WISE was established in 1979 in Clearwater, Florida, however its roots extend further back.

Beginning in 1950, author, humanitarian and Founder of Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, spent more than three decades developing and codifying a uniformly and immediately workable system of administration, ethics and justice—a system which would guide and support the Scientology religion's growth. And guide Scientology, it did—the unprecedented growth of the religion resulted in its emergence in the 20th century as a major new mainstream religion.

Not surprisingly, Scientologists who were professionals and entrepreneurs, seeing these principles at work in their local Churches, reached to apply them to their commercial activities. And thus it was with the founding of WISE, as a religious fellowship in January 1979, L. Ron Hubbard's technologies of ethics, justice and administration were made broadly available to Scientologist businesspeople everywhere.

In the years that followed, professionals of all backgrounds and all persuasions, discovering this same workability and results, were eager to apply Mr. Hubbard's fundamentals of ethics and administration to their activities. And so WISE opened it doors unifying all commercial organizations with a purpose to create an ethical and sane business world through the application of L. Ron Hubbard's ethics and administrative procedures. Today, WISE members number in the thousands and through their dedicated efforts, Mr. Hubbard's administrative techniques have reached more than 70 countries in over 20 languages.

This growth and all future growth however, depend on the exact application of L. Ron Hubbard's ethics and justice procedures, for without ethical standards maintained administration breaks down. Thus, since its very beginnings, WISE has entrusted ethical and responsible members with the application of ethics and justice procedures to the membership and their local community. Known as Charter Members and forming up as Charter Committees, they also see to the administration and growth of the entire WISE membership in their areas.

The first Charter Committee was formed in Boston Massachusetts in July 1980. A few months later, the Charter Committee of Los Angeles sprung up. Today, almost everywhere you find WISE members, a Charter Committee has been established. They provide dispute resolution services, ethics services and guide businesspeople in the implementation of the Hubbard Management System.