THE PRESIDENT

Corrado Ferretti is the President of the Saussurea Foundation, a professional and entrepreneur with a great passion for social and innovation. He started his career in the “profit” business and later focused on responsible capital and social entrepreneurship, with the ambition of combining social impact and economic sustainability to generate value mainly in the sectors of education, welfare, social credit, and the environment.

Graduated from the School of Business Administration in Turin and a graduate of LUISS in Rome, Corrado Ferretti has been registered on the Register of Accountants since 1982. He founded the consumer credit company GFItalia in 1984 and was later the President of Banca della Valle d’Aosta, Funivie del Monte Bianco, and Centro Sportivo Courmayeur. In 2000, he founded and held the role of administrator of WebRider, and later He was the President of the International School of Turin from 2006 to 2013.

In 2007, he founded PerMicro, which became Italy’s first microcredit company, of which he was President until 2017.

Throughout his career, Corrado Ferretti has received numerous awards, such as the 2013 Bogianen Prize from the CCIAA of Turin and the 2017 Business Excellence Prize from Harvard Business Review with PerMicro. He has often been invited as a speaker on the themes of social innovation by institutions such as the European Investment Bank, some DG europes, the Bank of France, and some university microfinance courses.

Currently, he is the President of the Saussurea Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Courmayeur that promotes and encourages naturalistic studies, with a particular reference to the territory of Valle d’Aosta and the Monte Bianco area. In this role, he leads the Foundation in its mission.

THE FOUNDERS

The Godfather of the Gardens

It’s hard to say when this story begins: it could start with the birth of Count Giovanni Battista Gilberti (in Milan, on the 15^th of June, 1913) or it could begin before that, with the holidays his family had been spending in Courmayeur for five years prior to the glad event. There is no doubt, though that the Count, whom his friends called Titta, was enamored of the mountains and of skiing, and above all, of these mountains. Under his guidance, Courmayeur was transformed from a little village in the Alps to a renowned modern winter tourist destination. In 1957 the Count purchased Count Lora Totino’s shares in the Società Monte Bianco, thus becoming majority shareholder and President of the company, which owned the cable cars. From that moment on, the Gilberti family became the leading player in the tourism sector in Courmayeur.

The Gardens’ Founder

If the Gardens exist, it is thanks to Laurent Ferretti, an extraordinary intellectual, professional and public administrator. With an eye to Valle d’Aosta and how it could present itself to the international set, Ferretti launched the Courmayeur Foundation and bequeathed it his library.

The Courmayeur Foundation – International Center on Jurisprudence, Society and Economics, established the “Laurent Ferretti” permanent observatory on the mountains, whose objective is to stimulate an ongoing discussion on the problems and resources of the mountains.

THE AIMS OF THE SAUSSUREA FOUNDATION

The Foundation exclusively pursues the aims of protecting and enhancing nature and the environment, social solidarity, scientific research and cultural promotion.

These objectives are and will also be pursued by carrying out the following activities

• Maintaining and developing the Pavillon du Mont Fréty botanical garden, equipping it with petrographic and mineral collections, specimens of Alpine fauna and other naturalistic material;
• Develop other initiatives to protect the natural heritage of the Mont Blanc Alpine area;
• Awarding cash prizes to those who most distinguish themselves for studies and research relating to the Alpine environment;
• Contributing to the promotion and funding of competitions, conventions, conferences and any other scientific and cultural events in the sector;
• Contributing to scientific research in collaboration with universities and research organisations.

ENVIRONMENT AND ALTITUDE

On the southern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, a natural saddle divides the glacier and moraine of Toula from those of Mont Fréty: this is the home of the more than 900 species that give life to the Saussurea Botanical Garden.

Looking down on the Courmayeur basin, one can see to the right the Val Veny, which leads to France via the Col de la Seigne, and to the left the Val Ferret, which instead reaches Switzerland via the pass of the same name. Both valleys are crossed by torrents that flow into the Dora Baltea once they reach Entréves, just below the Garden.

Looking up, there are the giants: a crown to which Mont Blanc, the Dames Anglaises, the Jetoula tower, the Giant’s Tooth and the Grandes Jorasses belong. Looking down again, the Gran Paradiso massif, the Ruitor glacier and the Grivola can be glimpsed.

The environment is typical of high altitudes: the forest thins out and gradually disappears, leaving room for alpine pasture, where here and there are large granite boulders, which have fallen as a result of the settling of the mountains. Snow falls thickly here in winter and beyond: it covers the whole area for eight or nine months and only disappears for good after the end of June.