Short answers, pulled from the story.
The World Economic Forum was founded on the 24th of January 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German engineer and business professor at the University of Geneva. It was originally called the European Management Forum and renamed to the World Economic Forum in 1987. It is headquartered in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
Around 3,000 paying members and selected participants spend up to five days in Davos, a mountain resort in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, attending over 400 sessions covering global economic, political, and environmental issues. Participants include business leaders, heads of state, economists, journalists, and celebrities. Access is governed by a tiered badge system, with white badges granting the highest level of entry to the Congress Centre.
The WEF is funded primarily by its 1,000 member companies, typically global enterprises with more than five billion dollars in annual turnover. In 2011, annual membership costs ranged from $52,000 for an individual member to $527,000 for a Strategic Partner, plus a $19,000 per-person admission fee. By 2014 the forum had raised annual fees by 20 percent.
Several significant diplomatic events have taken place at Davos. The Davos Declaration was signed by Greece and Turkey in 1988, stepping back from the brink of war. In 1992, F. W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi made their first joint appearance outside South Africa at the annual meeting. At the 1994 meeting, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat reached a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho.
Critics have raised allegations of corporate capture of democratic institutions, lack of financial transparency, unclear membership and invitation criteria, and the public cost of security, which stood at 39 million Swiss francs in federal expenditure as of 2018. Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington coined the term "Davos Man" to describe the forum's detached global elite. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that the WEF shifts responsibility for global problems onto individual consumers rather than governments or corporations.
Klaus Schwab stepped down as Chair and member of the Board of Trustees on the 21st of April 2025, citing his entry into his 88th year. His resignation was followed by whistleblower allegations of financial irregularities, research manipulation, and mishandling of sexual harassment cases. An investigation by law firms Homburger and Covington and Burling found no evidence of material wrongdoing by Schwab or his wife Hilde, but governance reforms were pledged and interim co-chairs were appointed.