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.

Ashish Goyal

CIO, Goyal Family Office, United Kingdom

CIO- Goyal Family Office. Global macro investor, with a focus on Emerging Markets and Asia. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2015). The first visually impaired student to have graduated from Wharton Business School, recipient Joseph P. Wharton award, selected by peers, given to one individual who best represents the Wharton Way of Life. Honoured with India’s highest civilian award for a disabled individual – the National Award for the empowerment of persons with disabilities – by the President of India. Has raised thousands of dollars for causes ranging from education of poor children in India to blindness research and international peace. Passionate about theatre and a supporter of the Print Room, a new theatre based in London. Represented the London Metro club in the domestic UK blind cricket tournament.

Christine Graeff

Executive, Switzerland

Graduate, European Partnership of Business Schools in European Business Administration. Started career as an investment banker, Corporate Finance team, Kleinwort Benson. Then two years with Burson Marsteller, London. 2001, founding partner, German business of Brunswick, with a focus on communications in the financial sector. Since 2013 Director-General, European Central Bank, running the communications strategy and then setting up the communications for the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the New European Banking Supervisor, and now also in charge of it since 2014. Serves on the board of TalentNomics, a non-profit organization supporting women's empowerment. Member: Generation CEO; German Baden-Badener Unternehmer Gespräche; Atlantik Brücke. Supports various communications networks and initiatives. Honoris Causa Doctorate, Middlesex University (2015).

Felix R. Graf

Chief Executive Officer, NZZ Medien-Gruppe, Switzerland

has been CEO of the NZZ Media Group since June 2018. Previously, he was a member of the executive board of Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (CKW) from 2011 and led the company from 2014 as its CEO. At the same time, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Axpo Holding. Prior to that, he worked for several years in various management positions at Swisscom. Among other things, he was responsible for the Swisscom entertainment services, including Swisscom TV, which he developed together with his team from strategy to mass production. From 1998 to 2002, he led McKinsey consulting mandates in various industries and countries. Graf holds a master's degree in physics and chemistry from ETH Zurich and a doctorate in physics from ETH Zurich. In 2007, he was named Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Anne-Sophie Grouchka

Chief Executive Officer, Solvd GmbH, Germany

Anne-Sophie Grouchka started her career in 2005 as an adviser to Xavier Bertrand, the French Minister of Labour, Employment and Health. She joined the pharmaceutical group IPSEN in 2007 as adviser to the chief executive. From 2008 to 2012, she held the respective positions of adviser, joint chief of staff and chief of staff to Nadine Morano, the then-Secretary of State for Family and Solidarity who become Minister of Apprenticeships and Professional Training. Grouchka joined Allianz France in 2012 as project manager to Jacques Richier, the chief executive officer. In 2013, she was appointed head of strategy and innovative projects. In February 2018, Grouchka was nominated to the executive committee of Allianz France as chief customer officer in charge of claims, underwriting and customer journey. She has also been head of customer relationships and solutions since January 2016.

She is a graduate of the ENS Ulm (Ecole Normale Supérieure), the ESSEC (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales) business school and Sciences Po Paris. Anne-Sophie also holds postgraduate diplomas in German studies (Paris IV University) and in International Relations (PhD school of Sciences Po).

Anne-Sophie is a member of the Young Global Leaders Forum - class of 2019.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir

Managing Director, Festa - Centre for Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Iceland

Hrund is an Author, Speaker and an awarded Sustainability Leader. She is the former Managing Director of Festa - center for sustainability in Iceland, Advisory Council member at Yale's International Leadership Center (ILC), Founding Partner at the Nordic Circular Hotspot, Board Member of Eyrir Invest and author of the book The Art of InnSæi - The Icelandic Way to Harness your Intuition, to be published early 2024 by Bonnier Lagom. Hrund has a broad-based experience, ranging from post-conflict reconstruction and social entrepreurship to the arts. She is the co-Director and Writer, of the feature documentary InnSæi - the Power of Intuition (2016), which explores the art of flourishing, leading and innovating in an age of distraction and transformation, shown world wide e.g. on Netflix. In 2008-2010 she created and directed Prisma - a diploma module, acknowledged by the Nordic Council of Ministers for best responding to 21st century workplace. She is the former chair of the Technology Development fund in Iceland, focusing on innovation. Her career with the UN entails a permanent position (resigned in 2004), being a Programme Manager of UNIFEM (Un Women) in Kosovo after the war, and occasional consultancies, the most recent one in 2020 in Bangladesh. Hrund has a BSc from the University of Iceland, a MSc from the London School of Economics, a Diploma from Harvard Kennedy School and has studied executive leadership at Yale and Oxford Said Business School. Hrund is a WEF Cultural Leader, WEF Young Global Leader and a Yale World Fellow.

Sergei Guriev

Professor of Economics, Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), France

MSc, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; 1994, PhD; 2002, Dr Sc, Russian Academy of Science. 1997-98, Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2003-04, Visiting Assistant Professor, Princeton University. Since 1998, with New Economic School (NES), Moscow; 2004-2013, NES. Since 2013 - Professor of Economics, Sciences Po, Paris. Columnist, Russian and international business media. Consultant to governments, international organizations. Board member: companies, foundations and think tanks. Author of articles and international journals. Interests: transition economics, contract theory, corporate governance, labour mobility. Recipient of awards.

