WEF CO-CHAIR DISMISSES IDEA OF MOVING ANNUAL EVENT FROM DAVOS
(Bloomberg) -- The World Economic Forum’s co-chair, Andre Hoffmann, dismissed the idea of the organization’s annual flagship meeting moving from its longstanding location in Davos.
“There is absolutely no truth to that,” Hoffmann said in an interview on the last official day of this year’s gathering in the Swiss mountain town. “We are very conscious of the fact that this is part of what we offer: the Swiss Alps, the support of the federal government, the canton of Grisons and the city of Davos.”
Hoffmann chairs the forum together with Blackrock Inc.’s Larry Fink, who said in a LinkedIn post this week that WEF should do new things, and mentioned other locations. The Financial Times reported that Fink privately discussed options to rotate the annual meeting around multiple sites.
Hoffmann, a descendant of Roche Holding AG founder Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, said that Davos is synonymous with the WEF. The forum has held the meeting there since the early 1970s, though in 2002 it moved to New York for one year to show solidarity following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“For me, Davos is very much part of the annual meeting,” Hoffmann said. “It’s part of our brand. It’s our DNA. And if we get out of that, then I think we’d lose a lot.”
This year’s Davos gathering attracted particular attention thanks to the presence of President Donald Trump, who arrived amid geopolitical tensions between the US and Europe over Greenland.
The future of the WEF has been questioned over the past year after allegations of misconduct were made about founder and long-time leader Klaus Schwab. He ultimately left the forum, though he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Davos Focus
Hoffmann also suggested that that the WEF board will have to rethink its priorities after this year was dominated by the largest ever US delegation and tech billionaires including Elon Musk and Palantir Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp.
“I think we should continue to reflect on the balance of our agenda,” Hoffmann said, noting issues such as climate change. “We need to look at planetary boundaries. We just need to continue to put that on the agenda.”
If there is soul searching, some of it may be driven by disappointment with past results. According to Hoffmann, many issues the WEF promoted over the years haven’t panned out as desired.
“All our efforts trying to shape the global agenda have not really been that successful,” Hoffmann said. “There are pockets of success, but the totality of it is that we are having some very strange developments in geopolitics which nobody who cares can really be happy with.”
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2026-01-23T17:41:37Z
