Klaus Schwab --Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum

--Studied at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Universities of Fribourg and Harvard. Degrees include Doctorates in Mechanical Engineering and in Economics (summa cum laude).

--1972-2003, Professor of Business Policy, University of Geneva. Author of several books, the yearly Global Competitiveness Report (since 1979) and numerous other publications. Founded the World Economic Forum in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and built it into the foremost global partnership of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society committed to improving the state of the world. Co-founder (1998), with his wife Hilde, of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, supporting social innovation around the world. Founder (2004) of The Forum of Young Global Leaders. Has been active, in addition, in editorial, academic and public service organizations, as well as in UN-related high-level functions. Academic distinctions include Honorary Professorship and six honorary doctorates. For his initiatives undertaken in the spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest and for his reconciliation efforts in several regions he has received numerous international and national honours, including the Knighthood (KCMG) bestowed by H.M. the Queen of England.

Saadia Zahidi is Head of Constituents at the World Economic Forum,
responsible for the engagement of Religious Leaders, NGOs, Labour Leaders,
Women Leaders and Gender Parity Groups into the Forum’s mission for
improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in multistakeholder
partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. She also leads
the Forum’s research on gender and faith issues. She is founder and
co-author of the Forum's Global Gender Gap Report series, benchmarking
countries according to the size of their gender gaps on health, education,
economic participation and political empowerment. She was previously an
Economist with the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Programme, where her
responsibilities included economic analysis for the Global Competitiveness
Reports, Arab World Reports and other topical and regional studies. Zahidi
holds a Masters degree in International Economics from the Graduate
Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and a cum laude
undergraduate degree in Economics from Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

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