

He is a former member of the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group. ĭuring the earlier years of his career, he was on a number of company boards, such as The Swatch Group, The Daily Mail Group, and Vontobel Holding.

He has authored and co-authored several books, including The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2016), Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2018, with Nicholas Davis), COVID-19: The Great Reset (2020, with Thierry Malleret), and Stakeholder Capitalism (2021, with Peter Vanham). The report is based on a methodology developed by Schwab, measuring competitiveness not only in terms of productivity but also based on sustainability criteria. Since 1979, he has published the Global Competitiveness Report, an annual report assessing the potential for increasing productivity and economic growth of countries around the world, written by a team of economists. Schwab was professor of business policy at the University of Geneva from 1972 to 2003, and since then, has been an Honorary Professor there.

While at Harvard, Schwab began what he has described as "the 50-year-long mentorship" by Henry Kissinger. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1961, he graduated as a mechanical engineer from ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), then gained a doctorate in Engineering from ETH Zurich, a doctorate in Economics from the University of Fribourg, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Schwab obtained his Abitur or high school diploma from the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Ravensburg, Germany.
