NEED TO KNOW

• WEF President and CEO Børge Brende resigned Thursday after DOJ documents revealed three dinners and at least 27 message exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein
• Brende initially denied meeting Epstein in November 2025, then admitted to contacts after documents surfaced in January 2026
• WEF founder Klaus Schwab contradicted Brende’s claim that he had informed Schwab of the Epstein contacts, and has threatened legal action

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (TDR) — Børge Brende, the president and CEO of the World Economic Forum, resigned Thursday following weeks of intensifying scrutiny over his documented relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The departure makes Brende one of the most prominent institutional leaders to fall in the expanding wave of Epstein files fallout that has now claimed positions across academia, finance and global governance.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step down as President and CEO of the World Economic Forum. My time here, spanning 8-1/2 years, has been profoundly rewarding.” — Børge Brende

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10

Brende made no direct reference to Epstein or the investigation in his statement. He did note that he believed “now is the right moment for the Forum to continue its important work without distractions.”

What The Documents Show

The resignation follows a January 30 release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of more than 3 million pages related to Epstein and his associates. Brende’s name appeared more than 60 times in the newly disclosed files.

The documents show that Brende attended at least three dinners with Epstein at the financier’s Manhattan residence at 9 East 71st Street — one in September 2018 and at least one on June 13, 2019. The two exchanged messages on at least 27 separate dates through the end of June 2019. Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, and died in custody the following month.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE THE DUPREE REPORT

Brende was introduced to Epstein in 2018 by Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, according to Brende’s own statements.

The content of their exchanges went well beyond pleasantries. In a September 2018 email, Epstein proposed that the Davos summit could replace the United Nations as a global governance arena, writing that “Davos can really replace the UN. C21, cyber, crypto, genetics … intl coordination.”

Brende’s reply was unambiguous.

“Exactly — we need a new global architecture. World Economic Forum (Davos) is uniquely positioned — public private.” — Børge Brende, in email to Jeffrey Epstein

That exchange occurred just days before the start of UN Week in New York. Norwegian Liberal Party leader Guri Melby called the communications between Brende and Epstein “grotesque.”

“Brende knew exactly who Epstein was and yet sits there eagerly nodding to his visions of global power. It’s completely incomprehensible.” — Guri Melby, leader of Norway’s Liberal Party

Brende has maintained he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal background, which included a 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida. Critics note that Epstein’s conviction and the circumstances surrounding it were widely reported by major news outlets long before Brende’s first dinner with him in 2018.

Shifting Explanations

One of the most damaging elements for Brende has been the evolving nature of his own statements. In November 2025, before the latest DOJ release, Brende denied ever having met Epstein. After the January 2026 files contradicted that account, he acknowledged three dinners and characterized them as formal business events attended by other diplomats and business leaders.

He also claimed that he informed Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and then-executive chairman, about his Epstein contacts in 2019 when Epstein was arrested.

Schwab flatly denied this.

“I had never been informed about Brende’s contacts with Epstein — neither verbally nor in writing.” — Klaus Schwab, via spokesperson

Schwab’s press representative told Norwegian media that Schwab would never have tolerated such contact and reserved the right to pursue legal action if Brende’s claims continued to be disseminated.

The WEF opened a formal independent review on Feb. 5. WEF co-chairs André Hoffmann and Larry Fink announced Thursday that the review by outside counsel had concluded, finding “no additional concerns beyond what has been previously disclosed.”

Alois Zwinggi will serve as interim president and CEO while the Board of Trustees oversees the search for a permanent successor.

A Widening Reckoning

Brende’s resignation did not occur in a vacuum. He is the second major figure in two days to lose a prominent institutional position over Epstein-related disclosures.

On Wednesday, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced he would resign from his teaching and faculty appointments at Harvard University at the end of the academic year. Summers had been on leave since November after released documents showed he maintained regular contact with Epstein as late as July 5, 2019 — one day before Epstein’s arrest. Previous revelations showed Epstein had described himself as Summers’ “wing man” and that Summers had been named as a successor executor in a 2014 draft of Epstein’s will.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who had long called for Harvard to sever ties with Summers, responded to the news with a single word: “Good.”

Also this week, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Axel stepped down as co-director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute over his own Epstein communications. Yale University has barred professor David Gelernter from teaching pending a review of his Epstein contacts.

In the United Kingdom, former Prince Andrew and ex-diplomat Peter Mandelson have been arrested in connection with the Epstein and Maxwell investigations. In Norway, former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland is under investigation by Økokrim, the country’s economic crime unit, on suspicion of aggravated corruption related to his own Epstein ties.

What Brende Left Unsaid

Brende’s resignation statement praised his colleagues and the WEF’s recent Davos summit — where he shared a stage with President Donald Trump just last month — but made no mention of Epstein, no acknowledgment of the investigation, and offered no expression of sympathy for Epstein’s victims.

Norwegian former Prime Minister Erna Solberg, leader of Brende’s own Conservative Party, had already weighed in.

“It appeared obviously unwise. The Conservative Party in no way shares the idea that the World Economic Forum can replace the UN.” — Erna Solberg, former Prime Minister of Norway

The DOJ has now released more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents. The fallout has reached into the highest levels of business, government, academia and diplomacy across multiple continents. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has been widely discussed as a potential future WEF chair, but the leadership transition now carries the weight of an organization in crisis — its founder pushed out in 2025 amid separate misconduct allegations, its CEO now gone amid Epstein revelations, and Swiss authorities independently investigating whether the forum broke the law by paying Brende approximately 19 million NOK in salary.

As the Epstein files continue to expose connections between a convicted sex offender and figures at the highest levels of global institutions, what accountability mechanisms — if any — exist to ensure that the organizations these leaders built continue to serve their stated public missions rather than the private networks that sustained them?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from Reuters via U.S. News, Bloomberg, CNBC, France 24, Euronews, The Hill, Al Jazeera, SWI swissinfo.ch, NBC News, PBS NewsHour, NewsNation, and Document News.

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10