The man behind Davos: has he helped make the world better?
- Government and business leaders trek to the freezing Swiss Alps this week for the annual Davos conclave
Klaus Schwab, who founded the World Economic Forum (WEF), has said his childhood during the second world war inspired him to build an organisation that would make the world a better place.
His foundation, which hosts many of the world’s most powerful, famous and wealthy people at its annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, has clearly made an impact.
But questions have grown about whether the organisation is meeting its declared goal of “improving the state of the world”, with resentment rising against the pro-business Davos agenda, and voters turning instead to populist leaders.
One persistent criticism is that WEF meetings, including this week’s main annual gathering in Davos, have simply created a safe space for the corporate world to lobby governments without oversight.
Schwab was not available for an interview with AFP but the WEF’s managing director, Adrian Monck, said in an email that the organisation “subscribes to the highest standards of governance”.
Schwab, born in Ravensburg, Germany, in 1938, was a little-known business professor at the University of Geneva when in 1971 he founded the WEF’s precursor, the European Management Forum.
