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.

Nino Enukidze

Rector of Business and Technology University, Founder of Coding School for Women, Business and Technology University, Georgia

Nino Enukidze is Rector of Business and Technology University in Tbilisi, Georgia's Silicon Valley. With a decade of dedication to education and innovation, she has founded Georgia's largest Coding School for Women and the Sustainability Lab. Enukidze holds other positions, such as President of the Academic Consortium at the European Marketing and Management Association, Member of Advisory Council at the Committee of Education and Science at the Parliament of Georgia and Member of the Business Advisory Council at UNICEF Georgia. Her leadership has transformed Silicon Valley Tbilisi into a catalyst for Georgia's technological advancement, establishing the first Global Startup Foundation and facilitating membership in MIT's Martin Trust Center. Her work has earned global recognition, including being named among Architects of Tomorrow by Emerging Europe and the Strong Women in IT Global Edition's 200 Leaders, and delivering a keynote address at the UN CSW67 expert panel.

Paula Escobar Chavarría

Opinion Columnist, CNN Chile, Chile

Paula Escobar Chavarria is a chilean journalist, editor and author. She is a columnist/ panelist at La Tercera, CNN Chile and Duna radio. She is a professor at Universidad Diego Portales and member of the board of the Young Global Leaders Foundation and of ComunidadMujer.. She is also Executive Director of the Chair on Women and Media at Universidad Diego Portales and member of the Council of the WEF Gender Parity Initiative (Chile). She is a Young Global Leader (2006), Yale World Fellow(2012), won the Lenka Franulic award for the best woman journalist in Chile (2014) , and was chosen one of the BBC 100 Inspiring women of 2015. In 2019 she won -with her team- the Excellence in Journalism Award in print media in Chile, for their coverage of sexual misconduct and abuse. She studied Journalism at the Catholic University of Chile and has a Master's degree studies in Comparative Literature. She has published six non-fiction books: in one of them she interviewed all Chilean Presidents after the return of democracy. Former Magazines Editor at El Mercurio, former Editor in Chief of Caras magazine and former Editorial Director of Televisa Group in Chile. She also wrote for the Huffington Post.

Marcela Escobari

Assistant Administrator, US Agency for International Development (USAID), USA

Marcela Escobari serves as the Assistant Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. For over two decades, the Hon. Marcela Escobari led organizations focused on promoting inclusive economic growth. She is spearheading USAID’s efforts to advance a collaborative, regional response to the historic displacement of over seven million people across the LAC region. Working with the US Government and regional partners, USAID is driving forward a three-pronged strategy focused on addressing root causes, expanding legal pathways, and promoting the integration of migrants into host communities. She is also expanding the bureau’s efforts to help democratic reformers in the region to deliver for their citizens in the face of the economic contraction caused by COVID-19, which hit Latin America and the Caribbean harder than any other region in the world.

Escobari previously served in the Obama-Biden Administration in this role in 2016, during which time she reinforced U.S. support for Peace Colombia, helped mobilize a humanitarian response plan to Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, and helped unlock obstacles to deliver humanitarian aid in Venezuela. In response to Congress’ doubling of funding to Central America, she led changes in strategy, organization and execution to help USAID expand programs to improve citizen security, strengthen governance, and create economic opportunity.

Prior to serving in government, Escobari was Executive Director at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. During her tenure, the Center launched projects in 17 countries across five continents focused on unlocking constraints to economic growth. Most recently, as a senior fellow at Brookings, she created the Workforce of the Future initiative and applied international economic development models to map the industrial path of American cities and identify policies to help workers prosper in the face of evolving labor markets. She worked with US local leaders, companies and policy makers, including in Idaho and Texas, to strengthen paths to the middle class.

Her career has spanned the private sector, government and academia, with a common thread of producing growth that is inclusive and sustainable. She began her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and worked across the globe on export competitiveness projects as a strategy consultant. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2013. She co-authored the book “In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.” She holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College and an M.A. in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Kow Abaka Essuman

Legal Counsel to the President, Office of the President of Ghana, Ghana

Kow Essuman is an international lawyer in every sense, who specializes in corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration. He is currently serving as counsel at the office of the President of Ghana. He is licensed to practice law in England & Wales (2008), New York (2010) and Ghana (2011). He holds a Master of Laws degree with Honors in International Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Institutions from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (2009). He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from BPP Law School, London (2008) and is a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws from University of Westminster, London (2007) and was previously a Global Shaper at the Accra Hub.

