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  • Davos 2018

Donald Trump’s ’15 New Friends’: Here Are the Executives the President Dined With at Davos

2 minute read

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
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