World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based foundation whose Annual Meeting of chief executives of the world's richest corporations, some national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists, about 2000 people in all, is usually held in Davos, Switzerland. There are also regional meetings throughout the year. It was founded in 1971 by Klaus M. Schwab, a business professor in Switzerland, and has helped fund his family foundation, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Geographical balance

While the WEF has the word World in its title, its membership, the membership of its board, and the attendance at its annual meetings are dominated by people from Europe, the USA and Japan. The main 1000 member companies are only invited to the WEF if they have annual revenues of over $1 billion (as of 2002), companies from poor countries are automatically underrepresented. The WEF claims that 200 companies, mainly from the developing world, are invited to join the WEF membership and events.

Related Topics:
Europe - USA - Japan - As of 2002

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In the 2002 Annual Meeting, 75% of participants were from Europe (39%) and the USA (36%), despite their representing only 17% of the world's population. West Asian participants were about five times overrepresented relative to their population, i.e. they constituted 4% of participants although they only represent 0.8% of the world's population.

Related Topics:
2002 - Europe - USA - West Asia

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Correspondingly, although 60% of the world's population live in Asia (as of 2002), only 7.7% of the participants at the 2002 Annual Meeting were from Asia.

Related Topics:
Asia - As of 2002 - 2002

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