The founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the organization’s board of directors after more than 50 years.

He will be succeeded on an interim basis by the WEF’s vice chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nestle SA, according to a statement by the forum.

“I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,” Schwab, 87, said in the statement. The forum has begun a search process for a future chair.

The WEF, hosted once a year in the Swiss ski-town of Davos, is one of the world’s most-exclusive gatherings of head of states, top politicians and executives.

— Bloomberg