ThoseDisagreement with the World Economic Forum –Schwab proposes to make peace by becoming honorary president of the wef
The founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, wishes to become honorary president. If this is done, he will give up any legal action against the organization.
Posted today at 1:59 p.m.
Klaus Schwab was forced to resign from the WEF a week ago.
MARKUS SCHREIBER/AP/KEYSTONE
Subscribe now and take advantage of the audio reading function.
- The accusations against Klaus Schwab in the WEF remain mainly vague and imprecise.
- The founder of the WEF offers a compromise including an independent investigation and its appointment as honorary president.
- A legal battle threatens if the agreement is not accepted by the WEF.
- Thomas Bubberl, director of AXA and president of the WEF audit and risks committee, emerges as the main rival of Schwab in this conflict.
The rupture seems total. Since Klaus Schwab was forced to resign two weeks ago, the world collapsed for him. He no longer has his say to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the organization he founded and transformed into a company with a half-billion turnover. According to internal sources, efforts are even made to completely exclude it from the WEF. In January 2026, he should no longer even have access to the Davos congress center. But a peace proposal is now on the table.
Schwab accepts the investigation
The next meeting of the WEF board of directors will take place on May 13. It will be virtually. Schwab wishes to participate and can once again explain his point of view. He continues to believe that the anonymous charges against him are unfounded. According to him, his resignation, April 21, was actually a mistake. However, he understood that he could not go back. This is why he no longer wants to be president of the WEF, although he still feels in good shape despite his 87 years.
His proposal is now as follows: both and the steering committee would undertake to accept the results of the survey by Homburger lawyers and publish them. Any reform measures must be implemented. The idea is to limit the investigation to new allegations and to conclude it in about a year. Until then, Peter Brabeck will remain president of the WEF and Schwab will receive the title of honorary president. Schwab would continue to try to contribute to the WEF to retain its importance and that it has, in the years to come, high -ranking guests. Schwab should probably try to bring American president Donald Trump, which he managed to do in 2018 and 2020.
After that, as expected, Christine Lagarde would become president of the WEF after her resignation from the European Central Bank – assuming that she still wants to do so after the conflict.
-It is for the moment very uncertain that such a compromise of peace can see the light of day. Especially since the cloth burns between Schwab and Thomas Buberl, the chairman of the WEF audit and risk committee and CEOs of Axa. Schwab indirectly criticizes him for having his own ambitions at the WEF after the end of his career at Axa. It was Buberl who ordered internal investigations into the anonymous accusations that led to the resignation of Schwab. However, it was not until April 26 that the AXA board of directors decided to propose the renewal of Thomas Buberl’s mandate as a member of the board of directors “for a period of four years, with the intention of renewing it as general manager”. It remains to be seen if Buberl will then really want to play a role at the WEF.
The Schwab rival: the AXA CEO and president of the WEF Thomas Buberl audit and risks committee.
Thibaud Moritz / AFP
Wave accusations
It also remains to be seen what the accusations brought against Schwab really. For the WEF examination committee, they were so “numerous, specific and supported by evidence” that they had to be examined. Sources close to Schwab affirm, however, that allegedly allegedly tolerated sexual harassment are only of a general nature, that is to say without indications on the place where something would have happened or with whom. Likewise, the accusations brought against Schwab’s son would be very vague – he would not have reacted immediately to the accusations brought against a collaborator. Schwab was also criticized for manipulating the rating of a country, which he disputes. This accusation would concern two states which would have received preferential treatment. Schwab categorically rejects the allegations of financial gain.
Schwab’s resignation had already been preceded last year by reproaches on the working atmosphere at the WEF. He then announced his resignation from the position of executive president, while retaining his title of president. In early April, a reorganization was decided against Schwab’s desire, as part of which he declared that he would withdraw and that he would designate a successor by early 2027. Then came immediate resignation – and now Schwab’s hope to obtain the title of honorary president. If the WEF does not accept its proposals, a violent legal battle risks getting involved, because Schwab still has a claim of several million towards the WEF, which it would probably be worth.
“Latest news”Do you want to stay at the top of the info? “24 Hours” offers you two meetings per day, directly in your email box. To not miss anything of what is happening in your canton, Switzerland or in the world.
Other newslettersConnect
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
4 comments
