Simon Sommer

Co-CEO, Jacobs Foundation 

Simon Sommer has been the Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, since 2019. With assets of CHF 7 billion, the Jacobs Foundation is one of the world’s large philanthropies focusing on child development and learning. In a collaborative effort involving team and stakeholders, he developed the Foundation’s ten-year strategy “Understanding and Embracing Variability in Learning”, resulting in a CHF 500 million pledge to help children learn and thrive together globally.

Before joining the Jacobs Foundation in 2006, he worked at the Volkswagen Foundation in Hannover, Germany’s largest private research funder, and as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Berlin, Germany. He holds graduate degrees in Cultural Studies and Musicology. 

"The solutions for the challenges of tomorrow lie in the heads and harts of today’s students. Let’s make them visible to the world!"