The Wall Street Journal

Probe of Davos Founder Finds Unauthorized Spending, Inappropriate Behavior

Klaus Schwab rejects preliminary findings of misconduct, including improper travel expenses and gifts

Klaus Schwab has defended his 55-year tenure as the World Economic Forum’s public face and most senior executive.
Klaus Schwab has defended his 55-year tenure as the World Economic Forum’s public face and most senior executive. Photo: Zuma Press

An internal probe at the World Economic Forum found that its founder Klaus Schwab engaged in a pattern of workplace misconduct over the past decade, including unauthorized spending by him and his wife, bullying behavior and inappropriate treatment of female staffers.

The probe, which the Forum’s board launched this April in response to a whistleblower complaint, found evidence that Schwab made comments to a female employee that were suggestive and potentially inappropriate. “Do you feel that I am thinking of you,” Schwab wrote in one late-night June 2020 email to a senior female executive.

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