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
Lee Redden
Lee is a visionary technologist and remarkable people leader. His technical genius, loving, positive nature, and intense curiosity propelled him to successfully build a revolutionary company in the agriculture space, Blue River Technologies. They are building robots with cameras that detect every plant and spray just the weeds. Lee has been passionate about bringing this technology to market and its significant impact on improving agriculture on a global scale. Because of the technical decisions Lee helped make early on, this technology can scale across the earth, and it's impressive that he's attained market dominance in this innovative multidisciplinary area seeing this cause through for so long (10+ years). Lee is an active leader in the Forbes 30 under 30 community leading international travel, hosting dinner events, and accelerating this group's mission. Lees has been an active mentor to startups, working with several in the technology and cancer detection space. His philanthropic efforts include advising and donating to a non-profit called Marci, an organization that combats child sex trafficking, and co-founding the non-profit Hands-On Robotics that is developing dog robots for education purposes. Lee has been a speaker at multiple technology and educational conferences, led John Deers' internal training in machine learning of 5,000 employees and over 100 engineers, and has made curriculum recommendations changes to over ten universities in the US.
Michele Romanow
Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), Michele is the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Clearco (formerly Clearbanc). Clearco has invested more than $5B+ into 10000+ companies making them the biggest ecommerce investor in the world. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, acquired by American tech giant Groupon, and Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten competitors, including Shop.ca and WagJag.
A prolific investor, Michele was recently named Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women, Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year and winner of RBC’s Women of Influence, Innovation Award.
Michele co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson to encourage more women entrepreneurs. Michele has worked driving new digital solutions to many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil. In addition, she’s advised Fortune 100s and governments on innovation, AI, blockchain and the new economy.
During her Civil Engineering undergrad at Queen’s University, Michele founded The Tea Room, the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop. At Queen’s, she was given the Queen’s Tricolour — the highest honor awarded by the university — and, after completing her Queen’s MBA, she founded Evandale Caviar, a vertically integrated commercial fishery.
Michele is a director for Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators.
Agon Gashi
Agon is born and lives in Pristina, Kosovo. Agon graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Bard College in New York and he also completed a leadership program at IMD in Switzerland a few years later.
Agon joined his family business in June 2010, and in two years, he co-founded Meridian Express, a chain of neighborhood stores, now one of the leading retail companies in the country. In 2020, Agon managed to acquire 100% of SPAR Kosovo, an international chain of supermarkets.
Agon is a very active member of society and positively transforms Kosovo's business environment by showing that we can all do well by doing good. He is Vice-Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, founder and board member of Kosovo CSR Network, founder and board member of the Kosovo Retail Association, and a signatory of WEPs (Women's Empowerment Principles).
In 2018, Agon led Meridian to become a New Champion at the World Economic Forum. Agon is currently the CEO of two retail companies in Kosovo (Meridian Express and SPAR) with more than 1000 employees and concrete plans to further expansion locally and regionally.
Felipe Valencia-Dongo
Felipe Valencia-Dongo is Managing Partner at Grupo Estrategia. In Grupo Estrategia they work with large-scale investment projects in emerging markets to achieve Social Acceptance (permission to enter or start a project) and Sustainable Relationship (long-term harmonious relationship with the communities and social organizations of the project's area of influence). He articulates efforts between the private sector, communities, and the public sector to achieve sustainable development for the three of them. They work with several projects of +1 billion USD investment, and Grupo Estrategia is a social-purposed firm that has articulated investments for social good for +USD 500 million.
He served as CEO & Fund Manager of an investment fund in higher education. He also served as Advisor to Peru’s Prime Minister and as Advisor to Peru’s Minister of Education while implementing the educational reform. He worked in poverty reduction with Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Creative Lab and in the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru.
Felipe is a former Global Shaper. He has served as Vice-President of IPAE (distinguished private sector non-profit). He was appointed as the youngest President in 60 years of CADE Ejecutivos (the annual gathering for Peruvian business leaders, politicians, and civil society). He is Board Member of IPAE and Sistema B Perú (B Corps); Member of Es Hoy (Movement of private sector leaders working for Peru) and L+1 (leaders for sustainability).
Felipe graduated with honours in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru) and holds a Master’s degree in the University of Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar. He was selected as Young Global Leader in 2023.
Susana Sierra
Susana Sierra is a global leader in the field of compliance and corporate governance, recognized for her influential work in promoting transparency, ethics, and good practices in the private sector.
Ms. Sierra is the CEO of BH Compliance. This company measures the effectiveness of existing corporate governance programs, allowing global companies to evaluate the efficacy of their good practices and identify gaps that can lead to white-collar crime and corruption. The platform also measures governance [G] policies to strengthen a company's ESG criteria.
In 2020, Ms. Sierra was recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL), which aims to strengthen the leadership skills of influential professionals to advance a global sustainable future.
Between 2016 and 2022, she was a board member of the Chilean chapter of Transparency International, Chile Transparente, serving as President between 2020 and 2022; she was also Co-Chair of a high-level commission responsible for defining Transparency International's strategy for 2030.
She also has experience in the field of entrepreneurship. She founded the Independizate Foundation, a civil society organization that aims to provide methodological support to entrepreneurs in various fields, mostly professionals who have decided to work for themselves and require support in their business models in a competitive environment and demanding market.
