Euro hits four year low against the dollar as loss of trust hits European businesses

The Euro has hit a four year low against the dollar following renewed fears over the strength of the Eurozone economies, with some experts predicting further falls and that it could even attain parity with the dollar.  Despite the huge sums of money that have been pumped into the Euro following the European and IMF announcement of a 750 billion euro support package investor confidence is continuing to fall.   Christopher Wasserman, President and founder of the Zermatt Summit which is an independent business summit run by the Zermatt Foundation, said,   “The continued loss of confidence is hurting our economies, and ultimately the root cause is loss of trust which has fallen to an all time low and could fall further, due to the high risk approach to debt, leading to a collapse in trust of our political and business leaders.  For stability, to be restored and sustained, we urgently need to govern and run our companies with an ethical, transparent and accountable mandate which needs to lead to a significant change in leadership behaviours, without which we are heading for further catastrophe.  Already we are sowing the seeds for a second asset bubble.”   The Zermatt Summit, whose inaugural summit is taking place between the 3-5^th of June in Zermatt, Switzerland, has been created to allow innovative business leaders, CEOs, senior policy makers and NGOs to discuss how ethics and not the sole pursuit of pure profit can drive business practices forward in the forthcoming years.   The main objective of the Zermatt Summit is to formulate a roadmap and focus on three areas:

1. to revisit the corporate raison d’être of the firm
2. to integrate leadership and ethics
3. to make corporate statesmanship a reality

The Summit will provide a unique forum for participants to ask searching questions on how key decision makers can be influenced to instigate change in company behaviours, cultures and at policy level.  This will result in a series of practical recommendations, which will be widely published to ensure their implementation by business, political and civic leaders.   Speakers at the summit include: Renowned economists such as Nouriel Roubini and Hernando de Soto who are the at forefront of the change of the economic paradigm, innovative business leaders whose firms are applying new business models and a pioneering group of business schools and firms such as the Globally Responsible Leaders Initiative representing 300,000 students and 1,000,000 employees.   Colin Melvin, CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, which is one of the world’s largest and most influential institutional investors, will be speaking at this year’s summit.  Owned by the BT pension scheme, Hermes Equity Ownership Services has over $100bn worth of assets under advice and has been campaigning for a positive dialogue between company boards and their investors.   “It is vital that investors change the way they behave and interact with the companies that they own,” said Melvin.  “As the world navigates through the current economic crisis, it is not more regulation that we need, but a greater level of accountability from businesses to their core stakeholders.”   The purpose of companies operating in the new paradigm should be “wealth creation with progressive policies which place social responsibility and sustainability at the heart of their operations.  The new focus of companies operating in the 21^st century economy should be people and not just the pursuit of profits at any cost.”   The world debut of a new 56 minute documentary, “Doing Virtuous Business” will be shown to delegates.   Delegates wishing to attend the summit must apply through the registration process   https://www.zermattsummit.ch/registration/index.html Zermatt Summit Foundation The Zermatt Summit Foundation based in Switzerland was created through the collaboration of a variety of stakeholders across the globe concerned with how the process of globalisation can enhance the common good.   For further information about the summit visit http://www.zermattsummit.org/