‘This is the decade that matters’: The brothers investing in vital projects to heal the world

They know they can’t change everything, but Andy Martin speaks with the Mimrans, who will try their best through their three-pronged entrepreneurship venture TO.org

Nachson (left) and Arieh, and their multi-faceted TO.org company, firmly belong to generation ‘we’ (TO.org)

I have to go and sit in a drafty old ice cream van to speak with the Mimran brothers, Arieh and Nachson, about To.org. Admittedly, the van is parked right outside of a palatial five-star hotel, the Alpina, their mountainside office in Gstaad, with a very nice view from the top – of several summits smothered with snow.

To.org, which they co-founded, comprises the initial letters of the Hebrew phrase, Tikkun olam – “repair the world”. But it’s also half the infinitive in English, drawing attention to their role as enablers, making it possible “to” do things. And finally, it stresses To-getherness, the tight bond between the two brothers themselves, and their ideal of global fraternity.

In a way, it was their mother, Debra, who kickstarted To. She would ask them every day as they were growing up: “Have you been the best you can be today?” Then she died suddenly, in 2013, at the age of 54, when she was thrown from her horse while riding in Patagonia. They rushed to her side, and made a deathbed vow to try to live up to their mother’s high expectations. I reckon she’d be proud of them.