Save lives…Reduce suffering…Protect the environment… Stimulate Action: Philip Wollen

Australian activist Philip Wollen, former Vice-President of Citibank and General Manager at Citicorp, at 34 years, left the glamour of a high-profile corporate career, turned vegan, and has since been a leading star in global environment movements. He is a prominent member of the animal rights movement. He conducts intervention programs to rescue abused animals and funds outreach programs that promote animal welfare and abstinence.

At 34 years, Australian Business Magazine named him in the “Brightest and Best” top 40 headhunted executives in Australia. In 2005 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia and in 2007, he won the Australian of the Year award.

Wollen studied at the Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, Bengaluru. He lives with his wife Trix and his four dogs in Melbourne, Victoria.

Wollen’s main project, The Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, is a global initiative whose mission statement is “to promote kindness towards all other living beings and enshrine it as a recognisable trait in the Australian character and culture”. The Trust emphasises ethics, compassion and co-operation, and opposes cruelty to humans and non-human animals. In 2006, the Trust had initiatives in 34 countries and is growing.

He inspires global eco sensitiveness with his famous quotes, like: “When we suffer, we suffer as equals and in their capacity to suffer, a dog, is a pig, is a bear, is a boy”; “When animals do something noble we say they are behaving “like humans”. He states: “Meat kills animals, kills us, and is killing our economies. Medicare has already bankrupted the US. They will need $8trillion invested in treasury bills to pay just the interest and they have ZERO.” Quoting Cornel and Harvard studies, he states that meat requirements in a healthy human diet is precisely ZERO. Whereas “water, as you know is the new oil.” It takes 50,000 liters of precious drinking water to make one kg of beef, he points out. Reason enough to make ethical choices!

top