Faces of Davos

Davos 2012 sees some changing of the guard. It is welcoming leaders from the Arab Spring like Tunisian Prime Minister Hammadi Jebali, interim Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Rahim El Keib as well as Egyptian presidential candidates.

Imran Khan, the former cricketer Pakistani politician, will be bringing his campaign against corruption to the meeting.

The WEF will also be putting up in local schools about 70 young people it calls its "global shapers" who are supposed to develop leadership potential so they can "serve society".

There are notable absences of Davos regulars like former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Swiss central bank chief Philipp Hildebrand, Greece's former prime minister George Papandreou and bank UBS chief Oswald Gruebel, all felled in recent months.

Rupert Murdoch, who had to pull out last year as his News Corp media empire became embroiled in a scandal over phone hacking, is not expected for a second year running.

But it is striking how many names remain the same despite the upheaval since the financial crisis of 2008.

Of 30 video messages from Davos co-chairs and partners posted by the WEF ahead of the meeting, all are from men, with only a few Asian or Middle Eastern faces among the ranks of middle-aged white males. (See: http://wef.ch/interviews )

One is Arif Naqvi, chief executive of Abraaj Capital, a private equity manager that specializes in emerging markets.

"We have a crisis of leadership," Naqvi said. "The Occupy Wall Street movement is going to gain momentum in different cities simply because of the inequality issue and we need to address it."

In a December report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the earnings gap between the rich and poor had reached its highest level in 30 years.

The wealthy's share rose across the OECD in the three decades from 1980 to 2010, although much more so in the United States, followed by Australia, Canada, Britain and Ireland.

"Rising inequality is one of the major risks to our future prosperity and security," said OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan on Monday. "The main challenge facing governments today is implementing reforms that get growth back on track, put people to work and reduce the widening income gap."