Klaus Schwab, the founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF, also known as the Davos Forum), aged 86, will resign within this year.
According to the Davos Forum on the 22nd (local time), Schwab has decided to step down from his position as Executive Chairman by the end of this year. Accordingly, the Davos Forum plans to reorganize its structure from a founder-led model to a board-led management system. The Forum stated that four strategic committees will be established under the board to make key decisions regarding the Forum's operations.
Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF, Davos Forum)
Economist Schwab, born in Germany, graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and earned his doctorate from the University of Fribourg. In 1971, while serving as a professor at Harvard University in the United States, he invited about 400 European business leaders to hold a meeting called the "European Management Forum," which became the foundation of the Davos Forum.
Subsequently, the Forum expanded its participants globally, and politicians began to participate starting in 1974. In 1987, it was renamed the "World Economic Forum" and established itself as an annual event. It has been held every January in Davos, a Swiss winter resort town.
Schwab is expected to remain on the Forum's board even after his resignation. It is anticipated that Børge Brende, currently considered the second-in-command, will take over as the next Executive Chairman of the Davos Forum.
Operating as a non-profit foundation, the Davos Forum intends to continue fulfilling its role as a global public-private meeting body to discuss common challenges facing the world, even if its leadership and organizational structure change.
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