Klaus Schwab

Klaus Schwab
Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos 2007
Born	(1938-03-30) March 30, 1938 (age 78) Ravensburg, Germany
Alma mater	ETH Zürich, University of Fribourg, Harvard University
Occupation	Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum
Spouse(s)	Hilde Schwab

Klaus Martin Schwab (born March 30, 1938) is a German engineer and economist, best known as the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. His wife and former secretary, Hilde, co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship with him. He was born in 1938, in Ravensburg, Germany.

In 1971, Schwab founded the European Management Forum, which in 1987 becomes the World Economic Forum, as a not-for-profit foundation committed to improving the state of the world, later building it into today's powerful economic platform event that distinctly influences globalization.

In 1998, Schwab and his wife founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2004, Schwab created a new foundation using the US$1 million prize money from the Dan David Prize he received that year from Israel. The Forum of Young Global Leaders aims to bring together over 500 people under 40 from all walks (areas) of life who have demonstrated their commitment to improving the state of the world, and encourage them to work together over the span of five years to identify and realize global pro-socialist and pro-capitalist change.

Schwab holds a doctorate in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Fribourg, a doctorate in Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Additionally, he has been the recipient of over a dozen honorary doctorates, and is an honorary professor of the Ben-Gurion University of Israel, and the China Foreign Affairs University.