Davos, Switzerland:
Donald Trump is not stepping foot in Davos this week but the head of the World Economic Forum says the new president has brought renewed interest in the annual gathering of business and political leaders.
“It’s true that everyone here is very interested to understand more what Trump 2.0 is all about,” WEF President Borge Brende told AFP in an interview.
Trump is casting a long shadow over the Swiss Alpine resort, where corporate and political leaders will debate his policies on conflicts, trade, taxes, immigration and climate change, to name a few.
Participants will seek to “connect the dots and decipher” Trump’s intentions, Brende said.
While the WEF had to compete for attention with Trump’s inauguration on Monday, it will get to hear from the man himself via video link on Thursday, with CEOs able to directly ask him questions.
“I think (Trump’s inauguration) has increased the interest in Davos because people feel they need to come together to better understand what’s on its way,” the former Norwegian foreign minister said.
Members of the Trump administration are expected to attend the WEF later in the week, but names have yet to be confirmed.
“We will also have a clear American footprint here in Davos,” Brende said.
US captains of industry are among the many CEOs who flock to Davos every year, but the WEF hopes that it will get a visit one day from the world’s richest man — Trump backer and Tesla chief Elon Musk, who once derided the gathering as “boring”.
“Elon Musk is more than welcome this year and also next year. And next year, maybe he can come with Mr Trump,” Brende said.
World Economic Forum founder steps back
This year’s meeting also comes at a crossroads for the WEF as its 86-year-old German-born founder, Klaus Schwab, stepped back from the executive leadership of the organisation.
Brende took over the executive functions.
“We are now more like a French company where you have a chairperson that is non-executive and then you have a CEO president who is in charge of the executive part of it,” Brende said.
The WEF also last year battled accusations of a “toxic workplace” that were reported by The Wall Street Journal, with allegations of discrimination against women and black people.
“We didn’t feel that that was reflecting the organisation we are at all,” Brende said.
“But we are also a very serious organisation, so we said that no organisation is perfect” and established an independent panel led by the head of French insurer AXA, Thomas Buberl, he said.
Buberl and other businesspeople on the committee are working with law firms “looking into the assertions that were made” and they will “come up with recommendations that we will follow”, Brende said.
“We take it seriously, we didn’t recognise ourselves in that article,” the WEF president said.
“For us, our talent, our people at the forum is the core of the organisation. We want to be a world-class organisation also when it comes to dealing with our people.”
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