Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe will be the interim chairman of the Davos-based group while a new chair is sought, per Reuters. It will be up to the board to appoint a successor. A reason for Schwab's imminent departure was not given.
"Following my recent announcement, and as I enter my 88th year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect," Schwab said.
Schwab said when announcing his intention to leave earlier this year that the WEF must regain its "sense of mission." The group meets annually in Davos, where they face protests from a wide-swath of progressive activists and anti-globalists alike.
It was at a 2016 meeting of the WEF that the prediction was made that, by 2030, people would own nothing and be happy. That prediction, made in 2016, angered many who felt that this would defranchise them from their own lives.
In 1996, Schwab predicted the coming disfavor with globalization, saying, "A mounting backlash against (globalisation's) effects, especially in the industrial democracies, is threatening a very disruptive impact on economic activity and social stability in many countries."
Schwab said last year, "he would next year give up executive duties to a team led by Borge Brende after 55 years at the forum. Brende was a former foreign minister of Norway and has been the WEF's president since 2017."
"What is essential now after the turmoil of the last months, is to recover our sense of mission," Schwab said when announcing his intention to step down. He said that the WEF was also on firm financial footing.
Allegations of workplace harassment have plagued the WEF in recent years and the board has been working with a law firm to get that sorted out. That firm has not found any violations thus far.
