World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, 87, steps down from board

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The founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the organization’s board of directors after more than 50 years at the helm.

He will be succeeded on an interim basis by the WEF’s vice chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nestle SA, according to a statement by the forum.

“I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,” Schwab, 87, said in the statement. The forum has begun a search process for a future chair.

The WEF, hosted once a year in the Swiss ski-town of Davos, is one of the world’s most-exclusive gatherings of head of states, top politicians, executives and business leaders. Schwab started what became the WEF in 1971 as a management symposium.

He had announced last year he was stepping away from an active leadership role at the organization.

Today, the board of trustees is comprised of more than two dozen world leaders and includes Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff, Blackrock Inc. CEO Larry Fink, former US Vice President Al Gore, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and her successor at the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva.

While Schwab has consistently stressed the need for better global cooperation, his organization has frequently faced charges of elitism.

Schwab, born in Germany, to parents of Swiss origin, chose the Alpine town of Davos in a bid to make guests feel relaxed and speak freely, according to the Geneva-based nonprofit’s website. With a slogan of “committed to improving the state of the world,” the forum attracts global attention and criticism, as well as a helping of conspiracy theories.