Klaus Schwab resigns with immediate effect as chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF)

World Economic Forum board chairman Klaus Schwab resigned Monday after leading the forum for more than five decades.

"Following my recent announcement, and nearing my 88th birthday, I have decided to resign from my position as Chairman and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately," Klaus Schwab said in a statement from the World Economic Forum.

In accordance with the Forum's Rules of Procedure, the Board unanimously appointed Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe as interim chairman.

The announcement of Schwab's departure after more than 40 years at the helm of the Forum marks the culmination of a transformation that began in 2015 from "an organization run by its founders to one in which a president and board of directors assume executive responsibility," the entity said.

Schwab, born in Ravensburg, Germany, in 1938, was a business professor at the University of Geneva, relatively unknown internationally when he founded the precursor to the current Forum, which initially had a European focus.

He later expanded the event, which ended up becoming a meeting of big businessmen, influential people and politicians who share discussions at round tables and in the corridors of the Forum.

However, critics of the gathering argue that these meetings are merely a free-for-all for corporate lobbying.