Why were you a champion for this symposium?
I think it’s really important to see how others are doing when you’re in the middle of a stream. It’s also important to work out how to develop new ways to deliver the real mission of the foundation, to take it forward more efficiently. It’s all about mission; meeting their mission is the only thing that’s expected of foundations. All the other things are side issues. There’s one thing I was disappointed about. I think the crisis is about far beyond economics. It’s about something much deeper, about our understanding of the world. I think we have societies that are extremely technical. We are all really good at our own range of activities but we haven’t yet learned how to cross with other activities. It’s interesting how many foundation leaders feel they should be merging or trying to find ways to cooperate with other foundations that are tackling the same problems in a different way. For me the crisis is more there than actually in the finances. In France, we haven’t had major disasters among foundations. The crisis is really elsewhere.