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.

Learn more

Meet our members

Raya Yusuf-Sbitany

Chief Executive Officer, Derma Beauty Lab Ltd, Palestinian Territories

Ms. Raya Yusuf-Sbitany is an entrepreneur and Private Sector and Gender specialist.

She is the CEO of Derma Beauty Lab, a boutique skincare manufacturing company in Jerusalem, focusing on producing premium skincare products under the brand MINERALINE, using natural and organic ingredients, and enriched with Dead Sea minerals. The company has a sustainability strategy and a social program, focusing on ethical production and marketing, in addition to offering employment to women and youth from Jerusalem, where unemployment is at its highest, reaching over 85% among women in the city.

Raya also worked as a Private Sector and Gender consultant with UN Women. Prior to this position, Raya was the Chief Business Development & Financial Inclusion Officer at Bank of Palestine. During her career at the bank, she founded several departments at the bank including Business Development, Financial Inclusion, Investor Relations, and Quality Assurance, in addition to designing and implementing the bank’s Women’s Market program “Felestineya”, a comprehensive program to support women by offering banking products and services that meet their needs, a full program of advisory services and training, as well as implementing internal changes to promote gender equality. In 2015, Raya received the award of Best Investor Relations Professional in Palestine by the Middle East Investor Relations Society.

Raya holds a Master’s degree from King’s College London in International Management, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in Middle Eastern Studies and Economics.

Raya is a member of the national Financial Inclusion Committee of the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), a board member at Vitas Palestine Microfinance Institution, the Yabous Cultural Center in Jerusalem, and the Arab Orphan Committee Organization in Jerusalem.

Sinéad Burke

Chief Executive Officer, Tilting The Lens, Ireland

Sinéad Burke is a Disabled educator, advocate and author who champions accessibility, equity and social justice to build a better world for everyone. In 2020, she founded the accessibility consultancy Tilting the Lens on the three pillars of education, advocacy and design. Advising major global brands including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Netflix, Pinterest and Starbucks, Tilting the Lens guides clients in their move from awareness to action by creating more accessible practices, policies, products and services, places and promotions.
Sinéad serves on Gucci's Global Equity Board, ITV’s Cultural Advisory Council, the Irish President’s Council of State and Ireland’s Future of Media Commission. She is also part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, as well as the European Young Leaders. As a passionate writer, podcast host and public speaker, Sinéad facilitates honest conversations about identity, disability and accessibility. Her work has been featured and recognised by Vogue, The Financial Times, Fast Company, WWD, Vanity Fair, The Business of Fashion, and many more. In 2017, she delivered a powerful TED Talk on ‘Why design should include everyone.’ Her children’s book, ‘Break the Mould,’ is a primer on how to take your place in the world – with lessons for all. It won the ‘An Post Irish Book Award’ in 2020.

Alaa Murabit

Director, Global Policy, Advocacy and Communications, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA

A leading security, sustainable development, and global health expert, Dr. Alaa Murabit expertise shapes health and security strategies, policies and resources across 193 countries. Alaa is a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate appointed by the UN Secretary-General, the Director of Global Policy, Advocacy, and Communications at the Gates Foundation, and a UN High-Level Commissioner on Health, Employment, and Economic Growth.

At 21, Alaa founded Voice of Libyan Women, sparking a global dialogue on the influence of religious interpretations on women's leadership and security in conflict zones. Her TED Talk has garnered over seven million views, and the New York Times cited it as "defining the future of feminism." Her contributions to global security, health, gender, faith leadership, and sustainability have earned her prestigious recognitions, including the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, the 2021 Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship, MIT Media Lab Fellow, the Nelson Mandela International Award, and New York Times Hero.

A medical doctor, Alaa is a 2022 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, serves on the Malala Fund and Women for Women International boards and in her spare time, she moonlights as a personal assistant to her two toddlers.

Nancie Zhu

Anchor and Host, Talk with World Leaders, Phoenix Satellite Television Co. Ltd, People's Republic of China

Nancie Zhu, leading international TV host and producer, Anchor of Phoenix TV signature TV Show Talk with World Leaders, which interviews the most influential figures in global politics and business. She is both a Young Global Leader and a Media Leader of the World Economic Forum. She frequently acts as moderator for top-level international conferences in China and abroad. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and is a qualified attorney in several jurisdictions. She is a social media influencer and author with 13 million followers in China. In 2021, she was awarded the New Sunshine Charity Ambassador and Social Impact Ambassador for her contribution to society.