Ms. Sierra sits on the boards of the Chilean-North American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Chile) and the Financial & International Business Association (FIBA) in Miami. She is also a member of the Forbes Business Council.
Ms. Sierra's influence extends globally, as seen in her engagements as a speaker at prestigious events such as the #RISK London 2023, Nexus 2023, the Cities Summit of the Americas 2023, and the IX Summit of the Americas, among others.
Ms. Sierra's impact is acknowledged at national and international levels. She was recently recognized as CEO of the Year by The Women in Governance, Risk & Compliance, as well as the "Female Entrepreneur of the Year" Award by TITAN Awards Women in Business. Her outstanding leadership has been acknowledged three times with the "100 Mujeres Líderes" award in Chile. Furthermore, she received the "Hispanic Leadership Award" in the Business Award category from the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Miami, and in 2018, Ms. Sierra was honored with the "Women Who Make a Difference" award by the International Women Forum in the United States.
In the academic world, from 2014 to 2020, she was co-director of the Compliance and Corporate Best Practices Diploma at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC). In addition, she is a professor of the MBA UC and other universities worldwide.
She is currently based in Miami.
Eduardo Leite
Eduardo Leite is 37 years old and is the first re-elected governor in the history of Rio Grande do Sul. He was born in Pelotas, on March 10th, 1985. He was the youngest governor in Brazil during his first term. At the beginning of the 2019-2022 term, he promoted a series of structural reforms to counter the public budget deficit in the state. With an agenda focused on dialogue and on opening up the State to the private initiative, he approved the privatization of state-owned companies, highway concessions, a new Environmental Code and a gradual reduction in taxes. With the result of the reforms carried out, he promoted, through the Avançar program, investments in all areas of the State, totalling BRL 6.5 billion in resources. Mr. Leite was mayor of the municipality Pelotas between 2013 and 2016. Before his term of office, he was municipal secretary, councilor and president of the municipal council. He ended his term as mayor with 87% popular approval in opinion polls. The governor holds a bachelor's degree in Law, he studied Public Policy at Columbia University, in New York, USA, and attained a master's degree in Public Management at Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
Liam Sobey
Nourishing families and communities is part of Liam's DNA. He is a value-driven leader with a passion to feed the world. He is Senior Vice-President of Merchandising, Sourcing & Liquor at Sobeys. Being an active member of his family business, Liam ascribes to its more than century-old tradition of giving back to the community. His motivation to support fairness and equality among communities led him to be the only non-aboriginal executive member of NaMeRes, a not-for-profit group that supports Aboriginal men fighting homelessness and addiction in Canada. Liam is a member of his family firm's governance and business committees. He has founded two investment groups that help next-generation family members learn about the financial markets and the positive impact of investing responsibly for a sustainable future. Liam's passion for family and community has also led him to attend multiple family business seminars, including the Scone Project and the WEF Family Business Conference in Gstaad. Liam is currently a board member of Urban Squash of Toronto and has an MBA from McGill University.
Gareth Wong
Gareth is currently Head, Group Strategy & Projects in SembCorp Industries Pte Ltd. Seated in the office of the Group President & CEO, Gareth is responsible for streamlining the Group’s strategic plans and key initiatives as a leading energy and urban solutions provider. He is also concurrently the Head of the Group's industrial & urban developments portfolio in Indonesia.
Headquartered in Singapore, Sembcorp is a Temasek Portfolio Company and a global expert in energy transition and sustainable development. Sembcorp has a balanced energy portfolio of ~20.5GW, with 13GW of renewable capacity comprising solar, wind and battery energy storage systems. The company also has a proven track record of transforming raw land into sustainable urban developments, with a project portfolio spanning over 14,000 hectares across Asia.
Prior to joining SembCorp, Gareth was the Founding CEO of Mitbana Pte Ltd, a joint-venture fund management company of Mitsubishi Corporation and Surbana Jurong.
Gareth is a member of the WEF’s Forum of Young Global Leaders. He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Singapore and is a member of the Urban Land Authority’s (URA) International Panel of Experts.
Gareth holds a BSc. in Economics (First Class Hons, Dean’s List) from University College London, and a MSc. in Political Science from Columbia University in the City of New York
Barbara Garza
Barbara is a dynamic and visionary leader who has spearheaded impactful projects that prioritize inclusivity and innovation. Her extensive experience in multicultural settings has enabled her to gain valuable insights into diverse realities and needs, equipping her to tackle challenges with creativity and ingenuity.
Throughout her career, Barbara has been passionate about driving change, promoting equality, and fostering innovation in a range of industries, including healthcare, ridesharing, food delivery, and crypto. She has held key roles in global startups, where she has made significant contributions to operations, strategy, and product development.
Barbara earned a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from ITESM and a Certificate in Global Management from Grenoble Ecole de Management. She has been recognized as one of the 500 Latin Americans in 2022 by Bloomberg Línea, a prestigious honor awarded to only 54 Mexicans who are making significant contributions to business development and the economic landscape. In addition, she has been named one of the 50 Women of Impact in Latin America by Bloomberg Línea and has been included in Expansión's 30 promesas in Mexico, a list that recognizes young professionals under 40 who are making a meaningful impact in the business world.