Klaus Schwab was only too happy to be between the powerful of the earth. His long career has now come to an abrupt end

« We are not from the cocktail parties. » In the documentary The Forum (2019) Klaus Schwab makes the aversion of too much fuss with him and his wife Hilde clearly. It must be about the content on its World Economic Forum (WEF), he is firm.

All the more striking are the accusations that came out this week about the German economist (87). He is said to have mixed personal financial interests with those of the WEF, among other things by financing private massages and luxury holidays for his wife abroad with money from his organization. That can be read in a whistleblower letter that was sent to the company this week and it has been seen through the Wall Street Journal.

Schwab unexpectedly announced his farewell to the Wef this week. For more than fifty years, the German was connected to the organization he once started. The annual congress in Davos, Switzerland, grew into a huge meeting with influential figures. Over the years, the guest list stood on the guest list, politicians, top men from the business community and influential thinkers.

Schwab organized the first World Economic Forum in 1971. What initially started as an exchange of ideas between European scientists, grew into one of the largest network meetings in the world. Participants in the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, state that they gain insights through the various panel discussions and networking drinks that are guiding for the major problems worldwide. Yet no big decisions are made in Davos. It is more about exchanging ideas and knowledge.

Over the years, the Wef has been feeding for conspiracy thinkers who claimed that the elite gathered to work on a so -called new world order, in which governments with governments would convert on their way to a surveillance company. Schwabs plea for globalism in particular was taken under fire.

Especially in Coronatijd, those theories went up, after Schwab had come up with the idea for a ‘Great Reset. ‘ That name refers to the theme of the WEF meeting in 2021. The German, together with the British Prince Charles, worked hard for tackling the post-Covid inequality. Prosperity should be distributed more fairly around the world, they argued. Schwab always dismissed the accusations as nonsense. « Globalization is a reality, just like the weather is, » he said.

Lobby for Nobel Prize

In recent years, the question was increasingly whether the eightyer Schwab should not even make room for a new generation of drivers. But the German was able to let go of his brainchild. Every year he posed with visible pleasure for photographers with world leaders and he addressed the guests in characteristic English with heavy German accent. In the margin of the top, sounds could also be heard that Schwab has an almost perfect feeling for what is going on in the world because of his extensive network, but he found looking at his own position more difficult.

Last year, Schwab took a step back as chairman of the WEF. Instead, he took a seat on the Supervisory Board. But he has now left there too. He still threw that at his age in his own response. But later this week it turned out that more was playing around Schwab itself.

One of the complaints that has been sent this week is that there was a lack of control on the expenditure that Schwab has made in recent years. For example, he would have asked employees to include thousands of dollars from WEF accounts at ATMs on his behalf. That money would be for private use.

The so -called Global Competitiveness Report, a ranking of the competitiveness of countries on which NRC Also reported several times, would also have been manipulated in favor of governments.

His never more and more played his already, those involved reported. For example, he asked people within his organization to get hard for a Nobel Prize for Peace for Schwab.

The many allegations were a reason for his successor Børge Brende to conduct a study into financial mismanagement and self -enrichment. Schwab explicitly opposed this in recent days, writes the Wall Street Journal. In addition, he found WEF board members as former American presidential candidate Al Gore and Thomas Buber (CEO French insurer Axa Group) opposite.

The investigation now announced, in which an external party would also watch, was not the first investigation that has been conducted recently at Het Wef. Earlier, former employees who accused Schwab and other people from management of, among other things, racism and bad governance. Hard evidence towards Schwab would not have emerged from that investigation, but Brende made significant changes to the highest management layers.

In an official response, Schwab spoke of « Karakmoord » on himself on Wednesday. But the fact is that this week an abrupt end has come to the 54-year career of the German economist, who made his life’s work to stay among the most influential figures on the ground. The man with a network as thick as a telephone book that couldn’t say goodbye, had to let go of his Wef.

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