WEF A-LISTERS DAVOS DESIRABLES: As the sun begins to set on another World Economic Forum, Global Playbook Editor Zoya Sheftalovich asks: How do you get billionaires, presidents and titans of industry to take a week out of their busy schedules to ascend a mountain in sub-zero temperatures? Celebrities, that’s how. Who’s hot in Davos: Zoya has a full rundown of the celebs, CEOs and politicians who have been the hottest commodities on panels and parties at this year’s WEF. Top of the list? ChatGPT whizz kid Sam Altman (not surprising given the predominance of all things AI this year). Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Sting also make the cut. And speaking of the legendary Police frontman … SALESFORCE PARTY LOWDOWN: Upon entering the Salesforce party at the Cabanna Club last night, a hostess greeted guests including our party-correspondent-in-chief Paul de Villepin with an eyebrow-raising statement: “You have entered the gates of fun.” She wasn’t wrong. Fields of gold: Guests indulged in vodka apricot sours, fondant potatoes with seared Wagyu beef and wild mushroom arancini. Every little thing he does is magic: But the real show kicked off at 11 p.m. on the dot, when 72-year-old living legend Sting, sporting a skin-tight and fashionably ripped T-shirt, took to the stage. From “Message in a Bottle” to “Roxanne” and of course “Every Breath You Take,” the rocker put a smile on every one of the 200 or so guests’ faces — a good quarter of them billionaires. Spotted (walking on the moon): The intimate gathering attracted the WEF’s crème de la crème: will.i.am, Sam Altman, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon (who kept himself busy looking for the Wi-Fi password), Edelman’s Richard Edelman, Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, venture capitalist Jim Breyer, Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Russell Reynolds’ Constantine Alexandrakis, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, Semafor’s Steve Clemons (who posted a snippet of the Sting performance on social media) and many more. WEF B-LISTERS CRYPTO STILL STANDING (JUST): They may be a shadow of their former presence at Davos, but some of the world’s remaining crypto players made the trip to Davos this week. Those who made it had a spring in their steps: WEF kicked off just days after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the trading of investment funds backed by bitcoin, giving crypto a much-needed win. Not jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Asked about the cryptocurrency on Wednesday, Dimon told CNBC: “I don’t care. So just please stop talking about this shit.” He described bitcoin as a “pet rock” that does nothing but aid fraudsters and money launderers, and “is going to be erased.” Fun fact: JPMorgan Chase paid Dimon a record $36 million for 2023, up about 4 percent from the previous year. Boring, like a pet rock: The crypto chat around the World Economic Forum is about how digital assets can integrate even further into traditional finance, and how the underlying blockchain technology can be used to track more traditional assets, my colleague Zach Warmbrodt reports. But really, many crypto executives don’t mind taking a more low-profile approach in the wake of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried‘s dramatic rise and fall. In the words of Ripple’s global head of public policy Rob Grant, “Boring is good.” WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? GENDER INEQUALITY: Let’s face it, the World Economic Forum has always been dominated by middle-aged dudes in dark suits, with a penchant for “manels” (aka male-only panels). This year, the WEF set a record for the number of women on its official list — but it’s still a paltry 28 percent of total attendees. Fun/grim fact (delete as appropriate): The WEF gives companies an extra precious white badge if they have at least one woman in their delegation. MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: But things are changing, with several NGOs and initiatives cropping up to promote better representation of women in boardrooms and in politics. Leaning in: Davos was abuzz with a variety of off-piste women-only sessions this week. 100 Women @ Davos held a program of events, Bank of America hosted a Seneca Women’s Breakfast Tuesday and a Vital Voice reception last night, while the high-level Women Political Leaders private roundtable on Tuesday brought together former and current leaders including ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat. FEEL-GOOD TAKE: “I don’t know the stats, but it just feels so much more diverse,” Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of global nonprofit Women’s World Banking (which helps low-income women gain better access to financial tools), told our own Nahal Toosi. TRACKING CHANGE: Playbook battled the heaving crowds that have been a feature of the Equality Lounge all week to catch up with Shelley Zalis, founder and CEO of the Female Quotient (just after she’d wrapped up an event with Doug Emhoff). Corporates come around: The Female Quotient’s expanded space on the promenade this year has welcomed about 2,500 attendees a day, and featured top-tier speakers including HP CEO Enrique Lores, S&P Global chief Douglas L. Peterson, Deloitte boss Joe Ucuzoglu and the First Lady of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Matter of legacy: “What I’m most excited about is that top CEOs from Fortune 500 companies have realized that equality cannot wait. It’s a flipping-point moment,” Zalis said. “They’re realizing this is legacy for them. When you think about global goals, the only change goal that a CEO can actually actualize during their tenure is closing the gender gap. They can’t change climate change by themselves, but they can fix the gender gap.” AROUND TOWN FORECAST: Lows of -20C/-4F; highs of -8C/18F. Wrap up warm today and get those shoe-grippers on! GET YOUR VITAMINS IN: If you need a little pick-me-up after this crazy week, check out the Health Bar on the lower floor of the Congress Center. They’re offering an array of juices including red cabbage, cucumber and apple. Just don’t leave it too late — the juice ran dry by mid-afternoon earlier in the week. NFT PSA: Playbook hopes you weren’t taken in by a scam targeting the Women in Web3 global event. Apparently, some enterprising fraudsters asked would-be attendees to mint an NFT to gain access to the do. G20 FLASHBACK: Folks staying up the Klosters end of town may be surprised to see a billboard featuring a beaming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi smiling down at passing traffic. It’s all very reminiscent of New Delhi back in September when the Indian capital was awash with pictures of the leader during the G20 summit. Selling India: The PM is advertising “Invest India,” the national investment agency. Modi may not have made