The WEF’s Toxicity Pushing the Elite’s Sanctuary into Extinction

Peter Koenig

In 2024 and 2025 The Financial Times (FT), as well as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) have reported repeatedly about the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) work “toxicity”.

Both FT and WSJ are under the media mogul Murdoch’s control. In turn, Murdoch is owned by BlackRock, which is at the same time the main sponsor and financier of the WEF. Hence, BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, was allowing, or even ordering the FT and WSJ publishing accusing articles. He apparently was not happy with the WEF’s image of “irregularities”, image of sexual harassment, some outdated policy trends (i.e., the Woke agenda and climate hoax) – leaving a stench of lacking credibility and more importantly, of toxicity. The BlackRock boss may have thought, with these articles, things may change.

Instead, they got worse.

The first one to use the term ”toxic” for the WEF’s work environment was Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (former CEO Nestlé), then holding ad interim, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the WEF (April to August 2025), following the departure of WEF founder, Klaus Schwab. Brabeck was a driving force behind Schwab’s resignation, as reported by the media.
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Key allegations against the WEF were based on the media investigations and legal complaints. They describe a pattern of racism, sexism and retaliation inside the organization that runs the infamous Davos summit.

A few examples.

• Current and former staff alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women and Black employees.
• The WSJ reported on incidents in which white managers used the N‑word in front of black staff; and on claims of black staff being passed over for promotions and excluded from Davos networking opportunities.
• A US lawsuit by a former black employee alleges she was told to view her white boss as her “master,” and was fired upon returning from maternity leave, to be replaced by a white colleague.​
• Other allegations accused founder and former CEO Klaus Schwab of sexual harassment on female staff and as seeking to push out employees over 50 and punishing HR and senior women who resisted or tried to strengthen protections against harassment.

These accounts of allegations were probed in 2025 by a law firm in Zurich, hired by the very WEF’s Board of Trustees. Of course, as expected, the Zurich legal team in August 2025 vindicated both Klaus Schwab and the WEF of any “wrongdoing”, except for “minor irregularities” that could easily be corrected. Nevertheless, to help safe the WEF’s reputation, Schwab was “helped” to resigned as CEO.

But does he keep a hidden role in the organization he created as an NGO in January 1971, first as European Management Forum, then rebranded it in 1987 as the World Economic Forum? – It would not be surprising. His invisible impact may be even stronger than his former often obnoxious presence.

Mr. Schwab was replaced by low-key and soft-spoken Borge Brende, a former Norwegian Foreign Minister (2013–2017); and more importantly, by Co-Chair, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, by far the largest and wealthiest supporter and financier of the WEF.

Soft-spoken is apparently Brende’s way towards his superiors, i.e., the money generators. In a recent post-Davos 2026 staff meeting he was reported as calling out to criticizing staff – “For those who don’t like it, there is the door!”

This type of management behavior towards mostly highly dedicated staff, including mid-management – does for sure not soften the toxic state of the organization.

As was redundantly clear during the January 2026 WEF-Davos, Larry Fink has become the de facto owner of the WEF. He calls the shots on everything and everybody – while Borge Brende just nods. See also this https://www.globalresearch.ca/world-economic-forum-self-destruction/5913443

Instead of improving after the FT and WSJ uncovering of WEF’s workplace toxicity, it got worse, and especially during preparation and the actual 2026 WEF-Davos event (19 to 23 January, 2026), attended by some 3000 “high-flying” heads of state and corporate CEOs – most of whom, as usual, flew in by private jets, clogging the Swiss airports of Zurich and Geneva.

This year’s Davos event added a few layers of stress, especially to the organizing staff, with the arrival of Emperor Trump, who brought cargo jets filled with top-security US military helicopters, and his own limousine convoy, exacerbating the Zurich airport capacity – and uprooting the WEF organization in Davos, as most everything needed to be restructured to accommodate Trump’s wishes and his Secret Service’s orders.

A special aula had to be designated for Trump’s 70-plus minutes ego-blabber. When the doors opened, literally a stampede took place – highly educated (so one would assume) heads of state and CEO’s pushing and shoving their way into the room, slamming assisting staff against the walls and door frames, hurting them.

No apologies by management. Rather neglect and disrespect for those who made the event happen, under borderline stress conditions and at the brink of nervous breakdowns, but nevertheless rolling as smooth as can be. Another layer of toxicity was added to the organization’s workplace. And the WEF’s outside image is ever more tarnished.

To add the cherry on the cake – a few days ago there was a bomb scare in front of the WEF’s HQs in Cologny, Geneva. An unidentified package. The police blocked the road for about 5 hours. But guess what? – Staff was not informed, let alone evacuated. Bomb threats at airports, train stations, department stores, or any places where people amass, would immediately prompt evacuation. Not at the WEF.

Staff morale is at a low, to the point where many are near a burn-out, requesting medical leave for recovery.

The WEF’s internal and external toxicity has become exponential and has taken a life on its own. Poisonous vibrations are in power. They may, and hopefully will, bring down this notoriously nefarious and toxic-to-the-world organization.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.