Israel-Palestine Conflict

Tzipi Livini

Foreign Minister, Israel

Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres is the ninth and current President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as Prime Minister of Israel and once as Acting Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President. Born in Vishneva, in Poland (now Belarus) in 1923, Peres moved with his family to Mandate Palestine in 1934. He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the War for Independence in Israel. His first high level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General in 1953 through 1959. During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labour and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labour. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks which he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords. Peres was nominated in early 2007 by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election, being elected by the Knesset for the presidency on 13 June 2007 and sworn into office on 15 July 2007 for a seven-year term.

Klaus Schwab

Dr. Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman and Founder of the World Economic Forum, has been dedicated for more than thirty years to improving the state of the world. He is the recipient of numerous international and national honors for initiatives undertaken in the spirit of entrepreneurship in the global public interest and for peace and reconciliation efforts in several regions.

His work at the World Economic Forum has been providing a collaborative framework for leaders of the world to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship.

Dr. Schwab holds numerous positions of civic, academic and editorial leadership. He currently serves as Trustee for the Peres Center for Peace, Israel and the Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation, Malaysia. His academic activities include: Professor for Business Policy, University of Geneva, Member, Overseers’ Visiting Committee, JFK School of Government, Advisory Board Member, Center for International Development, Harvard University, Member of the Corporate Visiting Committee, MIT and Member of the Royal Academy of Morocco. He is a Member of the Editorial Board for Foreign Policy, Chairman of the Editorial Board for World Link Magazine and author of the annual Global Competitiveness Report, in addition to numerous articles and several books.

Previously, Dr. Schwab was a member of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development, Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Committee for Development Planning and member of the Earth Council when it was located in Costa Rica.

Dr. Schwab holds a Doctorate in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Fribourg, a Doctorate in Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master’s of Public Administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Additionally, he has been the recipient of six honorary doctorates, the most recent granted by the London School of Economics.

Born 1938 in Ravensburg, Germany, he is marred to Hilde Schwab, with whom he co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which supports social innovation projects around the world. He has two children, a son, Oliver and a daughter, Nicole.