Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down from active leadership of the body that convenes the annual meetings of global executives and politicians in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Schwab, 86, said he is moving to a non-executive role by January 2025, according to the WEF website.
“The organisation has also been undergoing a planned governance evolution from a founder-managed organisation to one where a president and managing board assume full executive responsibility,” the WEF said.
The body did not specify who would take those roles.
Mr Schwab attended the annual meeting in Davos in January, but missed a major WEF meeting in Riyadh last month, which raised questions about his health.
He started what became the World Economic Forum – initially called the European Management Forum – in 1971 as a symposium on corporate management.
World Economic Forum in Riyadh - in pictures
Since then, the event grew to become an annual gathering of about 2,500 corporate executives, financiers, and politicians, and other public figures from more than 100 countries, addressing matters such as inequality, migration, digital innovation and globalisation.
Mr Schwab chose the Alpine location of Davos to make guests feel relaxed and speak freely, according to the Geneva-based non-profit organisation’s website.
With a slogan of “committed to improving the state of the world", the forum attracts global attention and criticism, and conspiracy theories.
The 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos - in pictures
Mr Schwab was born in Germany to parents of Swiss origin.
While the organisation he founded has frequently faced the charge of elitism, he has consistently stressed the need for the kind of global co-operation it offered.
“Big challenges – environmental, poverty – cannot be solved by governments alone, or by business alone, or by civil society,” Mr Schwab told the Financial Times in defence of the conference in 2020.
“You need co-operation.”
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What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
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RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
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Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
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Ant-Man and the Wasp
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas
Three stars
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
ENGLAND SQUAD
Joe Root (captain), Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Dan Lawrence, Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad
SQUADS
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz
Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne (vice-capt), Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Rangana Herath, Lakshan Sandakan, Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Gamage
Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG) and Nigel Llong (ENG)
TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)
ICC match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)
The Vines - In Miracle Land
Two stars
