History of the Organization

SABC traces its roots to "Swiss Week 1999," launched in Chicago, Illinois as a festival highlighting the best of Switzerland and celebrating the new Chicago-Lucerne Sister Cities Partnership. The events included a “Swiss Village,” erected in Chicago's famous Daley Plaza, as well as other civic, cultural and business events at various venues around the city. During that time, the village accommodated over 30 Swiss exhibitors. Tens of thousands of visitors from the Midwest sampled Swiss products, attended performances by Swiss artists, and networked with Swiss businesspersons and government officials.

A view of the exhibitors at the Swiss Village in Daley Plaza.	Mayor Urs Studer of Lucerne and Richard Daley of Chicago, accompanied by their wives at the Swiss Week gala dinner.

For the music enthusiast, the village played host to The Knoggelers, a carnival band from Lucerne, the Intermezzo Quartet from Bern and traditional folklore entertainment such as flag throwing and yodelers. Performances included the Festival Strings Lucerne, a special performance from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a special Chicago appearance by the famous performance art group Mummenschanz. Swiss Week 1999 also coincided with the famous "Cows on Parade," which fascinated Chicagoans along some of the city's greatest avenues. A highlight of the week was an attendance by the famous balloonist Dr. Bertrand Piccard, who gave presentations at the Museum of Science & Industry and at Daley Plaza. The event also attracted a number of other prominent persons, including Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, Mayor Urs Studer of Lucerne, and Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States, Alfred Defago.

The carnival band, The Knoggelers, performing in Daley Plaza during SwissWeek.	Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist Dr. Bertrand Piccard speaking at Daley Plaza about his experience circumnavigating the globe non-stop in a hot air balloon.

Swiss Week 1999 was organized by Swiss Week, Ltd., a not-for-profit organization under the patronage of the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago and the then Consul General, Eduard Jaun. The organization was then renamed in 2001 to the Switzerland America Foundation, while continuing to expand its business and cultural activities.

In mid 2000, the Switzerland America Foundation launched a website to highlight the organization’s activities, create a useful information portal for its members, and enhance the overall exchange of business and cultural information. This was a noteworthy achievement because the site was the first U.S.-based non-profit business and cultural website dedicated to strengthening Swiss-US ties.

The SABC’s debut website

In late 2002, the trade-related activities of the organization expanded substantially, as it formally took over the functions of the former American-Swiss Chamber of Commerce (ASCC), which had been headed by Heinz Rufer and Werner Suter. The transfer of members, and the donation of funds by ASCC, occurred during 2002 and 2003. This move provided the organization with an even stronger mandate to fulfill the role of a business association and to further promote commercial and technology-related ties between Switzerland and North America, while limiting its cultural activities principally to support the MOSAIC initiative (Midwest Outreach for Swiss Art, Innovation and Culture). This coincided with the launch of a new initiative called the B3 Biotech Center, which serves as a transatlantic information forum for biotechnology, biomedicine and bioinformatics. B3 publishes a monthly newsletter and benefits from its own dedicated web portal, which is constantly updated with new features.

The B3 debut website

In light of its expanded business activities, the Switzerland America Foundation formally changed its name to the Swiss-American Business Council (SABC) in June 2003.