Who we are
The Young Global Leaders ® Community is an accelerator for a dynamic community of exceptional people with the vision, courage, and influence to drive positive change in the world.
Our growing membership of more than 1,400 members and alumni of 120 nationalities includes civic and business innovators, entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, educators, activists, artists, journalists, and more.
Aligned with the World Economic Forum’s mission, we seek to drive public-private co-operation in the global public interest. We are united by the belief that today’s pressing problems present an opportunity to build a better future across sectors and boundaries.
Meet our members

Sofia Elizondo
As an award-winning tech business leader, Sofia Elizondo is committed to endowing people with fundamentally longer and healthier lives. She has built multimillion-dollar companies and brands in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and technology industries. Before Brightseed, Sofia led the commercialization of plant-based protein products, including the novel mung bean protein isolate to replace egg functionality. Sofia began her career at the Boston Consulting Group and was also a founding member of the BCG Henderson Institute; the consulting firm's think tank on the future of business innovation. She also served as an advisor to the UN Global Compact, the United Nations agency focused on the private sector, while it developed its global corporate sustainability standards released at the 2011 World Economic Forum in Davos. Her decades of leadership in corporate social innovation now enable Brightseed's mission to resource companies looking for scientifically validated and naturally derived products that can transform human health. Sofia holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband and two young daughters. Accolades include Inspiring Women Leading in the AgTech Sector by Food Tank (2019), VentureBeats Women in AI - Award in the Entrepreneur category (2020), Top 100 Female Founders from Inc. Magazine (2021).

Julie Bonamy
In 2017, Julie Bonamy was appointed vice-president for strategy at Saint-Gobain. Julie is a member of the Senior Management Committee. Julie is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP de Paris) and the National School of Public Administration (Ecole Nationale d'Administration). She started her career as a civil servant (inspector of finance) for the French Government in 2011, before joining the Office of the French Minister for the Economy, Industry and the Digital Sector in October 2014. She was appointed adviser for the budget and digital sector in July 2015.

Rima Assi
Rima Assi is a Senior Partner with the Middle East Office of McKinsey & Company and Managing Partner of McKinsey’s Abu Dhabi office. Rima advises leading governments in the Middle East on public finance to drive large-scale social and economic transformation, and is a major champion for women’s empowerment across the region. Rima is a key speaker on the power of gender parity at several fora including the Global Women’s Forum Dubai and GITEX Tech conference. She has authored several articles on the power of gender parity in Newsweek Middle East and more recently on more powerful approaches to ensuring value in public finances.

Roberto Patiño
Roberto is a Venezuelan social entrepreneur focused on democracy and human rights. He holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and a BS in manufacturing engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar. Patiño is the founder of the NGOs Mi Convive and Alimenta La Solidaridad that work in 240 vulnerable communities empowering +4,500 women volunteers to feed daily 25,000 children and reduce violence in hot spots. Patiño is an expert in citizen security, negotiation, and conflict resolution with studies on mediation at ETH Zurich. Roberto is a boardmember of Primero Justicia, a political party. He is a former leader of the student movement. He currently resides in Caracas, Venezuela.

Adriana Ortiz
Adriana Ortiz is a Paraguayan designer and entrepreneur who studied fashion design in Mexico and Spain. She has a degree in Psychology. She started working as an entrepreneur building her own commercial brand of feminine accessories and jewellery integrating craft design with contemporary design. In 2018, she was appointed President of the National Handcraft Institute (IPA). Her work focuses on promoting Paraguayan crafts through contemporary design practices that enable the strengthening of the value chains of artisanal production. This creates opportunities for fairer trade and better incomes for 20,000 artisans, of whom 70% are women. She is also leading the creation of "Safeguard Schools" for the protection of ancestral knowledge, mainly in rural communities. During her mandate, the first Paraguayan Artisan Fund was created to give financial support to civil society organizations working with indigenous communities to promote and develop indigenous crafts. The public policies promoted by IPA allowed for the creation of more than 70 new commercial units to sell Paraguayan crafts in national and international markets with a positive economic impact for many families in the country. Ortiz aims to contribute to a better future for the country and the world.

