Community

The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a community of innovators from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Search current members and alumni by year awarded, sector or region.

H.R.H. Anjhula Mya Singh Bais

Chair, International Board, Amnesty International, United Kingdom

Described by the Sunday Times as “an activist, academic, and an aristocrat out to shatter myths surrounding mental illness and psychology”, Dr. Anjhula Mya Singh Bais is an international psychology trauma specialist, Founder and Director of Fourth Dimension Consultancy, and the Chair of the International Board of Amnesty International. Dr. Bais's focus is human rights and mental health through a feminist lens. She was a thought leader and strategist inspiring on psychology, leadership, and human rights on her Lite FM radio show Mind Matters which had a weekly listenership of 1 million. Named a Fellow of the Apolitical Academy, Prestige Magazine's 40 Under 40, and bestowed the Global Citizen Psychologist Citation from the American Psychological Association, Bais is an alumni of Lady Shri Ram College, University College London, Columbia University, The Chicago School, a member of YPO and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. With two decades in the international fashion industry as a model and named a super model by Vogue, Bais's prerequisite for appearing on covers is that staunch attention is paid to body positivity. She has received Savvy's people's choice award for being the role model women most believed in.

Jens Martin Skibsted

Partner, Manyone A/S, Denmark

1994, graduate, ESEC Film School, Paris; 1998, degree in Philosophy, Copenhagen University; 2000, degree in Project Management, University of California, Berkeley; 2011, degree in Cross Media Communication, Copenhagen University. Founder/Partner, Skibsted ID, KiBiSi, Manyone, design consultancies; Founder Ogojiii, African design innovation media. Founder, Biomega, bicycle and urban mobility company. Works collected by Cnap, MoMA, Designmuseum Danmark and SFMoMA; Former member of the Board: Danish Design Coucil (Chair), Design2innovate (Vice-Chair); Danish Design Center; Member of the board: Danfoss Foundation. Co-Author, Expand: Stretching the Future by Design, Instant Icon, Tilbage til Virkeligheden (Back To Reality). Author, blog column in Fast Company, Huffington Post, Core77. Recipient of awards: Wallpaper Design Award; I.D. Consumer Design; Red Dot Award, IF, Good Design Award; European 40 under 40. Member, World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Urban Mobility Transitions."

David Skilling

Founding Director, Landfall Strategy Group BV, Netherlands

Dr David Skilling is the founding Director of Landfall Strategy Group, an economic and policy advisory firm based in the Netherlands and Singapore. David advises governments, companies, and financial institutions in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe on the impact of global macro, globalisation, and geopolitics, from a small advanced economy perspective. David writes regularly on global economic and political issues, including in a column in Singapore's Straits Times as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, and Nikkei Asian Review. David has recently served as a Senior Advisor to the McKinsey Centre for Government; as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Trade in New Zealand; and as a Fellow at Singapore’s Civil Service College. Previously, David was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company in Singapore, as well as being a Senior Fellow with the McKinsey Global Institute. Prior to joining McKinsey at the start of 2009, David was the founding Chief Executive of the New Zealand Institute, a privately funded, non-partisan think-tank. Until 2003, he was a Principal Advisor at the New Zealand Treasury, where he worked primarily on economic growth issues. David has a PhD in Public Policy and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University, as well as a Master's of Commerce (Hons) in Economics from the University of Auckland.

E. Benjamin Skinner

Founder and President, Transparentem, USA

E. Benjamin Skinner is Founder and President of Transparentem. Previously, he co-founded TAU Investment Management, and prior to that was Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism of Brandeis University. He was named one of National Geographic’s “Adventurers of the Year 2008.” His first book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press; 2008), was awarded the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for 2008, and a finalist for The Ryszard Kapuscinski International Award for literary reportage in 2011.

Previously he held a fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, served as Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and worked as Research Associate for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His 50+ chapters, monographs, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Bloomberg Businessweek, Time, Newsweek, Travel + Leisure, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and others. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Anthony Smaré

Chairman of the Board, Paradise Foods, Papua New Guinea

Lawyer, geologist, entrepreneur, investor and social entrepreneur. Directorships and interests in climate change, responsible extractives, financial inclusion, telecommunications, banking and pharmaceutical industries.

Edward Smith

Partner, DLA Piper LLP, USA

Edward "Smitty" Smith has emerged as a rising star in the technology and telecommunications policy arenas.
A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, he translated his academic success into professional success as a corporate attorney at one of the world’s largest law firms, Hogan Lovells. While in private practice as a corporate lawyer, Smitty advised clients and helped close over $40 billion worth of merger transactions for publicly traded companies.
Smitty left his firm to join the 2008 Obama presidential campaign. After the campaign, Smitty served as Deputy General Counsel of the Presidential Inauguration Committee and joined the Obama Administration.
At the Department of Commerce, Smitty spearheaded national broadband programs that generated critical data about broadband availability and capability and leveraged technology to create new economic opportunities for millions of Americans. After an emergency detail to the Economic Development Administration, where he led teams developing economic response strategies in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Smitty joined the Federal Communications Commission where he served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel for a special technology taskforce
Smitty left the FCC to run in the first election for Attorney General of the District of Columbia. Though he lost in a hotly contested race, Smitty received over 35,000 votes citywide and gained the endorsements of nearly every major union and labor organization in the District.
Smitty entered local government and served in the Mayor’s Cabinet as the Director of the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants.He then returned to the FCC as Legal Advisor to the Chairman.
Smitty is now a Partner at the international law firm of DLA Piper, where he advises clients on a broad range of telecommunications and technology issues in countries around the globe.

