More than 70 Canadians bound for Davos as Trump slated to attend economic forum
Donald Trump will be there. Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson won’t. The 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is taking place next week against a backdrop of acute trade and geopolitical tension.
Seventy-two Canadians will be heading to Davos for the 50th edition of the conference, taking place Jan. 21 to 24, according to an unofficial early list obtained by The Logic of registered delegates who are scheduled to attend.
As The Logic first reported last week, Trudeau will be skipping the event for the second consecutive year, instead sending three cabinet ministers.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will not be among them.
The unofficial Canadian delegation includes many familiar private-sector faces such as Mark Machin of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Tom Jenkins of Open Text, as well as returning executives from major energy firms such as Suncor and Teck.
Others will be making their Davos debuts, or attending in high-profile new roles, including the recently installed heads of two major Canadian institutional investors: Jo Taylor of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Investissement Québec’s Guy LeBlanc.
Trump is attending after skipping last year’s event due to a prolonged government shutdown.
This will be his first appearance on the world stage since becoming the third American president to be impeached, and his first since a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Iran’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will also reportedly be in attendance.
They’ll be joined at the conference by tech leaders such as Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Masayoshi Son, whose Soft Bank is deploying billions in venture capital; Salesforce’s Marc Benioff; Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi; and two key Alphabet executives — new CEO Sundar Pichai and Susan Wojcicki of YouTube.
The forum’s key discussion points this year will include climate change, technological disruption, sustainable industry transformation and employment.