Klaus Schwab

Klaus Martin Schwab (; born 30 March 1938) is a German engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has acted as the WEF's chairman since founding the organisation in 1971. Early life and education Klaus Martin Schwab was born on March 30, 1938, to Eugen Wilhelm Schwab and Erika Epprecht in Ravensburg. His parents had moved from Switzerland to Germany during the Third Reich in order for his father to assume the role of director at Escher Wyss AG, an industrial company and contractor for the Nazi regime. Schwab's family was monitored by the Gestapo, which in 1944 also interrogated his mother (who was from Zürich) for speaking with a Swiss accent in public. Schwab was raised Catholic. He is a citizen of Germany although he has three Swiss grandparents and two Swiss brothers. Schwab attended first and second grade at the primary school in the Wädenswil district of Au, Zürich, in Switzerland. After World War II, his family moved back to Germany where Schwab attended the Spohn-Gymnasium in Ravensburg until his Abitur in 1957. In 1961, he graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which awarded him a doctorate in engineering entitled (Longer-term export credit as a business problem in mechanical engineering). He was also awarded a doctorate in economics from the University of Fribourg, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While attending Harvard, Schwab found a mentor in former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.