The Fundação Lemann in Brazil was established by Jorge and Susanna Lemann in 2002 to guarantee access to high-quality public education for Brazilians of all backgrounds and to support the development of leaders committed to the social transformation of Brazil.
In this podcast talk with Christoph Schmocker, the Fundação’s CEO Denis Mizne reflects on the strategy, the challenges, the alliances and the crucial steps taken to change Brazil’s National Learning Standards and make them accessible for all Brazilian students.
We don’t think Brazil can become a more developed and fair Country, unless every child’s potential is guaranteed. We think that high quality public education for ALL is essential to do that
Access to education is among the crucial assets that any government should guarantee in order to develop and leverage its talent and give all citizens a chance to thrive in the society through social mobility.
Quality education is essential for every country to flourish.
In Brazil, the most unequal country in Latin America, since 2017 the Fundação Lemann has been working as a facilitator to design new National Learning Standards.
After analysing the key parameters of the highest performing education systems worldwide, the task force chose to place the needs of the children at the center of the strategy.
‘What kids need to learn’ in order to be ready for life and work, was the key question driving the process. The Foundation then worked to raise awareness on the need for change and to gather and mobilise all the political, social and civil stakeholders involved to shape and implement the new national standards. The aim is that the new curriculum can allow Brazil to empower its talent to compete at international level, while reconnecting the different socio-economic groups of its society.
While the implementation of the new curriculum is in progress and the way ahead is long, it is an outstanding result for a Foundation to have succeeded in a systemic societal change.
Listen to the podcast to learn about Denis’ top three recommendations for any Foundation that aims to drive structural positive transformation.
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Still today in Brazil, 50% of kids in school are illiterate. That’s the biggest inequality of all. […] We want to eradicate illiteracy in Brazil, in the next 10 years
Denis Mizne, 45, is the CEO of the Lemann Foundation.
Graduated from University of São Paulo Law School, Mizne was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights, a Yale World Fellow at Yale University and did the OPM at Harvard Business School.
While at Law School, Mizne led the first disarmament campaign in Brazil. The Sou da Paz - I am for Peace - movement was instrumental in approving the Disarmament Statute, one of the most modern pieces of legislation controlling civilian gun possession. The law directly contributed to the reduction in homicides in the country.
In 1999, Mizne joined the Brazil’s Ministry of Justice as special advisor to the Minister and later Chief of Staff. After one year in Government, he came back to São Paulo to create the Sou da Paz Institute, where he stayed as executive director until 2010.
In 2011, Denis Mizne became CEO of the Lemann Foundation. In the 10 years he has been in this position, the Foundation grew to become one of Brazil’s leading philanthropies, focusing on improving public education and fostering a generation of talented leaders who will contribute to solving the country’s most pressing social issues. Among its achievements, the Lemann Foundation lead the civil society process to have National Learning Standards - approved in 2017, built a large scale intervention to support student learning reaching 2,5MM students and built a network of 653 diverse, committed leaders working in public service, politics, academia, the NGO sector and as social entrepreneurs.
Mizne seats at the Board of Instituto Sou da Paz, Nova Escola, Instituto Natura, Fundacao Roberto Marinho, PraValer and is a member of Yale University President‘s Council on International Affairs.
Christoph Schmocker has been the CEO of the Julius Baer Foundation between 2016 and 2022. Before joining the company, he lived for six years in South Africa, where he was Director of Fundraising and Strategic Projects for the University of Cape Town (UCT). Prior to this, he worked for ten years as CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation where he developed the focus of the UBS philanthropy strategy. As a philanthropic advisor, he continues to develop strategies for multiple grant foundations. From 2007 until 2019, he served as Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Roger Federer Foundation. He has been a member of the Zeitz Foundation since 2019.
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