Hundreds of billionaires and academics secretly met in Zurich last week for the annual conference known as “World.Minds,” an invite-only exclusive summit that has been described as “the thinking man’s Davos.”
The group only has 1,500 members, but they include some of the most well-known members of the intellectual establishment, as well as scientists working on the cutting edge of technological research. General David Petraeus (who oversaw all coalitions in Iraq from 2007 and 2008 and served as the Director of the CIA from 2011 to 2012) mingled with financial historian Niall Ferguson, scientists who presented on nuclear fusion and forensics traded presentations on Middle East peace with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, and conversations on the Ukraine War coincided with economic discourse from arch-financiers like Guy Spier and Bill Ackman.
World.Minds’ advisory board includes General David Petraeus, former CEO of POLITICO Europe Sheherazade Semsar, Niall Ferguson, CEO of “Oxman” Neri Oxman (wife of Bill Ackman), Editor-at-Large of POLITICO Matt Kaminski, Princeton professor Peter Singer, and House of Lords member Matt Ridley. Until he passed away in the fall of 2023, Henry Kissinger was also a member.
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With just 1,500 members, World.Minds is a concentrated collective of wealth and power. It does not accept membership applications, its website coldly states: “Unless you are an international scholar, do not contact us. We will contact you.” https://t.co/c55lffxODW
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 16, 2024
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The conference was founded in 2008 by Swiss author and entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli as a way to understand the increasing complexity of the world. He invited 20 scientists and 20 CEOs to a bar in Zurich and allowed the scientists to share their recent findings for an event called “ZURICH.MINDS.”
“Yes, WORLD.MINDS is an invitation-only community,” its website reads:
“Deliberately. Because we would lose the community spirit by opening the gates indiscriminately. You cannot buy your way into WORLD.MINDS. The term “community” is essential. WORLD.MINDS is a real community of real people sharing real insights.
Since we meet in person at our symposia, events and Jeffersonian dinners – be it in Zurich, Berlin, Belgrade, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Princeton, Warsaw or online at our regular WORLD.MINDS ESPRESSO calls – we know each other personally to a high degree. It feels like a family. Indeed, we are a community, not a series of events. Most importantly, we are “jerk-free.”
We have no place for big egos. What counts are not titles, positions or wealth, but a willingness to share insights that are important but not widely disseminated. And a willingness to cooperate and help each other.”
World.Minds’ charter officially limits its number of business community members to 500 and mandates that 51 percent of its membership body must be scientists “so we never devolve into a business club.” It rejects membership applications and plainly states on its website: “Unless you are an international scholar, do not contact us. We will contact you.”
“Nobody’s going to solicit you. You can talk normally as if you’re [with] your friends,” one member told The Daily Beast. And indeed, all this talk about family and friends is borne out in the fact that Bill Ackman held an impromptu World.Minds conference at his home in February to discuss his battle with Harvard President Claudine Gay.
One attendee told The Daily Beast that members are frank in conversation compared to how they would be elsewhere. They recounted one member who baldly admitted the European Space Agency will not rival SpaceX anytime soon. “You would not hear this stuff in other places,” they said.
No recordings are published, and members have an agreement to remain silent on who said what. They pride themselves on their secrecy and their limited numbers. Regarding the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) spiraling from its modest beginnings to a vast meeting ground of corporate powers, Dobelli said, “It’s a warning for us to never got that way.”
His goal is to create “a bridge between the science, business and cultural communities” without what he perceives as the WEF’s failures. “There’s a lot of companies [and] organizations that say, ‘We want to make the world a better place,’ like the World Economic Forum … We are a little bit more humble. We first want to understand the world before we claim to improve it.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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