Klaus Schwab's long farewell: The Davos Forum confirmed his departure in 2027 after 40 years in the presidency

In 2024 it was announced that Klaus Schwab would leave the presidency of the World Economic Forum. This Friday, several sources in the organization have reported that Schwab's departure will take place before 2027.

According to sources at the Davos Forum, consulted by Reuters, Schwab has already started the procedures to leave the institution that meets every year in Switzerland. According to Schwab, Davos must regain its "sense of mission" after a period of turmoil, Financial Times reported, citing a letter to board members and confirmation from two people familiar with the situation.

It did not give a timetable for his departure from the organization, but the Forum said in a statement to the FT that the process should be completed by January 2027. Schwab will remain in this position until a successor is named, the WEF spokesman told Reuters, without providing a name at this stage.

The announcement of Schwab's departure after more than 40 years at the helm of the Forum marks the culmination of a transformation begun in 2015 from "an organization run by its founders to one in which a chairman 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, little known on the international scene when he founded the precursor to today's Forum, a body with a European focus.

He later expanded the call that ended up becoming a gathering of big businessmen, influential people and politicians who share colloquies at round tables and in the corridors of the Forum.

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