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World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab allegedly manipulated the organisation’s research to curry favour with governments, according to whistleblower claims that led to his resignation as chair of the organisation over the Easter weekend.
The accusation was one of several contained in a whistleblower letter sent to the WEF board of trustees last week that led the organisation to launch an investigation, and prompted Schwab to criticise former colleagues for reacting to “calumnious” and “unfounded” allegations without giving him a chance to respond.
In a statement circulated on Wednesday, Schwab said he was the victim of a “character assassination” and denied all the claims against him, which also included allegations he misused WEF funds and asked staff to promote him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The anonymous whistleblower letter claimed that Schwab undermined the integrity of the WEF by manipulating its “global competitiveness report”, which ranks countries by their productivity and resilience and forms the basis of discussions at its annual Davos meeting for world leaders and chief executives.
Schwab denied claims that he changed the methodology in the report after approaches by governments unhappy with their rankings.
“I developed the methodology for the Competitiveness Report originally in 1979 and remain its intellectual leader,” Schwab wrote on Wednesday. “Over the years I continued to engage with the methodology to improve and maintain the credibility of the report. This generated sometimes intensive conceptual discussions.
“Some governments contacted me offering corrections to take updated data into account or to correct flaws in the analysis. I passed on this information to the teams. To construct this as manipulation is an insult to my academic standing.”
The new whistleblower claims come on top of others made last year alleging Schwab presided over a toxic workplace culture at the WEF, where sexual harassment was not properly investigated and Black and female employees experienced discrimination.
In March, the WEF reported to sponsors that an investigation “did not find the forum had committed any legal violations” and “did not substantiate” allegations of misconduct against him.
The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Schwab had told the WEF he would begin the process of stepping down as chair of the board of trustees by January 2027, but the new claims blew up that plan.
In a statement on Tuesday, WEF declined to comment in detail on the latest accusations against Schwab until the new investigation is concluded, beyond saying that “while the Forum takes these allegations seriously it emphasises that they remain unproven”.
Schwab denied claims that he and his wife Hilde had misused WEF resources by making personal use of the organisation’s properties, having it fund personal travel and asking junior staff to “withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf”.
He called that a “pure lie” and said he had launched a defamation suit against his anonymous accusers.
In his statement, Schwab also responded to a claim he used WEF staff to lobby for a Nobel peace prize. “Contrary to what is insinuated here, I have repeatedly asked people who wanted me not to do it,” he said.
Schwab did not respond to a request for comment.