Another Openin’ Another Show
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting — Davos 2019
By David L. Shrier, Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School
As I return to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland for the 5th time, the world continues to be roiled by the effects of weaponized AI; Theresa May’s Brexit proposal as well as her Plan B dismissed by her own party; the US Government shutdown ending as WEF wrapped up but President Trump and his entourage choosing to “break up with WEF over Twitter.”
I’m Positive It’s Innovation
Media reported plenty of doom-and-gloom sentiment, under the theory of “if it bleeds, it leads.” At least in the realm of the unDavos activities I participated in, where the cutting edge of the cutting edge like to hang out, I heard a businesslike attitude and a current of optimism.
Picture a quaint ski town, winding streets lined by little shoppes selling ski gear and fuel for hungry snowboarders. For one week out of the year, these stores are converted at great expense into pavilions for companies (Facebook! HSBC!) and countries (Ukraine! India!). While the “main” WEF programme is running in the Congress Centre guarded by soldiers with machine guns, an array of “unDavos” activities play out at these pavilions.
Oxford Saïd hosted a breakfast of leading family offices and impact investors thinking through how to replenish the Global Fund for Sustainable Development, particularly with respect to finding cures for malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. In collaboration with Misha Rao’s Haus of Fintech (Misha had been employee #1 at Innovate Finance), Associate Dean Andrew White and I hosted a vibrant, action-oriented conversation spanning the structural disincentives for pharmaceutical companies to “cure” versus “treat,” to how financial technology and financial innovation can address the multi trillion-pound funding gap. Send me a note if you want to see the one-pager we produced from that session.
A Quality of Data
WorldQuant hosted me at two events. The first, a lunch around Healthcare and AI incorporated great co-discussants such as the CEO of Cleveland Clinic London, the CEO of a canine oncology startup just funded by a16z, a managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation, and the CEO of WorldQuant’s new predictive startup, moderated by the publisher of Dow Jones. Data quality (“data is a river, not a rock”), data privacy, and ethics were front and centre (if we could predict you are going to develop a chronic condition using big data and analytics…what do we do with that information).
WorldQuant founder Igor Tulchinsky and I were then joined in a CNBCi panel with the CEO of Airbus space division and another Rockefeller Foundation executive (video here). I encouraged people to think of a more hopeful future around AI, rather than the dystopia of Skynet killing off humanity.
Several private conversations and other discussions I observed were fascinating, including hearing former US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen both on the stability of the global financial system as well as what’s necessary to create opportunities for women in finance.
The Oxford Nightcap had its usual assortment of incredibly accomplished alumni from multiple schools and colleges. While I didn’t have a fascinating discussion about Space technology like I did last year, there were a number of interesting impact and sustainability conversations that illustrate the growing work in this area.
I Think I Saw a Female Panelist, But It Was Just a Male Hipster
Once again, we had mean reversion on panel construction to “male, pale, and stale” as our own Meltem Demirors put it. Despite there being a growing array of female talent emerging in tech, fintech, and blockchain, the panels leaned heavily to XY voices (outside of the Female Quotient pavilion, a women-oriented programming venue, which risks becoming the XX ghetto if it doesn’t start syndicating elsewhere along the Promenade).
I did what I could. I managed to help WorldQuant construct a panel with Facebook and CNBC that was 80% female executives, and closed out Davos by hosting a dinner with two (male) impact/billionaire investors, a female foundation head, and four female CEOs. Capital may possibly flow in the right direction as a result of our dinner discussions.
On gender, we took a step back in 2019. I’m hopeful that, at least in our world of Oxford Saïd, we can address this at Davos 2020.
The opinions expressed in this column are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oxford Saïd, its faculty, or any other organization with which I am affiliated.