Ludovic Subran

Chief Economist, Allianz, Germany

Ludovic Subran leads economic research at the largest insurer and investor in Europe. He has helped design public policies in over 30 countries and influences several organizations as a board member.

Shelley Stewart

Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, USA

Shelley Stewart III is a Senior Partner within McKinseys Growth, Marketing and Sales Practice, where he works across the US, Europe and Asia with industrial and technology companies to help them scale their businesses in a global context. Shelley leads the firms research on inclusive economic growth in his role as leader for McKinseys Institute for Black Economic Mobility. In this capacity, he focuses on conducting research related to Black economic development and translates these insights into tools that corporations, philanthropists and governments can use to create meaningful impact for Black individuals and communities. Shelley is on the Board of Directors of the National Black MBA Association, a non-profit supporting 15,000 members with career placement and development. He is also on the Board of the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the first and only public foundation solely dedicated to Brooklyns charitable community. He is a member of the United Justice Coalition, a non-profit working across disciplines to raise awareness around social justice issues, emphasizing the need for criminal justice reform. Shelley has a BA in economics from Boston College, an MBA with a focus on finance from Columbia University, an MPA in political economy from Harvard and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New Haven.

Nasreen Ali Mohamed

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Afrikapu Ltd, Kenya

Nasreen is a social tech-preneur passionate about technology and inclusion of low income households especially women and girls. She founded Afrikapu to give disadvantaged women and youth a voice through business growth and help them be ambassadors of advocacy issues affecting their communities.

Her zeal to alleviate poverty and give marginalized women a getaway to life-changing opportunities, led Nasreen to start Afrikapu to introduce real, tangible impact into the Global Handicraft industry and uplift the lives of underrepresented women and girls throughout Africa’s conservancies and informal sectors, a sector that makes up to 80% of Africa’s economy.

With presence in Kenya and United Kingdom, Afrikapu offers artisans a holistic integrated approach by providing them with handcrafting skills training, access to credit to start independent income generating activities, provide global market linkages for their eco-friendly handmade products, and an e-wallets gratuity system to further grow their savings and effectively invest in their life goals such as purchase of property, children's education, business expansion / diversification.

Afrikapu leverages blockchain technology to provide transparency in the process and a more personal artisan to consumer connection.

Nasreen’s work has been recognized globally, earning her multiple awards alongside leaders from reputable organizations and platforms whose members have gone on to become Nobel Prize recipients, heads of state, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and Grammy Award winners.

Nasreen holds a Master of Science Degree from University of York, UK, an Executive Leadership certificate from Dartmouth College, USA , a Bachelors (Hons) Degree in Business Management from University of Sunderland, UK, an Advanced Diploma in Business and Law from Edith Cowan University, Australia.

David Upton

Managing Director; Chief of Staff, Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, Barclays PLC, United Kingdom

David is based in London and has a broad remit focused on bringing together the different aspects of the global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility agenda to help drive Barclays' strategy. As part of the Group CEO Office, David works closely with senior stakeholders across the bank on a range of Group-wide issues and is responsible for the operation of the Group Executive Committee. Previously, he helped to lead the development and execution of Barclays Compliance Strategy and advised on issues relating to Conduct and Reputation Risk, regulatory engagement, and executive governance. Before Barclays, David worked at the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority in Strategic Business Planning and Human Resources. He graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Warwick.

Wawira Njiru

Founder and Executive Director, Food for Education, Kenya

Wawira is the founder of Food for Education an organisation that is feeding Africa’s future through innovative, cutting-edge technology. Food for Education has created a sustainable model of efficiently providing locally sourced, high quality, nutritious meals to public primary school children. Their scalable, efficient model is creating the first sustainable path to solve the child nutrition crisis for 500 million African children. She is a Ford Foundation Global Fellow, the youngest recipient of the University of South Australia’s alumni award 2017, a 2018 Rainer Arnhold Fellow, a recipient of the Builders of Africa Award 2018 and one of 2018’s Top 40 under 40 women in Kenya. She is also the first recipient of the Global Citizen Youth Leadership Prize 2018 presented by Cisco.