Formula E inaugurated its tenth season in Mexico City this year.
Besides being an entertaining global sporting event, it carries a message of sustainability with its aim to accelerate progress on environmental issues through electric street racing, touching on themes such as innovation and leadership, environmental excellence and social progress.
The Julius Baer Foundation is committed to reducing inequalities in wealth, education and opportunity. To achieve its mission, it collaborates with partners such as Forge Fondation and its "Tu Futuro" programme. At the inaugural race, programme participants had the opportunity to learn about Formula E first hand, engage with experts and discover how one person’s daring idea has transformed an industry. They got a glimpse into exciting careers and professional paths.
Laura Hemrika, head of the Julius Baer Foundation, underlined the importance of continuing to form collaborative partnerships in the pursuit of social progress, thus building more inclusive and equal societies.
"The main cause of wealth inequality in many countries is unequal access to quality education, which leads to under-employment, disparities in income distribution and systematic barriers to upward social mobility for certain segments of the population. We want to ensure that all young people, regardless of their race, gender or socio-economic background, get the opportunity and skills they need to have a strong start in the world of work," said Laura at the welcome ceremony where she and Beatriz Sanchez, Chair Americas of Bank Julius Baer, shared a few words.
Forge Fondation is a Swiss non-profit organization with branches in Latin America that works with young people from disadvantaged communities in several countries with a vision to empower social mobility. It focuses primarily on the gap between secondary education and the labour market.
"Tu futuro" is a cost-free job preparation and placement programme focused on strengthening the digital and socio-emotional skills of young people from underprivileged communities in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. It is planned for 945 young people to benefit each year. As part of a complementary project 90 young people from different socio-economic backgrounds will launch an online campaign to raise awareness of the responsible use of social media and the importance of social media in today's world of business. Meaningful impact is generated not only through the awareness campaigns themselves but also through the process of working together across cultural and socio-economic lines, collaborating with industry experts and by building broader personal networks.
Together, Julius Baer Foundation and Forge Fondation seek to redefine the landscape of wealth distribution and provide a more equal future for all.
Let's drive the future, together.
The main cause of wealth inequality in many countries is unequal access to quality education, which leads to under-employment, disparities in income distribution and systematic barriers to upward social mobility for certain segments of the population. We want to ensure that all young people, regardless of their race, gender or socio-economic background, get the opportunity and skills they need to have a strong start in the world of work
Laura Hemrika is the CEO of the Julius Baer Foundation, the non profit grant foundation of the Julius Baer Group founded in 1965. Today, together with its partners and co-funders, the Foundation dedicates itself to supporting initiatives around the globe focused on addressing inequality in wealth and education, reinforcing the Bank’s purpose of creating value beyond wealth.
Prior to Julius Baer, Laura was Managing Director of the Credit Suisse Foundation and Global Head of Corporate Citizenship & Foundations at Credit Suisse, responsible for all of the bank’s global philanthropic commitments, partnerships and employee engagement, including collaboration on impact investing product development and client advisory, as well as multiple sustainability, philanthropy, CSR and diversity topics. In this role she co-founded a number of public private partnerships including the Swiss Capacity Building Facility and the SDG Impact Finance Initiative. She also served as Trustee of the Credit Suisse APAC Foundation. Laura’s earlier career was in strategy consulting with Booz and Company as well as with a number of education and financial inclusion start-ups, NGOs and corporates.
Laura has an MBA from London Business School and is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
She serves on the boards of several organizations including the European Microfinance Platform, the Impact Linked Finance Fund and Habitat for Humanity.
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