The president and chief executive of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, has resigned following an independent investigation into his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. His departure marks the latest in a string of high-profile exits from business and finance linked to the disgraced financier.
In a statement, the former Norwegian foreign minister said he was stepping down after eight and a half years to avoid “distractions” and allow the organisation to continue its work. The resignation comes just a month after the Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, which Brende described as “very successful”.
The World Economic Forum’s co-chairs, André Hoffmann and Larry Fink, issued a statement on behalf of its Board of Trustees confirming the independent review had concluded. They stated it had not uncovered any concerns beyond what had been “previously disclosed” and expressed appreciation for Brende’s leadership. They announced that Alois Zwinggi would serve as Interim President and CEO while a permanent successor is sought.
The investigation was launched after disclosures from the US Justice Department showed Brende had three business dinners with Epstein and communicated with him via email and text message. Brende had previously told Bloomberg that had he known of Epstein’s criminal background he would have declined the invitations, adding that “a few emails and SMS messages were the extent of my interactions.”
A growing list of departures
Brende now joins several prominent figures who have vacated roles over connections to Epstein. Two weeks ago, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem resigned as boss of P&O Ferries owner DP World after the publication of messages with Epstein.
Earlier this month, Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, resigned. Emails revealed a close relationship in which Ruemmler referred to Epstein as “Uncle Jeffrey” and exchanged hundreds of communications with him. According to the research briefing, these included her forwarding him a draft email containing nonpublic information about a Secret Service prostitution scandal for his advice and “edits”, and accepting gifts from him.
Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is retiring from his roles at Harvard University after a review into his ties with Epstein. Epstein donated over $9 million to Harvard between 1998 and 2008, a period overlapping with Summers’s tenure as president. Unsealed emails from 2025 reignited questions about a relationship that lasted into 2019.
Jes Staley, the former chief executive of Barclays, has also been investigated by British financial regulators over his links to Epstein, which began in 2000. Unsealed files claim Staley engaged in serious allegations of sexual misconduct. Both Summers and Staley were named as executors of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate in a January 2019 version of his will, according to the research briefing.
Wider fallout and investigations
Parallel to these departures, political pressure is intensifying. US Senator Elizabeth Warren is stepping up calls for regulators to investigate Wall Street executives who may have assisted Epstein, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. She has called for officials at the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to publicly announce investigations by March 12.
Warren’s letter specifically called out executives at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs’s Kathryn Ruemmler, as well as Jes Staley. She has also called for JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to testify under oath regarding the bank’s dealings with Epstein.
Norwegian authorities have launched a major corruption probe into government officials following revelations of correspondence between Epstein and former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland. Jagland was recently hospitalised after an alleged suicide attempt, days after being charged with aggravated corruption linked to Epstein.
Later today, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify behind closed doors before a congressional committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is also scheduled to testify. Both have denied any wrongdoing and called for the full release of the Epstein files, with Hillary Clinton accusing the Trump administration of an “ongoing coverup”.
The unsealing of files by the US Department of Justice has led to increased scrutiny of finance leaders, triggering a wave of internal reviews and resignations that continues to reverberate through global institutions.
