Giuseppe Schembri was born in 1962. A teenager passionate about martial arts, he travelled in 1978, at just 16 years old, all the way to Kiel, Germany, to receive his first lessons directly from Grand Master Keith R. Kernspecht. It was the start of a companionship that would last more than four decades and would make him the direct lineage successor for Switzerland.
In 1983, at just 21 years old, Schembri opened the very first WingTsun school in Switzerland, in Küsnacht, the absolute pioneer of the discipline in the country. The progression then came quickly: appointed Sifu in 1990, the following year he became the national instructor for Switzerland and moved to full-time teaching.
In 1997, in Hong Kong, it was Grand Master Leung Ting himself who handed him the certificate of 5th Master, a direct recognition by the original lineage. In 2008, he was appointed to the EWTO board of directors and completed his academic path with a bachelor's degree in sports pedagogy: in his view, transmitting a martial art is also a science of teaching.
In 2012, the EWTO named him technical director. That same year, he became the very first of Grand Master Kernspecht's students to receive the 9th Higher Grade, and was officially recognized as Grand Master. This dual consecration makes him one of the most highly-graded practitioners in the world and the reference technical authority for Switzerland.
Today, Grand Master Schembri directly supervises our Geneva school as well as the entire network of affiliated schools across the country. He personally trains the national instructors, validates higher-grade examinations, and ensures that what we teach matches exactly the Yip Man → Leung Ting → Kernspecht lineage, without personal interpretation, without shortcuts. For you, as a student in Geneva, it means one simple thing: you learn exactly the same WingTsun as in Hong Kong, in Langenzell or anywhere else in Europe, under the guarantee of the Grand Master who is its custodian for your country.