Klaus Johann Jacobs
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
with a Swiss citizenship.
Biography
He was born on December 3, 1936 in BremenBremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He attended the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
and later Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. He started his career in the global coffee and chocolates industries. In 1962, he became Director of Purchasing and Marketing for the Jacobs AG coffee business. In 1972 he became General Manager of the company. The company merged with Interfood
Toblerone
Toblerone is a chocolate bar brand owned by Kraft Foods, who acquired the product from former owner Jacobs Suchard in 1990. It is well-known for its distinctive packaging, its prism shape and its ubiquity in duty-free shops.The triangular shape of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps is commonly...
in 1982 to create Jacobs Suchard AG, Europe's number one chocolate and coffee business. When the consumer-oriented elements of Jacobs Suchard were sold to Philip Morris
Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
in 1990, Jacobs created with the non-consumer businesses of Jacobs Suchard a company which is now known as Barry Callebaut
Barry Callebaut
Barry Callebaut is the world's largest chocolate manufacturer.It was created in 1996 through the merging of the Belgian chocolate producer Callebaut and the French company Cacao Barry. It is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland, and operates in 26 countries worldwide...
. Barry Callebaut is today the world's largest raw chocolate producer. Mr. Jacobs became also involved with the human resource services industry in 1991 with the acquisition of Adia Personnel Services where he led the company to a Global Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
Company following the merger with Ecco in 1996 to form Adecco
Adecco
Adecco S.A. is a human resources company, based in Glattbrugg near Zurich, Switzerland. Adecco employs 700,000 temporary workers and contractors who are supplied to business clients, and has over 32,000 employees and 5,500 offices in 60 countries and territories around the world...
.
The Jacobs Foundation was established by Klaus J. Jacobs in December, 1988, in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2001, the founder surrendered his entire share of the Jacobs Holding AG to the Jacobs Foundation, with an effective value of CHF 1.5 billion (31.12.08 CHF 2.3 billion). The Jacobs Foundation's goal is to contribute to Productive Youth Development by bringing together basic research, application and intervention projects and through dialogue and network building. The Jacobs Foundation supports research and projects worldwide. Klaus J. Jacobs donated EUR
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
200 million to the Jacobs University Bremen in 2006.
He died on September 11, 2008 in Küsnacht
Küsnacht
Küsnacht is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland.-History:Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as de Cussenacho....
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Membership
- World Scout FoundationWorld Scout FoundationThe World Scout Foundation, WSF, is an international non-profit institution based in Geneva, Switzerland funded in 1969, but reorganized in the current form in 1977. The stated mission of the organization is to develop World Scouting by the provision of financial and other support to help develop...
- President of the Friends of the Hohe TauernHohe TauernThe Hohe Tauern or High Tauern are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian state of Salzburg with Carinthia and East Tyrol, while a small part in the southwest belongs...
National Park from 1996-1998 - Board of Directors of the Zurich Opera HouseZurich Opera HouseOpernhaus Zürich is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. It has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891.- History :...
since 2003 - Board of the Association of the Friends of Bayreuth
Klaus J. Jacobs Awards
The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Award honours outstanding achievement in child and youth development and the Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Award for positive development of children and youth are awarded annually in memory of the entrepreneur and philanthropist Klaus J Jacobs, who died in 2008. The first award ceremony took place in 3rd December 2009. The awards are given by the Jacobs Foundation of Zurich.Background
The prizes are given to honour outstanding achievements in research and practice that make a significant contribution to young people’s success in life and development.The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Award
The Klaus J. Jacobs Research Award recognises academic research of significant social relevance for child and youth development. Additionally, research findings from the interdisciplinary projects thus honoured should be suited to active practical implementation. The prize money for the award comes to one million Swiss Francs, which can be used for an academic project chosen by the recipient.The award winner is chosen by a jury of internationally respected researchers: Albert Bandura (Stanford University, USA), Monique Boekaerts (Leiden University, the Netherlands), Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University, USA), Anne C. Petersen Michigan University, USA), Meinrad Paul Perrez (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland), Rainer K. Silbereisen (Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Germany) and William Julius Wilson (Harvard University, USA).
The Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Award
The Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Award is given for exceptional engagement by an institution or individual whose practical work makes real use of innovative ideas for the positive development of children and youth. The prize money amounts to 200,000 Swiss Francs which can be used for a project chosen by the recipient.The award winner of the Best Practice Award is chosen by the board of the Jacobs Foundation.
2009 prizewinners:
- Klaus J. Jacobs Research Award: Professor Laurence Steinberg (Temple University, Philadelphia)
- Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Award: Father Johann Casutt (ATMI, Surakarta, Indonesia)
2010 prizewinners:
- Klaus J. Jacobs Research Award: Professors Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi (Duke University, USA and King’s College London)
- Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Award: Opstapje in Germany and a:primo in Switzerland