THE ART OF IMPACT

A detailed biographical account of Swiss businessman and conservationist Hansjörg Wyss.

While by no means a household name, Wyss is one of the biggest philanthropic funders of land and ocean conservation. Orzulak and Schulman’s biography provides an understanding of Wyss’ life and vision, starting with his modest upbringing in Bern, Switzerland, and continuing on to his education, business experience, and philosophies. Born in 1935, he first discovered the American West during an internship in Colorado in 1958 before graduating from Harvard Business School in 1965. By 1977, he was hired by Synthes—a Swiss company that developed “internal fixation devices” used by surgeons to fix broken bones and reduce recovery time—to head their U.S. office. The business grew exponentially under Wyss’ careful leadership, largely due to his emphasis on the company’s social mission (providing orthopedic surgeons with materials and training) over short-term gains. From there, the book shifts to Wyss’ philanthropic pursuits in the environmental sector. He believed that “wild lands and waters are best conserved not in private hands, locked behind gates, but as public national parks, wildlife refuges and marine reserves, forever open for everyone to experience and explore.” His activism led him to found multiple organizations, including the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, and donate $1.5 billion via the Wyss Campaign for Nature in support of the 30x30 initiative (preserving 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030). Motivational sayings (“Seek to achieve not just the improbable but the impossible—which may be more possible than you think” and “Pursue change by using your greatest intellectual assets, which are also the most basic: common sense and simple pragmatism”) open each chapter.

Orzulak and Schulman combine their extensive research with interviews with Wyss himself, his colleagues and friends, and several recipients of Wyss-funded services, which include women’s health and the arts, to create a book that covers wide-ranging topics, including leadership, philanthropy, and activism, and also introduces readers to a fascinating figure who’s had an outsize impact on the world. Clear and matter-of-fact, the work conveys Wyss’ perspectives on growth and civic responsibility; e.g., “Drive progress by making sure the public benefits (not just a privileged few) and empowering ordinary people to fight for what is theirs.” Elsewhere, readers get more of a personal glimpse inside the subject’s mindset. Wyss’ former employees recall their boss’s refusal to indulge in “lavish perks that often come with leadership” (with one reminiscing that he would insist on renting the smallest, cheapest cars—resulting in some decidedly uncomfortable rides). Lest readers think everything Wyss touched turned to gold, Orzulak and Schulman also mention his mistakes. When he went against the board’s recommendation and started a new line of spine-related products for Synthes, for example, the venture quickly failed. To his credit, Wyss acknowledged his mistake and collaborated to fix the problem. The authors provide a complete picture of an extraordinary man, and the result is part biography, part business leadership book, part loving tribute, and part rallying cry for social and environmental health.

A sweeping, well-crafted tribute to a remarkable philanthropist.