Davos Boss Made Creepy ‘Hawaiian Costume’ Comment to Female Staffer: Report

The top brass at the World Economic Forum are facing questions after The Wall Street Journal published a report Sunday accusing them of allowing a “toxic workplace” to fester, with executives allegedly sexually harassing and discriminating against women and Black people at the organization. The misconduct allegedly goes all the way up to Klaus Schwab, the Forum’s revered founder, who employees said would frequently make awkward and inappropriate remarks about female employees’ appearances. One staffer who worked in Geneva in the 2000s said that Schwab’s lewdness was “a horrible thing as a woman to go through.” She said that he once “propped his leg up on her desk with his crotch in front of her face and told her he wished she was Hawaiian because he’d like to see her in a Hawaiian costume,” according to the Journal. The Forum denied that such a “disgusting” incident had ever occurred and that Schwab didn’t even know what a Hawaiian costume was. Schwab, whom the Forum declined to make available to the Journal for an interview, announced to staff in late May that he would step down as executive chairman, but planned to stay on as nonexecutive chairman of the board of trustees. The Journal reported that Schwab’s move came after he sent a letter to the newspaper outlining his concerns about its then-unpublished reporting on him.