Walter Link
Chairman, The Global Academy

Walter Link, an international businessman and social entrepreneur, has engaged in not-for-profit projects and socially responsible business ventures throughout Europe, the Americas and South-East Asia. His activities reflect his desire to understand the complexity of global life and to develop practical approaches that support the evolution of a more aware, humane and sustainable world

Background
Walter grew up in a German family of business leaders and diplomats, who were ‘bridge builders’ between cultures and continents, a tradition to which he adds building bridges between disciplines and communities. He speaks fluent English, German, French and some Spanish. Walter’s activities and accomplishments include:
Completion of a License en Sciences Commercialles et Industrielles at the University of Geneva, studying business administration, economics, law, and political science. Walter’s summa cum laude thesis researched the complex interactions of the Brazilian healthcare systems with its economic and social conditions.
Participation in a number of training programs ranging from multi-product production and commerce in France and Chile to international banking at the Midland Bank in London, to working on an assembly line in Thailand.
A former partner of B.Grimm, a 125-year-old South-East Asian Industrial Group with roots in his native Europe. B.Grimm grew from a traditional Asian trading house into a diversified industrial group of more than 20 companies operating in the fields of health care, telecommunications, engineering, infrastructure and construction. The company’s partnerships and joint ventures include major European and US corporations such as Carrier, Merck, and Siemens.
Currently, an investor and venture capitalist providing funding for technology companies and companies pursuing social and environmental goals. Examples include Nature & Discovery, the products of which are both educating and enchanting people with nature, and the assisted living companies, Juniper Partners and Edencare, which provide the elderly with dignified living options. Walter is also the managing director of an organic farm that offers an alternative model for successful farming.

Walter’s non-profit activities revolve around the following issues:

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Walter is deeply involved in the international movement to promote Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSR) within companies and economies around the world. In this context, he has undertaken the following projects and positions:
Co-founder and governing council member of EMPRESA, a network supporting the creation and strengthening of CSR business organizations throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America.
Advisory board member of both Business for Social Responsibility Panama and Peru 2021, an organization that promotes CSR in Peru.  In the U.S., he is a member of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Social Venture Network, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, and the venture capital oriented Investors Circle.
Co-founder and former board chair of the Social Venture Network Europe (SVN Europe), a network of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, and companies dedicated to using business as a tool to advance social and environmental sustainability. He is a former chair of SVN Europe’s committee charged with the creation of SVN’s CSR standards.
Founding member of the Institute for Social and Ethical AccountAbility, which researches and harmonizes social accounting practices.
Member of a European/North American delegation of specialists who contributed to the agenda development for the UN Global Sustainability Summit, Rio + 10, to be held in Johannesburg in 2002.
Briefed the General Assembly and the Secretary General of the UN Global "Habitat" Summit in Istanbul on CSR issues and the need for CSR standards, contributing to their inclusion in the UN Global Plan for Action.. Walter also convened and participated in various inter-sectorial dialogues and seminars in the summit’s NGO Forum.
Member of a Danish Government/European Union think tank on corporate responsibility.
Co-author with Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, of the sequel to Natural Capitalism (Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins). This new book will develop the human and social dimension of Natural Capitalism, an approach that shows how our present economic system can be successfully reoriented towards sustainability.

Globalization, Human Rights, Integrative Medicine and Education
As reflected in the breadth of Global Academy activities, Walter has an equally deep interest in other fields. It is his opinion that although specialization has brought important advances to human civilization, it has also introduced limitations. These need to be overcome by broadening our understanding and by developing synergetic approaches that respect the specificity, diversity and interconnectedness of global life. Walter therefore elected to engage with some of the most innovative organizations and projects working within the Global Academy’s primary areas of focus. These include:
Commissioner in the State of the World Forum’s Commission on Globalization, co-chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall, Jose Ramos-Horta, Vandana Shiva, George Soros and others. The commission explores how to resolve key issues on globalization.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) – Walter assisted in the formation of the HRW office in Brussels, is a member of their Europe/Asia advisory committee, and co-chairs the HRW San Francisco film festival.
Board member of the faith-based Greyston Foundation, New York, which empowers disenfranchised people, runs the Greyston bakery that supplies Ben & Jerry’s with their Brownies, includes an HIV/AIDS treatment facility and a hospice, a construction company and buildings that house formerly homeless people.
Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Centre for Integrative Healing, Vancouver. The center offers a holistic healing approach to cancer that combines Western allopathic medicine, traditional healing and complementary treatments. He also supports the inclusion of integrative medicine into the curriculum of Einstein Medical School, New York.
Member of the board of trustees of Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado), a fully accredited liberal arts college that combines academic learning with the use of contemplative practices. Naropa offers an innovative educational approach that aims beyond skills training to educating the whole person. Walter helped in the revision of the international and online programs into an alternative campus.
Member of the international advisory board of the City of Knowledge, which is transforming a former US military base in Panama into a multi-facetted educational environment, a technology park and a base for UN and international non-profit organizations.

Facilitation, Organizing and Networking
Walter is also engaged in creating environments that advance communication, learning, and action in his many fields of interest, including:
Moderating many debates and dialogues on a broad variety of subjects in meeting formats ranging from large inter-sectorial conferences between representatives of civil society, government and business, such as a Social Venture Network meeting hosted by President Vaclav Havel in the Prague Castle to closed door discussions, such as those among the foreign ministers of the Association of Caribbean States.
Organizing international and multidisciplinary conferences and educational programs, intentionally fulfilling functions ranging from networking with political leaders and designing creative meeting structures to organizing logistics and licking envelopes.
Co-founding various networks, such as those mentioned above, as well as the West East Network, which initiated educational programs and meetings between citizens from the East and West of Europe at the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain. (top)