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.

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Meet our members

Aditi Avasthi

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Embibe, India

Aditi Avasthi is Founder of India's EdTech AI platform Embibe. Embibe is creating learning outcomes at scale through personalising the delivery of education to students in emerging markets. Amongst its many patents and publications, Embibe was recently granted a patent proving learning outcomes being created through its adaptive learning machine. Aditi and her company are the recipients of numerous honours and awards, including: WEF Global Innovator, Accenture Innovator of the Year; CEO of the Year 2019, India; Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Vogue; Woman of the Year 2018; CEO of the Year; Best AI Company in Education; BWDisrupt 40 Under 40 2017; BBC 100 Women 2017; Digital Disruptor, Maximum Business Impact; Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; Fortune 40 Under 40 2015.

Lee Redden

Entrepreneur and Co-Founder, Hands On Robotics, USA

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.

M. Bilge Demirköz

Professor, Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye

A UNESCO-L'Oreal International Rising Talent researcher, Bilge Demirköz is a leading physicist, science outreach activist and educator in Turkey. With her team, she is building a particle irradiation facility for space radiation tests, with support from CERN under the CERN associate membership bill she helped pass through parliament. Demirköz is a role model for the next generation of scientists in Turkey and seeks to change the government's approach to science.

Fredros Okumu

Director, Science, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Tanzania

Fredros Okumu is the Director of Science at Ifakara Health Insitute (IHI). Fredros' work has attracted numerous awards and recognition, including the 2009 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Young Investigator Award; 2014 Al Jazeera Lifelines Health Hero; 2016 Foreign Policy Global Thinker; and 2018 Quartz Africa Innovator. He is an important voice at the intersection of public health and the environment in Africa.

Adriana Cargill

Independent Radio Journalist, USA

Adriana Cargill is an independent public radio journalist based in Los Angeles. She’s reported and produced stories for KCRW, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC), Marketplace, LAist, Latino USA, Crooked Media, Wondery, KUSC Radio, VICE News and more. She graduated with a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism as a Bloomberg Scholar. She is also a fifth-generation Cargill family member. Founded in 1865, Cargill Inc. is a privately held agribusiness with over 155,000 employees in 70 countries around the world. By revenue, Cargill consistently ranks as one of the largest private companies in the U.S and in the top tier globally. Adriana has worked to support employees during the COVID crisis and advocated for the company to do business in a sustainable and more equitable way. Adriana is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Family Business Community and its Next Gen Working Group. She is also a member of The ImPact, a global membership community of families committed to aligning their assets with their values.

Asif Zahir

Deputy Managing Director, Ananta Apparels Ltd, Bangladesh

Deputy Managing Director, Ananta Group, one of the leading conglomerates in Bangladesh engaged in the Apparel and Textile Manufacturing, Real Estate, Hospitality, Retail and e-Commerce, Financial Services and Banking sectors.

[1] Member of the senior leadership team of Ananta Apparels Ltd, one of the largest exporters of Apparel and Textiles in Bangladesh with revenues of $350 million and employing over 30,000 people. Ananta Apparels is engaged in the production of jeans, suits, outerwear, lingerie, activewear and sweaters to leading retailers in the US and EU markets.

[2] Deputy Managing Director of Ananta Real Estate Ltd, one of the leading real estate developers of Bangladesh. The company is currently engaged in the development of several ground breaking projects in the capital city of Dhaka, including a luxury gated condominium complex ("Ananta Terraces") with world class sustainable living features and the first of its kind mixed-use project ("Ananta Business District") comprising of a Luxury Hotel, Branded Residences, Grade A Offices and Retail Spaces all in a highly secured and accessible location.

[3] Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sindabad.com Ltd, one of the largest B2B and B2C focused e-commerce marketplaces in the country serving over 50,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and several million consumers with affordable and convenient procurement solutions.

[4] Formerly: Spent several years in the USA working as a Product Manager at Google, focusing on developing applications for the Android mobile operating platform.

Bsc in Computer Science, Stanford University, USA
MBA, Harvard University, USA
YGL, WEF

Bicheng Han

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BrainCo, USA

Bicheng Han is the founder and CEO of BrainCo. He is dedicated in the research and application using the technology of non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI). Bicheng found BrainCo in 2015, while he was pursuing his PhD degree at Harvard Center for Brain Science. The company has now grown into a world-leading brain-computer interface (BCI) company and the first unicorn among all BCI companies in the world. Their technology has been applied in multiple fields to help people with different needs, from neurological diseases like ADHD, Alzheimers, and Autism, to prostheses that help people with disabilities regain control over their body. For his work in BCI, he was awarded the “MIT Tech Review China 35 Innovators under 35”. Their product was selected as “Best inventions of the year” by TIME magazine.

Kiah Williams

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine - SIRUM, USA

Kiah Williams is Co-Founder and Managing Director of SIRUM, a non-profit social enterprise that drives the future of healthcare by connecting people with surplus medications. Prior to SIRUM, Williams helped create the Alliance Healthcare Initiative, a public-private partnership spearheaded by the American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation that engaged Fortune 500 companies to expand healthcare benefits for 2 million children. Her work at SIRUM has been recognized by Forbes 30-Under-30 and Marie Claire's America's 50 Most Influential Women. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University.

Benjamina Karic

Mayor of Sarajevo, City of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Karić was born on 8 April 1991 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia. She graduated from the University of Sarajevo. She later worked as an assistant at the Faculty of Law at the University of Travnik and in Kiseljak. Following the 2020 municipal elections, Karić became mayor of Sarajevo in 2021 as a replacement for Bogić Bogićević, who decided to pull out of the candidacy for mayor shortly before. She graduated from two faculties simultaneously, the Faculty of Law at, the University of Sarajevo and the Department of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. Karić is a recipient of the Silver Badge of the University of Sarajevo for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies. She is the author of fifty publications, books, articles, and translations from Latin to Bosnian.