other interested parties the firm Goods & News, which was later converted into Terra Verde Bio-Gourmet AG. Alongside the import and marketing of organic products, the marketing specialist strove also to support people whose lives depend upon the conservation of their natural resources. Jürg Weber is a man of Biovision’s first hour: In 1997 he was instrumental in the foundation, took on a seat in the Foundation Board and attends successfully to networking and public fundraising.
