At Davos, Ironmen Find Contacts, Contracts and Even Love

By Simon Kennedy

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

WPP Plc Chief Executive Officer Martin Sorrell said, “I met my wife in Davos. You could... Read More

For Martin Sorrell, a quarter century of journeying up the Swiss Alps to the World Economic Forum each January has paid off in expected, and unexpected, ways: Government contacts, business contracts and -- eight years ago - - love.
“I met my wife in Davos,” said the founder and chief executive of advertising giant WPP Plc. (WPP) “You could say I’ve got more than I bargained for.”
Romantic liaisons aside, a week of discussions, networking, deal-making, partying and perhaps some skiing is reason enough for many executives, politicians and investors to open each year with a Swiss trip inked in their diaries.
Call them the Davos Ironmen. Of the 2,500 people participating in this year’s confab, dozens have been making the pilgrimage to Europe’s highest town for decades. Wilfried Stoll of Germany’s Festo Holding GmbH is the champion: He has participated in all 36 conferences since
his first one in 1979, according to the forum’s organizers.
No. 2 on the list is Indian billionaire Rahul Bajaj, who is attending the meeting -- this year it’s Jan. 21-24 -- for a 35th time. Dutch real estate consultant Cornelis van Zadelhoff is back for a 34th year, which edges him ahead of German fertilizer producer Helmut Aurenz’s 33.

Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Bajaj Auto Ltd. Chairman Rahul Bajaj said, “Everyone asks me why I go, and my answer is... Read More

‘Enjoy Myself’

“Everyone asks me why I go, and my answer is I go not to do business,” said Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Auto Ltd. “I go there because I learn a good deal. I meet old friends and make new friends and enjoy myself.”
Eighty people had been registered for 20 or more conferences as of last year, and almost 1,000 have attended more than 10 times; the latter get a crystal lapel pin to wear alongside the badge that grants them access to panels and meals. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers now has 22 under his belt. Billionaire investor George Soros has 21. Bill Gates hits the 20 mark this week.
Founder Klaus Schwab, of course, has been to all 45 meetings since the first gathering in Davos’s then-newly-opened conference center in 1971. At the time, it was called the European Management Forum and included about 500 participants from 31 nations. At least a few of them stuck around for the full two weeks of the gathering.

Price Tag

The event has since ballooned in size and cost -- companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their executives to participate. Hotel, travel, food and drink can double the bill. The price tag leads some critics to say the forum has become little more than a celebration of the wealthy and free markets - - something its organizers and many participants deny.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Former European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, a veteran of 22 sessions... Read More

“Over the years, as I passed through different jobs, I found that the chats I had on the sidelines of Davos had no equivalent because of the diversity of the people,” said former European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, a veteran of 22 sessions who first attended in the 1980s as the head of the French Treasury.
Davos goes beyond simply broadening the mind for the fun of it, said William Rhodes, a former Citigroup Inc. (C) executive who has been to 19 conferences. He credits the meetings with helping crystallize global opposition to apartheid and then shaping the new South Africa. Similarly, he says contacts at Davos spurred both Russia and China to integrate more with Europe and the U.S.

Achievement Record

“A lot of people criticize Davos, but it’s achieved a lot,” said Rhodes, now president of William R. Rhodes Global Advisors LLC. “It’s been really positive in the sense of bringing people together.”
Business deals can be struck or accelerated. In 2011, Sanofi-Aventis SA CEO Chris Viehbacher and Genzyme Corp.’s Henri Termeer laid the groundwork for a $20 billion deal the following month. Two years later, Publicis Groupe SA (PUB) Chief Executive Officer Maurice Levy and Omnicom Inc. (OMC) CEO John Wren hatched a merger plan, though that deal later collapsed.
And meetings can be … very casual. Van Zadelhoff remembers chatting with another delegate in a sauna at the Belvedere hotel in the 1980s only to discover later that his companion was Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Kim Samuel-Johnson, director of The Samuel Group of Companies and by the WEF’s reckoning the female delegate who has attended the most Davos meetings, at 22, recalls arriving late for lunch and finding that the only available seat was next to Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Surprise Encounters

“There are lots of moments in Davos where you can’t believe you heard or met someone that you’d always wanted to hear or meet,” said Samuel-Johnson.
Former Bank of Israel Governor Jacob Frenkel -- 27 conferences -- says the key is not to try to do too much. Better to spend time mingling and await those serendipitous moments.
“Don’t pack your agenda with back-to-back meetings,” said Frenkel, now chairman of JPMorgan Chase International. “You miss the interactions, the ambiance, the environment.”
These days, increased security and ranking of delegates -- badges come in different colors that offer varying levels of access -- have undermined the collegiality of the early days, some attendees say. Yet despite the growing hassles, Sorrell says there’s no place he’d rather be this week, his 26th forum.
“To me it’s an extremely efficient use of time,” he said. “Clients, media owners, governments are locked in one place. It will probably be very snowy. You meet someone in the corridor or taking off your coat.”
Even, perhaps, a future spouse.