A Grand Opening
With its newest international campus, Château d’Hauteville, Pepperdine will take “a giant step forward” in creating a global center for education, culture, and community
The power of Switzerland lies in its location, geographical and symbolic, as the central meeting point of Western Europe. Bordered to the north by Germany, to the east by Austria and Liechtenstein, to the south by Italy, and to the west by France, Switzerland’s famed neutrality has bolstered its international reputation as one of the most politically and financially stable nations in the world.
Since the 19th century, this stability has attracted numerous international non-governmental organizations to make Switzerland their headquarters, including the International Committee of the Red Cross; the League of Nations; the United Nations and its subsidiary agency, the World Health Organization; the World Council of Churches; the International Olympic Committee; the Fédération Internationale de Football Association; and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Pepperdine University opened its Lausanne campus in 2007 and has hosted more than 1,000 Seaver College students there since then. In 2015, when the University’s leadership team began to discuss whether to remodel the Lausanne property or to seek a new location for its Swiss campus, they discovered a magnificent 18th-century estate for sale in the nearby commune of Blonay - Saint-Légier. After years of planning, discussion, and renovations, Pepperdine is opening its newest international campus, Château d’Hauteville, in July 2023, the acquisition and reimagining of which Gary Hanson (JD ’80), senior executive vice president, describes as “an opportunity to take a giant step forward.”
“Pepperdine’s global presence is one of the University’s enduring institutional goals.”
—Gary Hanson (JD ’80)
The entire property comprises 90 acres, 67 of which are working farmland.
A Setting Unlike Any Other
Château d’Hauteville is a 90-acre baronial estate nestled in the hills above Vevey, overlooking Lake Geneva, known to the locals as Lac Léman.
“History and culture surround this property,” says Hanson. “It is a setting for study unlike any other.” Both Hanson and Marc Goodman, the inaugural vice chancellor of Château d’Hauteville and chief administrator for the campus, were instrumental in working with the property owners and the Swiss government to make the acquisition a reality.
The Grand d’Hauteville family, which owned the estate for 11 generations, was inspired by Pepperdine’s vision to bring knowledge, learning, culture, and life to the château by transforming it into a state-of-the-art university campus. There was an almost immediate connection between the Grand d’Hautevilles and University leadership regarding Pepperdine’s commitment to renovating and maintaining the Château d’Hauteville and protecting its history for generations to come. The University finalized the sale of the property on November 5, 2019, and began renovations in earnest in December of 2020.
“The weight of its history is felt in a profound way when you realize the significance of the château.”
—Marc Goodman
“We’ve been very deliberate about not just preserving the history, but about restoring the château and making it come alive,” says Goodman. “It’s such an enriching experience if you can understand the history of the place where you’re standing.”
The stately, picturesque estate comprises the château itself, an approximately 40,400-square-foot, three-story residential structure with a large wine cellar and a grand cobblestone courtyard, along with several other buildings including an orangerie, a barn (“grange brûlée”), a gatehouse, a pavilion, a greenhouse, and a gardener’s house. The estate’s extensive grounds feature French-style formal gardens, tree-lined pathways, a vegetable and herb garden, woods, commercial vineyards, and a working farm that has been cultivated by the same Swiss family for generations.
The purchase and renovation of Château d’Hauteville is one of the most significant international endeavors that the University has ever undertaken, and Goodman is confident that the new campus will be the site of “transformational experiences for the mind, the heart, and the spirit.”
Goodman, who was chosen as vice chancellor after an extensive global search, served as the University’s general counsel for 17 years. Both he and his wife, Christine Chambers Goodman, a professor at Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, have previously taught as faculty-in-residence in Caruso Law’s London Program and therefore share a deep understanding and appreciation of Pepperdine’s International Programs.
“I relish this opportunity to spend daily time with our students,” Goodman says. “I’ve witnessed what the International Programs experience can do. The weight of its history is felt in a profound way when you realize the significance of the château.”
Ezra Plank, who has served as the director of the Lausanne program since 2014 and is taking on the new titles of director of the Switzerland program for Seaver College and executive director of the Hauteville campus, views the château as an ideal setting to empower students to travel, to encounter others, and to be changed in the process.
“This is an environment where people and organizations are thinking about the world, its needs, and ways to make the future bright—and for that reason, the opportunities for a conversation, a collaboration, or an internship are abundant,” he says. “Our faculty members are discovering how this unique location can be leveraged so that our conversations about science and conservation, art and beauty, story and meaning, language and culture, and faith and calling can be most impactful.”
As well as providing transformative learning, service, and leadership development experiences for both undergraduate and graduate students, Château d’Hauteville, located just one hour from Geneva, will serve as a world-class venue for retreats, conferences, and lectures on topics of global significance.
“The château is going to be a place where conversations of consequence are held,” says Goodman. Plans are already underway to host the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution’s five-day Mediating the Litigated Case training program in global negotiation and mediation at the château this September. In collaboration with the Heritage Foundation, the University will also host a conference on European cybersecurity at the new campus this fall.
“Switzerland is a natural convening point,” says Hanson. “The château is unique in
its ability to serve as a place where Pepperdine can host important conversations
about global issues. We are taking a giant step forward in terms of Pepperdine’s global
footprint and in our role as a leading Christian university in the world.”