Julio Estrada

Director, Desarrollos Palo Blanco, Guatemala

BA in Economics; MBA, INSEAD, France. Formerly in risk management, Citibank; Strategy Consultant, AT Kearney; Associate Director, Latin America, World Economic Forum; Head, PRONACOM, national competitiveness promotion agency. Founded ANADIE, the national agency for public-private partnerships in Guatemala, Served as Minister of Finance from Jan 2016 to Sep 2018. Presidential Candidate in 2019 Elections in Guatemala. Member of Parliament in Guatemala 2024-2028.

Richard Ettl

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, SkyCell, Switzerland

Richard is the CEO and Co-founder of SkyCell; SkyCell delivers a system-critical service to secure the distribution of medicine and vaccines worldwide to doctors, patients, and pharma companies while reducing the CO2 footprint of the shipments by 50%. Before SkyCell, he helped to build up the Institute for Value-Based Entrepreneurship "IVE Institute" in Switzerland, which provided more than 3500 students with business plan creation classes and leadership insights from top CEOs free of charge. He co-led the Alumni Organization for more than ten years. Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management from Université de Fribourg. Richard is married and lives in the Zurich area with his two daughters. His hobbies include skiing, sailing, and coaching startups pro bono.

Reem Fadda

Director, Cultural Foundation and Abu Dhabi Cultural Sites, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, United Arab Emirates

Independent curator and art historian. 2010 to 2016, worked as Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project of the Solomon R. Guggenheim based at their headquarters in New York City. Had a leading role in shaping the strategy and holdings of West Asian and North African art within its collection and the curatorial vision for the future museum. 2005 to 2007, Director of the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA), Ramallah and served as Academic Director for the International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah, which helped found in 2006. Has curated many international exhibitions and biennials, especially those pertaining to art and geopolitics in the Middle East, including Jerusalem Lives (Tahya Al Quds), the inaugural exhibition at the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2017); Not New Now, 6th Marrakech Biennale (2016) and the United Arab Emirates National Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Recipient: eighth Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2017; Fulbright scholarship to pursue PhD at the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University, 2008. Director of the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi affiliated with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi.

Iim Fahima Jachja

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Queenrides, Indonesia

Iim Fahima Jachja is a Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum, 25 Asia Best Young Entrepreneurs of Business Week and Founder of Queenrides, an online-offline women empowerment community platform with four pillars: Road Safety, Economic Empowerment, Digital Literacy and Family Life Education. Having more than 400K community in all over Indonesia and 19 other countries, Queenrides is now a collaboration platform for public, private sectors, NGOs and Government.

In 2018, Queenrides selected by The World Economic Forum as one of Asia most creative startups and Iim named among 2019 Young World-Changers during World Economic Forum in Davos .

Iim is an active speaker at numerous international events such as World Economic Forum Davos, FIA The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Conference, Nissan Future, ADB Regional Conference and many more. Iim also often invited by magazines, radio stations and television stations to be the speaker for Mobility, Startups, Entrepreneurship and Women related issues. 

Before Queenrides, Iim was significant role in the digital advertising industry. Founder and CEO Virus Communication who brought the trend of digital advertising to Indonesia in 2005, the company won many pitches local and regional. In 2011 Iim was appointed CEO of Virtual Consulting (VIRTUCO) that owns Musikkamu.com with 20 million paid subscribers; Gila Motor, media with the most engage online-offline motorbike community with 700.000 members. 

