World Economic Forum Annual Report 2006/2007

World Economic Forum Annual Report 2006/2007 42WorldEconomicForum USAThe World Economic Forum USA has seena period of exceptional growth since startingoperations in 2006. Over this fiscal year, ithas moved into its own fully operationaloffices in mid-Manhattan, has seen thenumber of employees grow from four toover 25 and has almost doubled the numberof industry partnerships across the Centrefor Global Industries to 197.The World Economic Forum USA (‘Forum USA’)is the North American affiliate of the WorldEconomic Forum, which was founded in December2005 and serves as the global headquarters forthe Centre for Global Industries. The initial driveto establish a presence in North America stemmedfrom the desire to better serve our key membersand partners, coupled with the objective of betterintegrating industry and other expertise into ourgrowing organization. On both of these fronts,our ambitious expectations have been surpassed.At the beginning of this fiscal year in July 2006,Forum USA was still in its infancy, with fouremployees using borrowed office space fromPartner companies. Just one year later, we areproud to relay that we are occupying our new officespace in mid-town Manhattan with 25 full-time staff.As expected, the expanding team in New Yorkincludes new full-time colleagues with considerableindustry experience as well as temporaryemployees from Partner companies onsecondment. These new team members arecomplemented by several experienced WorldEconomic Forum employees who have crossedthe Atlantic to help establish operations in the USA.Klaus Schwab, staff and friends of the World Economic Forum USA ring the New York Stock Exchange Closing Bell