Siwan (Swan) Lu
Siwan (Swan) Lu is Principal of Global Business Platforms at Zurich Insurance. She is an entrepreneurial, global-minded and result-driven business leader, with extensive international experience in the US, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong and mainland China, particularly in the fields of business, product and project development, as well as marketing, innovation and strategy. Lu cares about social wellness and education, and advises social enterprises, providing training to senior care organizations. As an advocate for social equality, she was the co-chair of the Harvard China Education Symposium and is currently on the Board of the Alumni Network for Harvard Women, Switzerland. She was awarded the Goldman Sachs Global Leader Award and HSBC Young Entrepreneur Award. Lu is a certified yoga teacher and she loves conducting free, after-work yoga classes to her colleagues. She speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese and German

Shen Peng
In 2016, Shen Peng founded Waterdrop, a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. He pioneered the business model of "Medical fundraising + Health insurance + Healthcare Services", helping 2.4 million families to raise 48 billion RMB medical funding, and providing high-quality and inclusive insurance services to 110 million users. Waterdrop Company is successively winner of "Advanced Company in Covid 19 Response" by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and "Advanced Organization of Beijing Poverty Alleviation Cooperation" by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Beijing Municipal People's Government.
He’s a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience and expertise in the technology and internet sectors in China. Prior, he co-founded Meituan Waimai and served as business head of it. Listed on “2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia”, “2021 Fortune 40 Under 40 China”. Winner of “40 people in 40 years for China's insurance “Special tribute Award. Winner of “Advanced individual in Covid 19 response”by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Democratic National Construction Committee. Winner of “Advanced individual in Poverty Alleviation” by the Democratic National Construction Association. Winner of “ACES 2021 Young Entrepreneur of the Year”. Member of the "Young Entrepreneur Committee” of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Visiting professor of Business School of China University of Political Science and Law. Winner of "2021 Outstanding Contribution Award" from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.

Lamya Al Haj
Lamya Al Haj holds a PhD in Structural and Molecular Biology from UCL and an MSc in Environmental Science and Technology from UNSW. She is a researcher on biodiesel alternatives to oil, and an Associate Professor at the Sultan Qaboos University. Lamya founded a speakers' platform in GCC region “Jalasat Mulhimoon” to showcase role models and inspire younger generations. She has spoken at conferences and corporate events including Harvard and IMD Middle East Alumni conferences on leadership. She was recently selected as a judge for an MIT based competition “Innovators under 35” organized by MIT Technology Review. She is the founder of “Coach4Change” where she worked alongside and supported senior government officials, CEOs, business leaders and boards around the country. She received numerous awards & recognitions including the “Boban Marcovic Prize in Environmental Science”, The “Gulf Intelligence - Occidental Award”, “National Research Award”, “Omani Woman Award 2019” for her innovation, and the prestigious “L’Oréal UNESCO award for women in science- Middle east fellowship award”- 2018. She is featured in the book "100 most successful Omani woman" and more recently classified as top 20 most inspiring persons in Oman by TAS ICON awards. She is also a Fellow at The World Academy of Science (TWAS 2019-2023 affiliate) and a YGL class 2020.
Her passion is in the fields of disruptive education, R&D, youth empowerment and community service.

Yeoh Keong Hann
Yeoh Keong Hann is a third-generation Malaysian business leader passionate about the transformative power of combining technology and entrepreneurial spirit, as well as the influence and values of family businesses in building a more inclusive and sustainably-focused society. He is Executive Director of YTL Power International Berhad, one of South-East Asia's largest infrastructure and energy companies, leading the group's operation and setting the vision of its new business and digital venture arms. He led the team that set up Geneco, Singapore's second-largest provider of retail electricity. Yeoh is also a General Partner of the SEA Frontier Fund where he invests in and mentors the next generation of game-changing startups in South-East Asia. He is a member of the Board of Wessex Water in the United Kingdom and of YTL PowerSeraya in Singapore. Yeoh is a graduate of the University of Oxford.