The International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, World Economic Forum has appointed Muriel Pénicaud, Minister of Labour of France; and Mark Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé, Switzerland, to the Board of Trustees.

The forum believes that their experience and  long-term success in the respective fields will contribute to strengthening the Forum’s platform for public-private cooperation.

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said, "The International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, is delighted to welcome Muriel Pénicaud and Mark Schneider to its Board of Trustees. We look forward to working together to deliver positive, transformative solutions to our most critical global, regional and industry challenges,”

Muriel Pénicaud has served on several boards, including Orange, SNCF and Aéroports de Currently, she is Minister of Labour in the Édouard Philippe government under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.

Before taking up this role in May 2017, she has as the CEO led Invest in France Agency (IFA), and the French Agency for International Business Development (UBIFRANCE), which merged in 2015 to form Business France.

Prior to that, she held senior management positions, including General Manager of Human Resources at Danone Group (2008-2014) and Assistant General Manager of Dassault Systèmes (2002-2008). Since 2014, Pénicaud has been France's Ambassador for International Investment.

Switzerland's Mark Schneider, the other recently appointed leader by WEF has been working as Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé since January 2017.

Before being associated with Nestlé, Schneider was Chief Executive Officer of the Fresenius Group, a position he held from 2003 to 2016. He joined Fresenius in 2001 as Chief Financial Officer of Fresenius Medical Care. Previously, he held several senior executive positions with the Haniel Group, a privately-held, diversified German multinational company.

As WEF engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas, its board of trustees serves as the guardian of its mission and values.

Some of the other members of its Board of Trustees include Alibaba's Jack Ma, Marc Benioff from Salesforce and Tharman SHANMUGARATNAM, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies of Singapore.

Such diverse group of leaders from around the globe bring in different perspectives to help WEF shape global, regional and industry agendas. The forum also boasts to have carefully blended and balanced the best of many kinds of organizations, from both the public and private sectors, international organizations and academic institutions. It requires this degree of diversity to ensure that it solves the challenges existing both at global as well as regional level. Industry specific perspective further strengthens the forum's decision making.

Now with the global, regional and industry challenges being more complex than ever, the role of WEF is becoming all the more critical and so is the role of these leaders on their board of trustees. How Schwab and Pénicaud, along with the rest of the leaders, shape more robust global, regional and industry agendas, is something to look forward to.