20 Facts About Urs Schwarzenbach

Urs Schwarzenbach is the founder of Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange agency, in Switzerland.

Urs Schwarzenbach's fortune is estimated between 1.5 and 2 billion Swiss francs as of 2022 by Handelszeitung.

Urs Schwarzenbach moved back to Switzerland, where he currently resides in Kusnacht on Lake Zurich.

Urs Schwarzenbach was born 17 September 1948 in Thalwil on Lake Zurich, to Heinrich Ernst Urs Schwarzenbach, a print shop owner, who was known by his second first name Ernst.

Urs Schwarzenbach had a modest upbringing in a working class family.

Urs Schwarzenbach is very distantly related to the silk manufacturing branch of the Schwarzenbach family.

Urs Schwarzenbach set up Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange dealership in Switzerland.

Urs Schwarzenbach has his own polo team, the Black Bears, which has some 600 ponies, with 350 in Australia and 250 in the UK.

Urs Schwarzenbach backed the racing-themed restaurant Cafe Grand Prix in Mayfair, London, but this went into liquidation in 2004.

In 2007, Urs Schwarzenbach outbid other foreign buyers to acquire Culham Court, a 650-acre riverside estate downstream of Henley-on-Thames on the Berkshire bank.

Urs Schwarzenbach has paid for the high and low voltage overhead electricity network within the boundaries of Culham estate to be placed underground.

Urs Schwarzenbach eventually admitted the charge and accepted to pay the VAT amounting to ten million CHF.

Urs Schwarzenbach owns the Dolder Grand, a 5-star Zurich hotel, which cost him SFr 440 million in 2001.

Urs Schwarzenbach owns about 50,000 hectares of farmland in New South Wales, Australia, through his Romani Pastoral Company.

Urs Schwarzenbach bought part of Palais Layadi, a 19th-century palace set in a 4,000 square meter compound in Marrakech, since at least 2008.

Urs Schwarzenbach has supported the internal and external refurbishment of the Venerable English College in Rome, as well as its engagement of a research fellow and project archivist.

Urs Schwarzenbach is married to Francesca Urs Schwarzenbach, a former Miss Australia, born in Sydney.

Urs Schwarzenbach is a godmother of Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.

Urs Schwarzenbach was a long-time resident Culham Court near Henley-on-Thames and sponsored the rowing gallery of the River and Rowing Museum in Henley which is named after him.

Urs Schwarzenbach owns other estates and farms in England, a 10,000 acre sporting estate in Scotland and the largest country estate on the Isle of Wight.