News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) invite world leaders and - well, basically rich or famous or interesting people - to Davos in Switzerland to talk about how to improve the world.

Of course, it's also an opportunity for business leaders to schmooze with potential clients, and for the younger tech crowd to host ridiculous parties. All paid for by taxpayers and shareholders. Naturally.

We picked out some of the more surprising attendees...

1. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Aliyev won Person of the Year from a corruption reporting project. That's not a good award.

As well as squabbling with Armenians, forcing them to pull out of the 2012 Eurovision song contest , Aliyev was awarded Person of the Year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. The dubious honour is for featuring prominently in stories on crime and corruption that year.

Wikileaks revealed that he was compared to a mafia crime boss in US diplomatic cables, and his family have been taking shares of the most profitable businesses in the country. His family has secret ownership stakes in large businesses like gold mines, phone companies, banks, and construction companies.

In 2010 his 11 year old son purchased nine waterfront mansions which total about 10,000 years' worth of the average salary in Azerbaijan, according to the Washington Post.

2. Paulo Coelho, author

AKA the guy who wrote The Alchemist, that book about a shepherd who tries to find treasure in the Egyptian pyramids

Not just an author of widely loved books like The Alchemist, the Brazilian writer has some impressive additions to his CV. He's the UN Messenger of Peace and EU Ambassador for Culture 2008, the Special Adviser for the UNESCO Programme on Spiritual Convergences and Intercultural Dialogues, and a member of the Doha Center for Media Freedom board. But he is best known for his allegorical novels.

He's a regular at Davos and last year was the most retweeted attendee at Davos.

3. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda

In charge of one of the most repressive regimes in the world

Although Human Rights Watch admit that Rwanda is making great strides, by creating new laws and making impressive progress in things like public health car - freedom of expression and association are still rigidly controlled.

For instance, two opposition party leaders arrested in 2010 remained in jail last year. Rwanda also provided military support to an armed group responsible for serious abuses against civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Government officials are also openly hostile to NGOs that are working on human rights in the country. As a result, Rwanda is a lowly 211th in the International Human Rights Rank Indicator.

4. Pharrell Williams, singer, song-writer, lots of other things

AKA the guy that sang that Happy song who really likes hats

Pharrell actually took to the stage earlier today in the first major event of the day. He took part in a discussion called "What’s Next? A Climate for Action", with Al Gore and Kevin Wall, founder of the Live Earth organisation.

This is probably more to do with his association with clothing brand Bionic Yarn than the fact he's a singer. Bionic Yarn "transforms fibers made from recycled plastic into durable textiles" and make "high performance yarns and fabrics for all walks of life."

5. Peter Gabriel, singer-songwriter and founder of Real World

The guy who left 60s rock band Genesis (the band Phil Collins was in) in 1975

Yes, that's right - that's THE Peter Gabriel, founding member of Genesis and the man responsible for the song In Your Eyes that features in Say Anything's famous boombox scene.

He's at Davos because he's a pretty big humanitarian activist. He won the UN's Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2008. Recently, he supported Hong Kong protesters at Hong Kong's Lennon Wall.

6. Nathan Blecharczyk, founder of Airbnb

That website where you can go and live in other people's homes for a while instead of paying for a ridiculously priced hotel

Yep, the founder of the popular website that allows ordinary people to open their homes (or flats, or rooms) out to tourists who want to visit their city is attending Davos. Nathan and Airbnb were recognised for innovation in 2013, and WEF invited him as part of their Tech Pioneer group.

7. Zach Sims, Codeacademy

AKA that guy who made the cool website which teaches you how to code, and sends you emails about practising HTML

Codeacademy is a really cool site where you can learn to code - you may have heard of it or even used it yourself. Well, Zach Sims, who created Codeacademy, was listed as a Tech Pioneer in 2014.

8. Prince Andrew, the Queen's son

AKA the guy who doesn't really have a job title because he doesn't work

When he's not busy jetting around the world having fun on someone else's money, the Queen's son gives talks at these sort of events. People are waiting to see if he'll be addressing recent allegations he had sex with an "underage sex slave".

9. Tony Blair, Middle East Quartet Representative

AKA the guy who started the Iraq War and then decided he'd be a good peace envoy

Of course he's there.