Elaine Smith Genser

Partnership Adviser, United Nations Joint SDG Fund, USA

Elaine Smith Genser is a senior financial executive with over 30 years of experience. In the last decade, she has worked on mobilizing resources from the private sector for institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, and World Economic Forum. Before that she was a trader and research sales manager for global investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan, where at the height of that career she oversaw daily trading of $75-$250 million of $2.5 billion in trading volume on the Brazilian Exchange.
Currently, Elaine directs partnerships for the UN Joint SDG Fund, which was created by the UN Secretary-General to blend $300 million annually from states with private sector investments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for the 2030 Agenda. She is also the Officer Investment Advisor of the Fund as of June 2022. Earlier, she held advising and community management roles with Global Future Council of Financial and Monetary Systems with top S&P100 institutions, as well as leading the agenda design of international gatherings of banking and exchange CEOs with public authorities.
Elaine’s career reflects her early vision of the need to incorporate social responsibility, sustainability, and environmental concerns into the strategy of public and private companies of all sizes. She also brings deep experience working with global financial markets most especially in developing strategy to create financial vehicles for the blending of public and private sector financing in developing countries.
Elaine holds a BBA from Mackenzie University, an MBA from University of São Paulo-FIA, and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management Program (OPM). She has also completed executive programs in leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Yale School of Management, Stanford University and Saïd Business School at Oxford University. She is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian.

Marie So

Marie So is Co-Founder of Shokay and Ventures in Development, a non-profit that catalyses the creation of social enterprises in the greater China region. She previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme, Dubai Development and Investment Authority, Procter & Gamble and Merrill Lynch. So graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a Master's degree in Public Administration and International Development, and a Bachelor's degree in Economics, Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University. She also attended the United World College of the Pacific (UWC). So sits on several government steering committees and foundation boards in Hong Kong. She is a recipient of the Echoing Green Fellow 2008 and an Asia 21 Young Leader 2008.

Zafar Sobhan

Editor, Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh

Zafar Sobhan is the Editor of Dhaka Tribune. As a long-time columnist, he also has to his name numerous articles, features, interviews, and essays in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, TIME, Vice, Himal, Economic & Political Weekly, Outlook, Seminar, and others. Previously, he served as editor of the monthly Forum magazine and opinions editor of The Daily Star, and before that as an associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, among other positions. Zafar is also a licensed New York City public school teacher and a member of the New York State Bar. Zafar has a B.A. and M.A. in English literature and a J.D. in law. He is also a Yale World Fellow and was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005.

Benjamin Soemartopo

Chief Executive Officer, Eureka, Singapore

CEO of Eureka, an AI platform for mobile operators to partner with enterprises and government. Previously Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, Indonesia and Managing Director, Standard Chartered Private Equity, Indonesia. Experience as an investor, board member or advisor to consumer (healthcare, retail, technology), agriculture and energy companies. WEF Young Global Leader 2010. Cofounder of Young Leaders for Indonesia foundation. Bachelor of Law and Political Economy (first class honours) Murdoch University, Western Australia.

Murad Sofizade

Managing Partner, SVTL Ventures, Inc, USA

Managing Partner, svtl.vc, Senior VP, BusDev, Svitla, YGL @WEForum, Harvard MBA, Deloitte'09 Tech Entrepreneur of the year, co-founder @TravelTipz & IPNet, IPNet, named Russia's fastest growing technology company by Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA (2009). Former President and Treasurer, Harvard Club of Russia. Named one of top young entrepreneurs in Russia, Finans magazine, 33 Perca (2009).

Lorna Solis

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Project SHEro, USA

Founder & CEO of Elevate, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing continued education at world-leading universities to young women who have either been forced from their homes by conflict or climate change or are working in industries affected by climate change and looking to further education so that they can use every tool possible to stay in their country of origin

Created Project SHEro, as an extension of her nonprofit’s work offering scholarships to refugees – including climate refugees. Project SHEro is a global climate activism documentary series that raises awareness not only about challenges but also solutions. It explores issues such as climate adaptation, climate justice, reducing emissions, food and water security, gender equity, indigenous rights, migration, and access to finance. Each episode showcases a brave young woman whose business is being affected by climate change, putting her at risk of becoming a climate refugee unless she can find ways to adapt. Local and international experts offer advice –and use cutting-edge technology or respect the old ways, to co-create the solution with her. Each SHEro is given a grant to invest in her business or continue her education.

Previously, Lorna was Director for Latin America and Africa at Institutional Investor, focusing on increasing FDI for infrastructure projects. She also worked at IDEA on Wall Street, covering Latin America, and at Water & Air Research – an environmental consulting firm – on creating national parks in Honduras and Brazil.

Yale World Fellow 2017. Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum since 2010; also, was a member of the Young Global Leaders Group advisory board, and Global Future Council on the Future of Humanitarian System (2016-2018), Women's Empowerment and Gender Parity (2011-2012). Advisory judge for Columbia University’s Dean Challenge at SIPA 2015-Present. Young Center Volunteer 2020-Present. Member of CFR (Council on Foreign Relations). Echoing Green Semi-Finalist in 2012. Former Organizational Partner of Global Dignity Day. Former UNHCR Innovation Council Board member. Former Advisory Board member of the Humanitarian Innovation Project at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre. She finished undergraduate studies at the University of Florida, completed an Executive Leadership Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and coursed studies at Yale University and at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Lorna is also a figurative sculptor whose work has been exhibited in NYC and has won numerous awards.