A roomful of the future

This week I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time in the company of thirty young bright minds - most of them aged twenty-one. They are the University St. Gallen's International Student Committee - and thus the organizers of this year's 49th St. Gallen Symposium.

Swiss Re Institute is partnering with the organizers in a variety of ways ... and one of them is very personal. Our own Rolf Bachmann was a St. Gallen Symposium organizers for almost ten years before joining the Institute. Naturally, it was with both joy and pride that he invited the "young ones" to Swiss Re's HQ, where they would learn more about the company - and where they would also share their plans for this year's Symposium and work on it together with colleagues from Swiss Re. The time before lunch was then reserved for an hour with Group CEO Christian Mumenthaler, who'll also speak at the Symposium in May - but more on that a little later.

The St. Gallen Symposium goes back to the student protests in the last sixties. It led to the first Symposium in 1969 and ever since it's grown and delivers intergenerational debates on economic, political and social developments. This years it'll take place from 8-10 May and I'm thrilled that I'll get to be there and report back from it. Here's what's amazing - these thirty students essentially take ten months off from their studies to organize the annual Symposium - every year there's a new committee of students, of course. They give their all, they're deeply immersed. For example - to define the key themes, these students had over 1000 meetings in 27 countries ... all of their research led them to the core theme of this year's Symposium called "Capital for Purpose".

The students met several of our leaders and some of them will actively participate at the Symposium in May. They shared their insights into career and leadership and offered insights that were simple, clear and human - messages about the importance of honesty, with others and with oneself, about not losing sight of the big picture, about patience and perseverance. I very much liked the simplicity of "Be the leader you want to follow." When the students had the opportunity to ask Christian a volley of questions, many of them were squarely focused on their Symposium's theme, questions about finance, questions about purpose and there, front and center, it is about sustainability for us. Christian explained where we are, what we do, how we take action, e.g. with ESG criteria and our coal policy to support the transition to a low carbon economy. I was reminded, in fact, of an article about Blackrock CEO Larry Fink in which he says that, within 5 years, all investors will measure a company's worth by its impact on society, government and the environment.

As the hour with Christian ended, he brought up the Stoics and how they had long ago realized that many of the things that happen are beyond our control. What is within our control is HOW we react to those things. That's where we always have a choice. As I'm a big fan of the Stoics and their 4 cardinal virtues Temperance, Justice, Courage and Wisdom, I'm glad Christian passed on a bit of stoicism to the young crowd ... as they proceed on their monumental task with the St. Gallen Symposium, stoicism will be a most helpful ally!