SPEAKER: CLAUDE SMADJA

Claude Smadja is President of SMADJA & ASSOCIATES: Strategic Advisory and Principal Adviser of the World Economic Forum. From January 1996 to April 2001, Claude Smadja has been the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum.

His portfolio of responsibilities has included among other domains direct responsibility for the Annual Meeting in Davos, the Forum's activities in Asia and especially the direct responsibility for the yearly East Asia Economic Summit, and the yearly financial services governors meeting, comprising most of the top executives of the major players in this sector.

Prior to his position as Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, Claude Smadja had been for three years Director for the News and Current Affairs Department of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, in Geneva, and a Senior Adviser to the World Economic Forum.

He had previously been associated with the World Economic Forum from mid 1987 to January 1993 as a Director and Member of the Executive Board, first creating and heading World Link, the Magazine of the World Economic Forum, and then creating the Forum's first Regional Economic Summit (The East Asia Economic Summit, now a major event in the region gathering about 1000 top executives, senior government officials and political personalities and academic experts and Media leaders).

With a background as a political and economic analyst and a strong experience developed, first in his 15 years media career and then at the World Economic Forum, Claude Smadja has developed an extensive experience and knowledge on the world's economic, business and political scene and its key players, with an ability to identify and analyze emerging trends and their implications, to integrate complex issues in a global context. His activities have also led him to acquire a special expertise and extensive knowledge on the East Asia region, and to develop a solid network of relationships.

Claude Smadja has proved an ability to combine an integrated conceptual approach with a very hands-on attitude and attention to modalities of implementation of projects. He has a thorough understanding of how the world economy and the "global scene" function today - an understanding created through a long standing process of extensive travels around the world and on-going interaction with top business, political and intellectual leaders around the world.

In addition to his very good communication and networking capabilities, he has demonstrated in his activities an ability to deal - and be at ease - with diverse cultural environments around the world.

He is an occasional contributor to international publications on major issues on the global agenda and on the trends shaping the macroeconomic and the political environment. (Occasional contributions have been published in the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Asia Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Japan Times, etc.).

He is also frequently invited as guest speaker on macroeconomic and international issues and the trends shaping the international environment, especially on issues related to the Globalization and IT revolution. Author of analytical briefs on economic and political issues at some of the World Economic Forum events around the world.

Claude Smadja has occasionally been a consultant for international organizations and corporations.