Donald Trump's '15 New Friends': Here Are the Executives the President Dined With at Davos
After his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, President Donald Trump boasted he had made “15 new friends” during a dinner Thursday with the heads of some of the biggest multinational companies in the world.
“We had dinner last night with about 15 leaders of industry – none of whom I knew, but all of whom I’ve read about for years – and it was truly and an incredible group,” Trump told Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. “And I think I have 15 new friends. So this has been really great what you’ve done and putting it together, the economic forum.”
The business leaders, who are all men, represent some of the largest companies in Europe, across multiple sectors of the economy – from financial services and telecommunications to sportswear.
Also present at the dinner were some of the president’s closest advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster and Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn.
Here is the list of dinner guests, according to Bloomberg:
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG
Carlos Brito, CEO of Brazilian-Belgian beveragemaker Anheuser-Busch InBev NV
Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp AG
Joe Kaeser, CEO of German conglomerate Siemens AG
Martin Lundstedt, CEO of Swedish automaker AB Volvo
Bill McDermott, CEO of German software company SAP SE
Vas Narasimhan, incoming CEO of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG
Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French oil company Total SA
Punit Renjen, CEO of U.K. consultant company Deloitte
Kasper Rorsted, CEO of German apparel maker Adidas
Eldar Saetre, CEO of Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA
Mark Schneider, CEO of Swiss food company Nestle SA
Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of Swedish-Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd
Rajeev Suri, CEO of Finnish tech company Nokia Corporation
Mark Tucker, Group Chairman of U.K. bank HSBC