Avenir Suisse

Avenir Suisse is a classical liberal think tank focused on Switzerland's future in political, economical and social areas. Its main goal is to stimulate the public debate and to provide new ideas through the publication of studies and the regular organisation of events and seminars. It encourages a liberal vision of the world and the society. Its research team comprises mostly graduates in economy, political economy and political science (with 4 women and 14 men in 2019).^[1]

Avenir Suisse is a nonprofit foundation with headquarters in Zurich. The foundation has a yearly budget of 5 million Swiss Francs and its fund reaches 50 million. The foundation is completely free in its research and content.

Founded in 1999 by 14 of the most important Swiss multinationals, Avenir Suisse is nowadays supported by 130 donors: Swiss companies as well as individuals.

Organisation

Avenir Suisse is present in Zurich (head office) and in Geneva (French-speaking office). Peter Grünenfeld is Avenir Suisse's manager, successor to Gerhard Schwarz since 2016. Before him, Thomas Held was the manager of the foundation since its creation in 1999. Tiber Adler is the French-speaking manager since 1 June 2014. He is the successor to Xavier Comtesse, first French-speaking manager of the foundation.

The Chairman of the Board since May 2020 has been Michel Liès, a French-born former CEO of the insurance company Swiss RE and current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance.^[2] He succeeds Andreas Schmid, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Flughafen Zürich AG, who in turn succeeded Rolf Soiron in this position in 2014.^[3]

The governance of the think tank relies on:

- The foundation board that approves budgets, the annual financial results and nominates the management

- the steering committee that supervises the foundation and prepares the meetings of the council of the foundation,

- the nomination committee that designates the members of each commission

- the program commission that recommends the topics and guarantees of the quality and methodology of each project

- the finance committee that audits the budget and the annual and quarterly reports.

Approach

According to its mission statement, Avenir Suisse "wants to contribute to the formation of new ideas concerning economics, politics and the society at large." It follows "a liberal agenda and represents a market oriented position." Thus it postulates that "it cannot be in the first place the task of the State to solve the problems on the agenda." Still, the think tank "doesn't play an active part in the process of politic consults or campaigns of votes." But to be "an animator of the public debate".

The foundation's publications tackle social, political and economical topics such as energy and environment, tax policies, professional training, old-age savings or the political system at large. The think tank also handles actual subjects such as: the work of seniors, the strong franc policy and the financial equalization between cantons.