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Wendel Cares

Endowment fund

Wendel’s commitment to civil society is part of the Group’s DNA. Indeed, history has shown that Wendel has been involved in helping resolve social issues.

In the 19th century, for example, Joséphine de Wendel, widow of François de Wendel, petitioned for the creation of a number of social services, unprecedented at the time. They included free care for the wounded and sick, food and basic necessities, and assistance with access to housing.

Wendel now perpetuates these charitable actions through sponsorship projects via its endowment fund, Wendel Cares, in order to professionalize the Group’s approach, which was previously steered by a Philanthropy Committee.

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Wendel creates an endowment fund named Wendel Cares

In early 2022, Wendel officially launched its endowment fund, called Wendel Cares. With Wendel Cares, Wendel wishes to give new impetus to its philanthropic approach by bringing together all of its philanthropic actions within a dedicated structure and by extending its scope of action to other themes in line with the societal challenges of our time.

Historically, Wendel’s corporate philanthropy activities have been developed around two pillars: education and culture, through long-term partnerships with the Wendel Center for Family Enterprise (Insead) since 1996 and the Centre Pompidou-Metz since 2010. Since 2018, Wendel has extended its corporate philanthropy activities to solidarity projects.

Today, Wendel Cares aims to finance initiatives corresponding to one of the five areas in which it has chosen to commit itself. These projects are studied and then monitored by the fund’s Board of Directors, which is currently made up of nine Group employees.

The creation of Wendel Cares also represents a collaborative project for employees that will allow them to devote time, raise funds and rally around common projects.

The five areas of commitment of the endowment fund

Wendel Cares will continue Wendel’s “historical” philanthropic activities by supporting:

 

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1. Culture
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2. Education

And three new pillars have now been added:

 

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3. Equal opportunities and professional integration
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4. Medical research and healthcare
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5. Protection of the environment

Governance

In order to best represent Wendel’s DNA and to ensure that as many employees as possible feel involved in this philanthropic approach, the Board of Directors of Wendel Cares is made up of nine members from Wendel’s various departments.

The Board’s mission is to study and follow up on projects submitted by employees or through responses to external calls for projects, and to ensure the proper management of the endowment fund.

 

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Alexina Portal
Chairwoman of the Board of Directors
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Christine Anglade
Vice-Chairwoman of the Board of Directors
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Millie Carpenter
Secretary of the Board of Directors
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Astrid Sicaire
Treasurer
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David Darmon
Member of the Board of Directors
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Caroline Decaux
Member of the Board of Directors
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Sébastien Metzger
Member of the Board of Directors
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Esther Ullberg
Member of the Board of Directors
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David Varet
Member of the Board of Directors
Initiatives already supported by Wendel Cares
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Supporting
the cultural world

Since its creation in 2010, Wendel has been a constant supporter of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, and as such is a founding sponsor of the Centre. Through this partnership, Wendel wanted to provide long-term support for a flagship project for Lorraine, the birthplace of the Group and its founding families.

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Supporting the influence
of family enterprise

Wendel has supported education since 1996 through its partnership with Insead, an internationally renowned business school. The Group first encouraged the creation of a university chair dedicated to family enterprise, and then, in response to the success of this chair, the Wendel International Center dedicated to the study and research of family enterprise was created.

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Supporting
solidarity action

Since 2018, Wendel has extended its scope of action to include solidarity. In this approach, the Group’s employees were asked to present the associations in which they are personally involved. The Philanthropy Committee then selected the organizations most in line with Wendel’s values. In this way, associations working in France and the United States, the Group’s investment territories, received Wendel’s support.

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With the creation of Wendel Cares, Wendel wishes to develop a philanthropic approach in line with its values. Throughout its history, Wendel has never stopped promoting the values of mutual aid and social progress. Building on this heritage, the endowment fund will enable Wendel to perpetuate these values by supporting initiatives that fall within the scope of Wendel Cares.

A skills sponsorship program

As part of the strengthening of its philanthropy strategy, Wendel offers each employee the possibility of dedicating one day of work time per year to a solidarity action. The purpose of this day of skills sponsorship is to allow each employee to get involved with the association of his or her choice. The association for which the skills sponsorship is envisaged must respect the principles of Wendel’s Ethics Charter and, in particular, must have no political and/or religious connotations and be non-profit.

In this spirit of skills sponsorship, Wendel also finances training courses aimed at preventing violence. These trainings are part of the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) catalog and are intended for the most at-risk staff of health and education organizations. With its “train-the-trainer” model, CPI’s expertise in crisis prevention and hostile behavior management is already recognized on the North American continent.

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