Klaus Schwab has announced his plans to step down from his executive role with the World Economic Forum by early next year at the latest. However, he will remain Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the time being. Schwab intends to hand over the management of the Board of Directors to others in the coming years if a suitable person is found.
Schwab’s journey began with a simple advertisement in the NZZ seeking an assistant to organize a conference. After studying engineering and economics, completing two doctorates, and attending Harvard Business School, he realized his mission was to promote stakeholder capitalism as opposed to focusing solely on shareholder value. Schwab envisioned a structured exchange between business, politics, and society to address global challenges through an international conference.
The company that started as a two-person organization to organize the first conference in Davos in 1971 has since evolved into the World Economic Forum (WEF), a foundation headquartered in Geneva with about a thousand employees. Schwab’s vision was to transform the forum from a conference organization into a think tank and eventually a “do-tank” that actively works towards solving global issues.
As Schwab prepares for his succession, governance reforms have been initiated to transition the organization from a founder-led entity to one led by a strong executive management team and stakeholders on the Board of Trustees. The reorganization will involve dissolving the current Board of Directors and establishing four committees of