Victor Stolan (born 1893) provided "the germ of the idea" that led Julian Huxley and Max Nicholson with him to start the World Wildlife Fund. They together with others they recruited founded the organization on 11 September 1961 in Switzerland. Originally a Czechoslovakian refugee, Victor Stolan was by that time a naturalized UK citizen that had become a businessman and hotel owner. He died within a few years of the start of the WWF.