Klaus Schwab

Schwab attended 1st and 2nd grade at the primary school in the Wädenswil district of Au ZH, in Swizerland. Later, the family moved again to Germany.[1] Schwab attended the Spohn-Gymnasium in Ravensburg until his Abitur in 1957.[2][3]

In 1961, he graduated as a mechanical engineer from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.[3] He was awarded a doctorate in engineering from ETH Zurich with the title: Der längerfristige Exportkredit als betriebswirtschaftliches Problem des Maschinenbaues (The longer-term export credit as a business problem in mechanical engineering).[4] a doctorate in economics from the University of Fribourg,[5] and a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[6]

Schwab was professor of business policy at the University of Geneva from 1972 to 2003, and since then, has been an Honorary Professor there.[3] Since 1979, he has published the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual report assessing the potential for increasing productivity and economic growth of countries around the world, written by a team of economists. The report is based on a methodology developed by Schwab, measuring competitiveness not only in terms of productivity but also based on sustainability criteria.[7]

During the earlier years of his career, he was on a number of company boards, such as The Swatch Group, The Daily Mail Group, and Vontobel Holding. He is a former member of the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group.[8]

Klaus Schwab opens the inaugural European Management Forum in Davos in 1971.

In 1971, Schwab founded the European Management Forum,[9] which in 1987 became the World Economic Forum—often referred to simply as "Davos", the name of the town where the forum is hosted each year. He founded the WEF in 1971, the same year in which he published Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau[10] (Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering). In that book, he argued that the management of a modern enterprise must serve not only shareholders but all stakeholders (die Interessenten), to achieve long-term growth and prosperity. Schwab has championed the multistakeholder concept since the WEF's inception. In 2015, the WEF was formally recognised by the Swiss Government as an "international body".[11]

Schwab had originally appointed José María Figueres as CEO and his potential successor at the World Economic Forum. In October 2004, the WEF however gained attention through the resignation of Figueres[12] over the undeclared receipt of more than US$900,000 in consultancy fees from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel.[13] Transparency International had highlighted this incident in their Global Corruption Report in 2006.[14]

In 2004, Schwab created a new foundation using the US$1 million prize money from the Dan David Prize.[15] In 2011, he founded the Global Shapers Community, a global network of local communities, or "hubs", of young people aged 20 to 30 who are exceptional in their potential, achievements and drive to make a contribute to their communities. As of September 2021, there were 444 Hubs with 10,600 Shapers.[16]

Schwab has been married since 1971 to Schaffhauser Hilde Schwab. The couple live in Switzerland and have two adult children, Nicole Schwab, co-founder of the Gender Equality Project in 2009, and Olivier Schwab, who is married to a Chinese woman and heads the WEF office in Beijing.[17]

In September 2019, the Federal President of Swiss Confederation, Ueli Maurer, suggested to the Federal Council that Klaus Schwab, who has lived in Switzerland for 60 years, be granted Swiss citizenship and a Swiss passport, based on the cantonal citizenship law. Although Schwab has Swiss parents, the President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga rejected the application. The Federal Office of Justice from the department of Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP) ultimately rejected the granting of citizenship.[17]

Schwab has been the recipient of seventeen honorary doctorates,[3] including ones from the London School of Economics,[28] the National University of Singapore,[29] the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,[30] and over a dozen other universities.

His other awards include:

• In 1997, he received the Knight of the Légion d'Honneur of France.[3]
• In 2001, he received the Candlelight Award from then U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (New York, 2001).[31]
• In 2006, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth (Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George).[3]
• In 2012, he received the Grand Cross with Star of the National Order of Germany.[3]
• In 2013, he received The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan.
• In October 2017, he became the 45th Honorary Doctor of Kaunas University of Technology[32]
• In 2018, he received the China Reform Friendship Medal for "promoting China's international economic exchanges and cooperation".[33]

Schwab has authored and co-authored several books:

• The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum (2016). ISBN 978-1944835019.
• Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 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, New Jersey: Wiley (2021).

• Media related to Klaus Schwab at Wikimedia Commons
• Klaus Schwab on Twitter
• Appearances on C-SPAN