Walter Haefner
Walter Haefner (* September 13, 1910 in Zurich, † June 19, 2012 ) was a Swiss businessman. Being constructed in the automotive trade and software company assets was, according to the Forbes Magazine with 4.3 billion U.S. dollars, the third largest in Switzerland (2012 ). In addition, Haefner was a renowned breeder of thoroughbred horses and successful racehorse owner. The He founded the Walter Haefner Foundation annually supports various charitable institutions. Parts of his important art collection he donated in 1995 to the Kunsthaus Zurich.
Life
Walter Haefner, as the person himself always held back and never presented to the public, grew up in Zurich -Wollishofen. His parents were the missionary August Wilhelm Häfner and his wife Elise Meta, born Zuppinger. After they have finished school with the trade school, he studied at the University of Lyon and the University of Zurich business. Initially, he worked as an oil salesman at the company Shell. Following an employment contract followed at the Biel branch of General Motors. His knowledge of the automotive industry, he used during the Second World War and founded the Independent- AG, - acted with charcoal generators for cars - against the background of a lack of oil imports. In 1945 he founded the trading company car new car - und Motoren AG ( AMAG), which specialized in the import of automobiles in Switzerland. AMAG evolved from then to Switzerland's largest importer of models of the manufacturer Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi and Porsche. From 1951 to 1974 Haefner was also on the board of Volkswagen AG.
1950 founded the Novelectric Haefner, a company for household machines, and in 1958 the construction company Mobag AG, which he repelled in the 1970s. Haefner recognized early the -increasing role of electronic data processing and in 1960 founded the Automation Center AG in Wettingen, which was initially intended only for the data processing of the own company to which belonged since 1952, the financial management firm Walter Haefner Holding AG.
1978 merged Haefner, Walter Haefner Holding AG and self-sufficient AG Careal Holding AG. Due to the gradual sale of data processing company Automation Center AG in the United States reached Haefner 1987, a 20.5 % stake in the Computer Associates International, the second largest software company in the world. In the meantime, managed to increase its shareholding in the CAI to 24.5% the Careal Holding. Haefner 2001 invested 200 million Swiss francs in the rescue Swissair.
Haefner retired at the age of 95 years of professional life back. He was married and had two children. His son Martin is current CEO of Careal Holding. According to estimates by Forbes Magazine the assets Walter Häfner was 4 billion U.S. dollars. He was in the world's list of the richest people on 268th place (2011) and was one of the ten richest Swiss.
Haefner died at the age of 101 years on 19 June 2012 in Zurich.
Horse Breeders
Haefner, who was himself an amateur rider, acquired in 1962 in the vicinity of Maynooth in County Kildare in Ireland a former dairy farm. It was expanded farm in the period following the Moyglare Stud Stud, now covers an area of 182 hectares and is designed for around 100 horses. Manager of the stud is since 1971 the Veterinary Stan Cosgrove; the line is Häfner's daughter. In Moyglare are 35 dams, 10 more mares stand at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
For his achievements in the horse breeding Haefner received in 1988 an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. After the stud the annual Moyglare Stud Stakes horse race is named, which is part of the Irish Group I race. Häfner's horses won since 1977, twenty-four horse race in the Group I, including 1996, the Irish Oaks and the 2002 Melbourne Cup.
Art collector and patron
About the horse racing Haefner learned the art dealer Daniel Wildenstein know, himself a successful Pferdezüchte. The mid-1960s, he acquired the New York branch of Wildenstein his first paintings. These included The Doge's Palace, seen from San Giorgio Maggiore by Claude Monet, On the racecourse by Edgar Degas, The Gardener by Georges Seurat, white huts at Saintes -Maries by Vincent van Gogh and Still Life with Flowers and idol of Paul Gauguin. These paintings gave Haefner 1974 the Kunsthaus Zurich permanent loan.
Prior to 1966 Haefner had participated in the founding of the Alberto Giacometti Foundation and for the newly created room for Marc Chagall Kunsthaus funded in 1973 whose work Au dressus. He also donated repeated for the purchase fund of the Kunsthaus, in desser Foundation, he was appointed in 1965. From 1975 to 1978 he was also a board member of the Zurich Art Society.
1995 gave the Kunsthaus Zurich Haefner twelve important paintings. In addition to works on loan to the museum located since 1974 belonged to this donation Claude Monet's Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament at sunset, by Kees van Dongen Fillette au bois and René Magritte 's works A la suite de l' aeau, les nuages , Le seize septembre, La chambre d' ecoute and Les Graces naturelles.
Haefner founded the " Walter Haefner Foundation", whose objective is to support charitable endeavors of scientific, cultural and charitable orientation and committed especially to improve the lives of children at home and abroad. This foundation pours each year from 15 to 20 million Swiss francs for charitable purposes. Supported devices belonged example, in 1999 ten million dollars, " The Smile Train ", an organization that allows the operations of malformed children in China and in 2007 the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, which received three million Swiss francs for education and research. But smaller institutions such as the Swiss children's circus Robinson or the Zoo of Jerusalem - here he donated for the construction of an elephant house - were supported by Haefner.
- Paintings from the collection of Walter Haefner (selection)
Vincent van Gogh: White huts at Saintes -Maries
Edgar Degas: On the racecourse
Claude Monet: The Parliament building at sunset