Klaus Johann Jacobs

Klaus Johann Jacobs (born December 3, 1936 ,Bremen, Germany- September 11, 2008,Küsnacht, Switzerland) was a German-born billionaire with a Swiss citizenship. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Billionaire's $250 Million Donation Saves Private University in Germany |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/education/08germany.html|quote=Klaus J. Jacobs, a German-born billionaire who lives in England and studied at Stanford, came back to his hometown here the other day to announce that he was donating more than $250 million to the International University Bremen. |publisher=New York Times |date=November 8, 2006 |accessdate=2008-03-30 ]

Biography

He attended the University of Hamburg and later Stanford University. 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 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 in 1990, Jacobs created with the non-consumer businesses of Jacobs Suchard a company which is now known as Barry Callebaut. Barry Callebaut is today the world's largest raw chocolate producer. Mr. Jacobs became also involved with the human resource services industry in 1992 with the acquisition of Adia Personnel Services where he led the company to a Global Fortune 500 Company following the merger with Ecco in 1996. He donated $US 250 million to the International University Bremen in 2006.

Membership

*World Scout Foundation
*President of the Friends of the Hohe Tauern National Park from 1996-1998
*Board of Directors of the Zurich Opera House since 2003
*Board of the Association of the Friends of Bayreuth

External links

* [http://www.jacobsfoundation.org Jacobs Foundation]

References