Vera Michalski facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Vera Michalski
Michalski in 2015
Born	(1954-11-05) 5 November 1954 (age 70) Basel, Switzerland
Education	Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
Occupation	Publisher

Vera Michalski-Hoffmann (born on November 5, 1954) is a Swiss businesswoman and publisher. She is a major owner of Roche Holding, a big company. Vera leads several publishing companies in Switzerland, France, and Poland. These companies are part of a larger group called Libella SA, based in Lausanne. She also started the Jan Michalski Foundation, which gives out a yearly award for books called the Jan Michalski Prize in literature.

Her Early Life

Vera Hoffmann grew up in Camargue, France, until she was 20 years old. She lived at the Tour du Valat research center, which was about 28 kilometers from Arles. This center was a place where people lived and worked together, growing food and making their own electricity.

Her father, Luc Hoffmann (1923–2016), started this center. He was a scientist who studied animals and spent a lot of his time and money protecting nature. In 1961, he helped create the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a famous group that works to save wildlife. Today, the Tour du Valat center is a key place for studying and protecting wetlands in the Mediterranean area. It owns and protects almost 2,500 hectares of wetlands in the Camargue.

Vera went to a special private school that her parents created. About 14 children attended, including Vera, her sister Maja Hoffmann, and her brother André. Most of the other students were children of people who worked at the bird research center or from nearby families.

Vera's mother, Daria Razumovsky, came from Austrian and Russian families who left their home during the Russian Revolution. Stories about her family's past have been published in books.

Vera studied at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. She started working on a big research paper about how people supported communism in France. But she decided to stop her studies to focus on publishing books instead.

In 1983, she married Jan Michalski (1953-2002), whom she met while they were students at the University of Geneva. In October 2016, she was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for culture and education.

Vera Michalski inherited her wealth. She owns a small part, about 1.5%, of the big company Roche Holding.

Her Work in Publishing

In 1986, Vera Michalski and her husband, Jan Michalski, started a publishing house called Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc in Montricher. Their goal was to publish books by writers, especially those from Slavic countries like Poland and Russia. They published many types of books, including stories, plays, poems, and true stories about important times in history.

Later, the couple bought more publishing houses. These companies were brought together under a main group called Libella, based in Lausanne. This group now includes Noir sur Blanc, Les Éditions Phébus, Buchet-Chastel, and Le Temps Apprivoisé, among others.

In Poland, Vera Michalski owns Oficyna Literacka (Noir sur Blanc) in Warsaw and Wydawnictwo Literackie in Kraków. In 1991, she also bought a Polish bookshop in Paris called Librairie Polonaise.

Even though Vera Michalski comes from a wealthy family, she keeps her publishing business separate from her charity work. She can take some risks that other publishers might not be able to, and she can publish books for smaller audiences. However, she still wants all her publishing projects to be successful.

Through her publishing work, Vera Michalski wants to connect cultures from Eastern and Western countries. She and her husband started this work in 1986, even before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, when it was harder for cultures to mix. She speaks five languages fluently: French, German, English, Spanish, and Polish, and also some Russian.

Awards and Honors

Vera Michalski has received several important awards for her work. In 2010, she won the Lilas de l'éditrice award. She has also been honored with:

• Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1995)
• Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France
• Meritorious for Polish Culture (2011)
• Polish "Bene Merito" honorary award (2012)

Supporting Culture

In 2007, Vera Michalski announced the creation of the Jan Michalski Foundation in Montricher, Switzerland. This foundation turned an old summer camp into a center for writers. Writers can stay there for different amounts of time, up to one year. Later, the foundation added an exhibit space, a hall for concerts and talks, and a library. The foundation also gives money to writers and helps publish certain books.

Vera Michalski also created the Jan Michalski International Prize for Literature. This award recognizes great books of any type, like novels, essays, or art books. The winner receives 50,000 Swiss francs.

She also helps support classical music. She is an honorary member of the Swiss classical music festival Les Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad.