Klaus Schwab

Klaus Schwab
Schwab in 2011
Chairman of the World Economic Forum
In office
24 January 1971 – 21 April 2025
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byPeter Brabeck-Letmathe (acting)
Personal details
Born (1938-03-30) 30 March 1938
Ravensburg, Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern, Germany
Spouse
Hilde Schwab
​
(m. 1971)​
Children2 (including Nicole Schwab)
EducationETH Zürich (Dr. Sc. Tech)
University of Fribourg (Dr. Rer. Pol)
Harvard University (MPA)

Klaus Martin Schwab (German: [klaʊs ˈmaʁtiːn ʃvaːp]; born 30 March 1938) is a German mechanical engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He served as the WEF's chairman from 1971 until his resignation in 2025.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Klaus Martin Schwab was born on 30 March 1938, to Eugen Wilhelm Schwab and Erika Epprecht[4][5] in Ravensburg. His parents had moved from Switzerland to Germany during the Third Reich in order for his father to assume the role of director at Escher Wyss AG, an industrial company and contractor for the Nazi regime.[6][7] Although his father was baptized Lutheran,[8] Schwab was raised Catholic.[9] Although he has three Swiss grandparents and two Swiss brothers, he is a citizen of Germany and has declined multiple offers for naturalization, from both Kurt Furgler[10] and Ueli Maurer.[11]

Schwab attended first and second grades at the primary school in the Wädenswil district of Au, Zürich, in Switzerland. After World War II, Schwab attended the Spohn-Gymnasium in Ravensburg until his Abitur in 1957.[10][12] In 1961, he graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich,[13] with a doctorate in engineering, with a dissertation titled Der längerfristige Exportkredit als betriebswirtschaftliches Problem des Maschinenbaues (Longer-term export credit as a business problem in mechanical engineering).[14] He also earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Fribourg,[13][15] and a Master in Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[16] While attending Harvard, Schwab found a mentor in future National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.[17]

Career

Schwab was professor of business policy at the University of Geneva from 1972 to 2003, and since then has been an honorary professor there.[13] Schwab and his wife Hilde created the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in 1998.[18]

World Economic Forum (1971-2025)

Schwab (rightmost) opens the inaugural European Management Forum in Davos in 1971.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Schwab shaking hands at the World Economic Forum Russia CEO Roundtable in June 2007

In 1971, Schwab founded the European Management Forum, which was renamed as the World Economic Forum in 1987.[19] Also in 1971, he published Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau.[20] In 2003 Schwab appointed José María Figueres CEO of the WEF,[21] as his successor. In October 2004, Figueres resigned[22] over his undeclared receipt of more than US$900,000 in consultancy fees from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel while he was working at the Forum.[23][24] In 2006, Transparency International highlighted this incident in their Global Corruption Report.[25]

Schwab founded the Global Shapers Community in 2011 within the WEF to work with young people in "shaping local, regional and global agendas."[26] In 2015, the WEF was formally recognised by the Swiss Government as an "international body".[27]

The phrase Fourth Industrial Revolution was first introduced by a team of scientists developing a high-tech strategy for the German government.[28] Schwab, as the former executive chairman of the WEF, introduced the phrase to a wider audience in a 2015 article published by Foreign Affairs.[29] "Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution" was the 2016 theme of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.[30] On 10 October 2016, the Forum announced the opening of its Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco.[31] This was also subject and title of Schwab's 2016 book.[32] Schwab includes in this fourth era technologies that combine hardware, software, and biology (cyber-physical systems),[33] and emphasises advances in communication and connectivity. Schwab expected this era to be marked by breakthroughs in emerging technologies in fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, the internet of things, the industrial internet of things, decentralised consensus, fifth-generation wireless technologies, 3D printing, and fully autonomous vehicles.[34] In November 2019 on his book tour Schwab met with Vladimir Putin at the annual SPIEF to present to him a copy.[35][36]

Downfall and resignation (2024-2025)

In June 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported allegations of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct against Schwab by former WEF employees.[37][38][39] The allegations included claims that Schwab engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, discriminated against a pregnant employee, and ordered mass firing of employees over 50 years of age.

The WEF denied the allegations, stating Schwab "has never made sexual advances toward an employee" and calling the claims "vague and false."

Following additional whistleblower allegations of financial impropriety and research manipulation in 2025, the WEF announced an internal investigation.[40] Schwab resigned as chairman in April 2025 and subsequently filed defamation complaints against anonymous whistleblowers, maintaining his innocence while describing the allegations as "stupid and constructed."[41]

As author

Schwab wrote about the Fourth Industrial Revolution in a 2016 book.[42] In January 2017, Steven Poole in The Guardian criticised Schwab's Fourth Industrial Revolution book,[43] pointing out that "the internet of things" would probably be hackable. He also criticised Schwab for showing that future technologies may be used for good or evil, but not taking a position on the issues, instead offering only vague policy recommendations. The Financial Times' innovation editor found "the clunking lifelessness of the prose" led him to "suspect this book really was written by humans—ones who inhabit a strange twilight world of stakeholders, externalities, inflection points and 'developtory sandboxes'."[44] The political scientist Klaus-Gerd Giesen argued that the dominant ideology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is transhumanism.[45][46]

Controversies

Salary level and lack of financial transparency

While Schwab declared that excessively high management salaries were "no longer socially acceptable",[47] his own annual salary of about one million Swiss francs (about US$1.2 million) has been repeatedly questioned by the media. The Swiss radio and television corporation SRF mentioned this salary level in the context of ongoing public contributions to the WEF and the fact that the Forum does not pay any federal taxes.[48] Moreover, the former Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalist Jürgen Dunsch made the criticism that the WEF's financial reports were not very transparent since neither income nor expenditures were broken down.[49] Schwab has also drawn ire for mixing the finances of the not-for-profit WEF and other for-profit business ventures. For example, the WEF awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to USWeb in 1998. Yet shortly after the deal went through, Schwab took a board seat at the same company, reaping valuable stock options.[50][51]

Controversy with Davos municipality

In June 2021, Schwab sharply criticised the "profiteering", "complacency" and "lack of commitment" of the municipality of Davos in relation to the WEF annual meeting. He mentioned that the preparation of the COVID-related meeting in Singapore in 2021/2022[52] had created an alternative to its Swiss host and sees the chance that the annual meeting will stay in Davos at between 40 and 70 per cent.[53][54]

Misconduct while running WEF

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the probe, said an anonymous letter sent in August 2025 to the WEF's board raised concerns about its governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the forum's resources without proper oversight.[55]

Awards and honours

Schwab has been conferred with the French Legion of Honour (knight distinction), the Grand Cross with Star of the National Order of Germany, and the Japanese Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.[56] He also was awarded the Dan David Prize,[57] and was recognized by Queen Elizabeth as an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George.[56]

Publications

Articles

Books

  • The Global Information Technology Report 2001–2002: Readiness for the Networked World | Berkman Klein Center with Geoffrey S. Kirkman, Peter K. Cornelius and Jeffrey D. Sachs, New York, Oxford University Press (2002). ISBN 978-0195152586, ISBN 0195152581.
  • The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum (2016). ISBN 978-1944835002.
  • Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with Nicholas Davis. New York: Crown Publishing Group (2018).
  • COVID-19: The Great Reset, with Thierry Malleret. Forum Publishing (2020). ISBN 978-2940631124.
  • Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley (2021). ISBN 1119756138, 978-1119756132.
  • The Great Narrative: For a Better Future, with Thierry Malleret. Forum Publishing (2022). ISBN 978-2940631315.

Personal life

Schwab married Hilde Schwab, his former assistant, in 1971.[58] The wedding took place in Sertig Valley at a Reformed church.[59] The couple lives in Cologny, Switzerland.[60] The Schwabs have two adult children. His daughter, Nicole Schwab, co-founded the Gender Equality Project.[61]

References

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  3. ^ Gilchrist, Karen (21 May 2024). "World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab to step back from executive role". CNBC. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  4. ^ Norton, Tom (25 January 2022). "Klaus Schwab is not related to the Rothschild family". Full Fact. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022. Mr Schwab also dedicated his book "Stakeholder Capitalism", published in 2021, to his parents Eugen Wilhelm Schwab and Erika Epprecht.
  5. ^ Schwab, Klaus; Vanham, Peter (2021). Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet. Wiley. ISBN 978-1119756132.
  6. ^ "Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum World Heritage Site – ERIH". www.erih.net (in German). Archived from the original on 26 January 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
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  8. ^ Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971 (in German). Karlsruhe, Germany: Evangelische Landeskirche Baden. 1971. p. 215. OCLC 865595685.
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