Karen Fang

Managing Director; Global Head, Sustainable Finance, Bank of America, USA

Karen Fang is Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at Bank of America. Formerly, she was the head of Global Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities (FICC) Cross Asset Trading, and the head of Americas FICC Sales & Solutions prior to that. She is a member of the Bank of America Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee, the Sustainable Markets Committee, as well as the firm wide Asian Leadership Council.
Prior to joining Bank of America, Karen was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where she was the head of the Pension, Endowment and Foundation Cross Asset Solutions Group. Previously, she held senior positions in derivatives structuring, including at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo and Deutsche Bank in London.
Karen was named one of Fortune’s “40 under 40”and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF). She was selected to be a member of the WEF Expert Network. Karen was a member of the Bank of America team recognized by American Banker as part of their “Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance” feature and was called out as one of five leaders who has made a significant impact in a short amount of time. She served as a mentor for the Global Ambassadors program, a Bank of America partnership with Vital Voices and was honored by the Women’s Venture Fund for her work with female entrepreneurs. Karen was chosen by Investment Dealers’ Digest as one of the “40 under 40” bankers and she was also a recipient of the Women’s Bond Club of New York’s “Rising Star Award.”
Karen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

Fan Ling

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tezign, People's Republic of China

Scholar and entrepreneur to bridge machine intelligence and creativity. Founder of Tezign.com, a leading technology start-up with the mission to build digital infrastructure for creative resources. Founding Chair, Tongji University Design Artificial Intelligence Lab. World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; Aspen Institute China Fellow. Member, IEEE Global Council for Extended Intelligence. Recipient, National DDF Award (2018). Doctorate, Harvard University; Master's degree, Princeton University. Recently published From Universality of Computation to the Universality of Imagination, a book on how machine intelligence would influence human creativity.

Jonathan Fantini Porter

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Partnership for Central America, USA

Jonathan Fantini Porter is a government official and executive in the private and social sectors. He currently serves as CEO of the public-private Partnership for Central America and previously held leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The White House, U.S. Congress, and McKinsey & Company.

Under his tenure, the Partnership raised $4.2 billion in foreign direct investment, procurement, and lending in 18 months for projects in the region and delivered programs to 5 million individuals across environmental, social, and governance programs to address the economic roots of migration in frontier and emerging markets. The Partnership has been cited by the President of Microsoft, Administrator of USAID Samantha Power, and the President of the World Bank as a case study on how to mobilize private sector investments for public-private economic development partnerships.

Jonathan previously served as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company; advisor on national security and private sector engagement to the Presidential transition of Joe Biden; a White House advisor on transnational security during the Presidency of Barack Obama; as a senior congressional aide in the U.S. Congress; and Chief of Staff in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where he oversaw management operations of a $6 billion homeland security budget supporting 22,000 personnel in 48 countries.

He was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and has served on advisory bodies to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, World Economic Forum, Amnesty International, and as a consulting fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Jonathan is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Georgetown University and was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. He speaks Spanish, French, and German.

El Seed Faouzi

Artist and Founder, Atelier El Seed Artifacts and Artworks Trading LLC, United Arab Emirates

eL Seed uses Arabic calligraphy and a distinctive style to spread messages of peace, unity and to underline the commonalities of human existence. His artwork can be found all over the world and consistently aim at unifying communities and redressing stereotypes. Born in 1981 in Paris to Tunisian parents, he was disconnected from his Arabic roots, speaking only the Tunisian dialect of the language at home. In his teenage years in a kind of quest for his identity, he began to delve into his own heritage and learned to read and write standard Arabic.It was during this journey that he began to develop his artistic style of calligraphy, which would later bring him worldwide acclaim. He found that Arabic calligraphy was a way of building a link between his equally important French and Tunisian backgrounds and as he matured, eL Seed began to use that same calligraphy as a tool to build bridges all over the world. Whenever he works within a community, he spends a long time researching to find an appropriate quote to summarise the voice of the community he is working within and to underline his key principals of love, respect and tolerance. His work has been shown in exhibitions and in public places all over the world including most notably on the façade of L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, in the favelas of Rio di Janeiro, on the DMZ in between North and South Korea, in the slums of Cape Town and in the heart of Cairo’s garbage collectors neighbourhood. In 2017, he won the UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. He was named a Global Thinker in 2016 by Foreign Policy for his project ‘Perception’ in Cairo. In 2013, he collaborated with Louis Vuitton on their famous ‘Foulard d’Artiste’.