About The Sigrid Rausing Trust

The Trust was set up in 1995 by Sigrid Rausing. It was originally named the Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust, after her grandparents. Ruben Rausing was the founder of the Swedish dry food stuff packaging industry Akerlund and Rausing, from which the global milk and juice packaging industry Tetra Pak emerged under the leadership of Hans Rausing, Sigrid Rausing’s father. It later merged with Alfa Laval, forming the Tetra Laval group. In 1995 the Hans Rausing family interest in the group was divested.

The Sigrid Rausing Trust was founded to promote international human rights. The grant programmes are Civil and Political Rights, Women’s Rights, Minority Rights, Social and Environmental Justice and the Miscellaneous Fund. Each programme has a number of sub-programmes, which you will find on this website.

Josh Mailman is the longest serving trustee, having been on the board since 1995. Lisbet Rausing, Tara Kaufmann, and Bob Bernstein are all former trustees. The current (2010) trustees are Sigrid Rausing (chair), Josh Mailman, Susan Hitch, Andrew Puddephatt, and Geoffrey Budlender.

Our budget for 2010 is £20 million.