We are a UK-based charitable foundation dedicated to inspiring ethical decision-making and moral leadership across generations.
The WEL (World Ethics and Leadership) Foundation believes that ethics and ethical leadership are vital as the world moves forward into the 21st Century. We partner with organisations, universities, individuals, companies and more to build and disseminate tools that can inform and inspire people in these areas.
“Ethics and ethical thinking are vital for so many of the important conversations and decisions going on in the world today. Ethics can bridge divides, inspire and empower people, and bolster good leadership that actually delivers. Now is the time for us to deploy these tools.”
WEL Founder & Patron Marjorie Layden makes an intervention at the CGC Event at the University of Cambridge. Also pictured - Lord Rees (UK Astronomer Royal) and Dr Julian Huppert (Director of the Intellectual Forum).
OUr MISSION
OUR MISSION
We will inspire ethical leadership globally by championing integrity and social responsibility at all levels of business and society, with a particular focus on reaching across generations. The WEL Foundation will deploy a ‘book-end’ approach: drawing together the top decision makers in society along with the people at home to achieve community building, effective ethical leadership, reignition of civil dialogue, and the empowerment of audiences all over the world.
OUR VISION
The WEL Foundation believes that embedding ethics (ethical thinking) back into our lives can be a very powerful tool for change– by adding weight, and structure, and basic supporting principles to the decisions that the scientific data seem to point us towards. We believe ethics can supersede (or at least ameliorate) the knee-jerk reactions of narrow or partisan self-interest that seems to be polluting our culture and politics on so many levels these days. Ethics and ethical leadership can “cross the aisle” and allow us to see common goals clearly. We envision a fundamental reawakening to the ideals of ethical leadership and civil dialogue - to bring ethical thinking and a mindful awareness of ethics and values back into peoples’ everyday lives. We will focus on the ideologies, psychologies, and motivations of all generations. We want a new ethical mindset to be nurtured within tomorrow’s leaders; so we hope to inspire people, and be a catalyst in them for a unified and passionate desire to pursue business, leadership, and indeed their whole lives with a rejuvenated ethical vigour.
Our VISION
OUR WORK SO FAR
WEL Foundation Founder & Patron Marjorie Layden joins Elders members President Ricardo Lagos and President Mary Robinson at a WEL Foundation Sponsored Discussion at the UN COP 25, December 2019.
WEL Foundation has already supported several ground-breaking events around the world - all with an aim of promoting ethical thinking, leadership, and discussions around applying ethics as a tool to help tackle global problems. In Spring of 2019, The WEL Foundation partnered with NEXUS Global to organise a series of panels and discussions on ethics and leadership around the climate crisis. In July 2019, WEL Foundation sponsored and facilitated the inaugural Cambridge Global Conversations Event on Climate Ethics at Jesus College Intellectual Forum, the University of Cambridge.
OUR PARTNERS
Alongside the WEL Foundation’s own proprietary work, we are focused on finding partners who share our mission, and whose own work can complement our mission and vision. With our focus on ethics and leadership, cross-generational communication and dialogue, and global issues, we have already been fortunate to work with several impressive organisations that fit perfectly with WEL's goals:
NEXUS GLOBAL bridges next generation communities of wealth and entrepreneurship to scale impact. The network represents more than 3,500 influencers, investors and entrepreneurs in 80+ countries. WEL foundation has funded programs with NEXUS focused on intergenerational engagement around ethics, impact investing, and civic engagement at the Global Climate Action Summit, the US Institute of Peace, and the United Nations.
THE ELDERS are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights. The Elders represent an independent voice, not bound by the interests of any nation, government or institution, committed to promoting the shared interests of humanity, and the universal human rights we all share. WEL has funded programming in partnership with the Elders focused on bridging generations around issues of ethical significance, like climate change and human rights.
CAMBRIDGE GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS (CGC) is an educational / outreach project based at the University of Cambridge. CGC focuses on those global issues that lie beyond the capability of any single nation state to address alone. WEL Foundation sponsored CGC’s Climate Ethics event in July 2019, and several representatives of WEL were involved in the event and planning.