the trip to Davos himself, but there’s a huge Indian presence here, with dozens of companies and individual states represented, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana hosting events along the pavilion. BLINK AND YOU’LL MISS IT: The Hilton Garden Inn has gone full Mad Men. Once the most recognizable hotel along the promenade, its entire facade has been plastered with copy from sponsors including Kearney and Bain & Company, leaving guests struggling to find the entrance. ON THE MENU: Full marks to WEF catering this year. There was a plentiful supply of cutesy jars of paella with fish and saffron, roasted potato gnocchi and Mediterranean vegetable risotto in the Congress Center. Shh: POLITICO can reveal delegates in the exclusive public figures lounge were — shock horror! — served the same menu. EMPTY SEATS AT THE TABLE GRIM REMINDER: As all the action around Davos begins to die down, it’s humbling to remember that some don’t have the luxury of being here. Playbook sat down with two women who have seized the opportunity of the World Economic Forum to highlight the plight of two men who are being kept captive: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is in jail in Russia, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a young American-Israeli, taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas. FREE EVAN: Emma Tucker, the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, told Playbook her main focus since she got the 4 a.m. call last March confirming Evan had been detained, has been to keep the spotlight on his case. “Our mission has been to do everything we can to keep the story in the news, looking for points in the calendar where we can highlight Evan’s plight. Davos is a really good place for this. We’re talking to people who care about freedom of the press, who care about the importance of independent journalism.” Journalism is not a crime: Evan’s parents Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich have been in Davos this week, meeting government and parliamentary officials with Tucker. Wall Street Journal staff — and WEF delegates — have also been wearing “I’m with Evan” pins. “It means that when you’re sitting with a top executive, a world leader, they feel they need to ask us about it,” said Tucker. BRING HERSH HOME: Rachel Goldberg, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, has also been meeting executives and government officials throughout the week. Wearing the number 104 on her sweater to mark the number of days since Hersch’s abduction, she told me what she knows of her son’s kidnapping — and the efforts to get him back. Fighting for their freedom: “You know, those 243 people originally kidnapped, they represented almost 40 nations. They were Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, all five of those religions are still being held there,” she said. “You can be critical of Israel — I am critical of Israel — and still say, ‘it’s not OK to kidnap people.’” Palantir event: Goldberg outlined her son’s plight at an event featuring families of the Hamas hostages at software giant Palantir’s promenade space Wednesday. Among the CEOs who attended were Andy Jassy of Amazon, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Michael Dell of Dell. AGENDA FULL PROGRAM. Highlights — 10 a.m. Climate Scale-Up skiing and networking event. Jatzhütte, Jakobshorn summit. — 11 a.m. The global economic outlook. Speakers include IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, President of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam, ECB President Christine Lagarde, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein. — 7.30 p.m. Media farewell dinner, Central Sporthotel. What else we’re watching — 9 a.m. Rebuilding trust in science. Speakers: Edelman CEO Richard Edelman, Novartis International CEO Vas Narasimhan, South Africa’s Science Minister Bonginkosi Emmanuel “Blade” Nzimande, German Science Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger. — 9 a.m. 4.2 billion people at the ballot box. Speakers: Open Society Foundations Board of Directors Chair Alexander Soros, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations Mark Leonard, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, author Rachel Botsman and Secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of India Rajesh Kumar Singh. — 7 p.m. Black Umbrella Society roundtable discussion on sex and/or relationships. At Sonas, Promenade 69 (naturally). SPOTTED — Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin weaving through a line of well-wishers who insisted on taking selfies on the lower ground floor of the Congress Center. — International Rescue Committee head David Miliband ditching the puffer jacket and looking dapper in a navy wool coat strolling along the promenade. — Eurasia Group chief Ian Bremmer karaokeing up a storm in Barry’s. — Moelis Vice Chair and former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walking down the promenade. — At POLITICO’s Schatzalp party: Doug Emhoff, Hermitage Capital boss Bill Browder (and his wife Maria), Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd, Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest, POLITICO’s Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris, IBM’s Jonathan Adashek, Ambassador Michèle Taylor, EY’s Amy Brachio and Michael Curtis, Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson, HM Treasury’s Jenny Chaplin, AB InBev’s Michaël Cloots, and many many more. — At the Brunswick reception at CNBC lounge in the Belvedere: NYT CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, the Times’ Richard Fletcher, Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson, Fortune’s Alyson Shontell, CNBC’s Dan Colarusso, WSJ’s Gerry Baker, Semafor’s Justin Smith, Brunswick’s Philip Honour, TIME’s Jessica Sibley. — At the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s Ukrainian Breakfast: U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Canada’s Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Victor Pinchuk, founder of EastOne and Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, Carlyle Group’s David M. Rubenstein, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, German Federal Minister for Special Affairs Wolfgang Schmidt, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. — At the Washington Post Foreign Policy lunch at the Seehof: Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, CEO of Bank of America Brian Moynihan, Tony and Cherie Blair, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker, Irish PM Leo Varadkar, ECB chief Christine Lagarde, Bill Browder, POLITICO’s Goli Sheikholeslami. THANKS TO: Paul de Villepin, Jamil Anderlini, Alex Ward, Zach Warmbrodt, Nahal Toosi, Cristina Gonzalez. Global Playbook couldn’t happen without Editor Zoya Sheftalovich.
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