Camilla Hagen Sørli

Member of the Board, Canica Holding, Norway

Camilla is an owner of Canica Group, a privately owned investment company based in Norway. (Orkla ASA, Arcus ASA, Komplett). She serves as the Chair of the Board of Canica Investor, in addition holding board positions at other corporate companies and startups, including Canica AS and Jotun AS (global coatings company). Camilla holds several years of experience within retail, sustainability, consumer behavior, marketing, management, business development and strategy. She holds an Executive MBA from London School of Economics (TRIUM - LSE, HEC, NYU Stern) in addition to having obtained education from Harvard Kennedy School, Kings College London (BA), University of Oslo (MA) and BI, Norwegian School of Management. Camilla is passionate about working to always improve the environmental and social footprints of Canica, and have been leading several strategic initiatives, as implementing sustainability as a part of Canica´s overall strategy. Orkla ASA was recently ranked among the top 100 most sustainable companies in the world by WEF, and Camilla has become a renowned speaker on the topic. She is engaged in the subject of responsible ownership and is an advisory member of the Oxford Ownership Research Project. Being an advocate for women and health she is a Founding Member of Maverick Collective and using her voice promoting female leadership and diversity as the Chair of SHE Community, arranging the yearly global conference on diversity, She Conference. In 2021 Hillary Clinton and Justin Trudeau were key note speakers. Camilla was elected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum 2018 and is an active member of the Community. She lives in London with her husband and children.

Helen Hai

Executive Vice-President, Binance Holdings Limited, United Kingdom

Helen is Executive VP of Binance. Helen is a respected global leader and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Goodwill Ambassador.
She received the 2015 African Business Icon Award, and awarded as Officer of the National Order of Lion of Senegal in 2016. Hai was named 2017 Wu Fellow by UC Berkeley, Global Visionary by UBS and 2018 Aspen Fellow by Aspen Institute. She was also on “Ones to Watch” list for Bloomberg’s 50 people who shaped 2018 in unexpected ways. She received the 'INSEAD Alumni Force for Good Award' in 2019. She was also selected as one of the Cointelegraph Top 100 most important and influential people in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world.

Kate Hampton

Chief Executive Officer, Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), United Kingdom

Kate became CEO in March 2016, having run CIFF's Climate Change team since 2009.
Kate is a member of the FP2020 Reference Group, a Champion of the She Decides movement, and she sits on the board of the European Climate Foundation. She has also been featured in the top 100 Profiles of Paris, a collection of stories from the key people who created the Paris Agreement, and is currently co-chairing a project for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) on China’s contribution to global climate governance.
Kate’s career spans roles in government, finance, consulting, a think tank and NGOs. Before joining CIFF she was Head of Policy at Climate Change Capital, a boutique investment firm with $1.5 billion under management, advising asset managers and multinational companies on clean energy opportunities. She has also advised policy-makers in a number of roles, including as Senior Policy Advisor for the United Kingdom's G8 and EU presidencies in 2005, and as a Sherpa to the EU High-Level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and Environment in 2007.
In 2008, Kate was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She holds a BSc. from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She speaks French and Spanish fluently.

Osman Haneef

Managing Director, Heroes Capital, United Kingdom

Osman is an impact investment advisor, tech entrepreneur, and author.  

Osman is the Managing Director of Heroes Capital, an advisory and impact investment firm focused on health tech, ed tech, and renewable energy startups in Asia.

Previously, Osman worked as the Pakistan CEO and Managing Director of BIMA Mobile Pakistan, a subsidiary of Milvik AB (“BIMA”), one of the world’s leading microinsurance and telehealth organizations that reached over 30 million subscribers and had operations in 14 countries. Osman oversaw the development and launch of BIMA's products and operations in Pakistan, where he led a team of 1200 employees providing services to nearly 4 million customers.  

He has written op-eds for a newspaper in Pakistan on the startup ecosystem and the need for cleantech. He also enjoys struggling to write fiction, and his debut novel, Blasphemy:The Trial of Danesh Masih, was published by an independent publisher in India in 2020.

He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017. Osman graduated with an MBA and an MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Niel Harper

Independent Director and Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, ISACA, Germany

Niel Harper is deeply committed to ensuring that individuals and organizations consistently benefit from safety, privacy, security, reliability, and data ethics when using online platforms. He has spent the last 20 years leading and advising on online security and resilience at global organizations such as Aspen Institute, AT&T, Bemol, Canonical, CIBC, Deloitte Consulting, Doodle, European Commission, Internet Society, and the United Nations, among others. Niel specialises in corporate governance, cybersecurity management, privacy program management, engineering management, enterprise risk management, and digital policy.

He is the recipient of the ISC2 Global Achievement Award (2024), the International Security Journal (ISJ) Caribbean Security & Resilience Award (2021) and the ISACA Technology for Humanity Award (2021). Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader (2014) and by the Internet Society as a Next Generation Leader (2011). He previously served on the United Nations Information Security Special Interest Group (UNISSIG) and participated in the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Risk & Corporate Governance Working Group and Digital Trust Initiative. Niel currently serves on the Professional Standards Working Group of the UK Cyber Security Council and as an Independent Director and Vice-Chair, Board of Director at ISACA.

Niel holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Strathclyde specialising in privacy, cyber crime, and national security; Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Leicester; Postgraduate Diploma (PgD) in Telecoms Regulation & Policy from the University West Indies; Diploma in Business Information Systems from Algonquin College; and has completed executive programs at University of Oxford, Stanford University, Nanyang Technological University, Florida International University, and Boston University.

Sahar Hashemi

Entrepreneur and Author, United Kingdom

Sahar Hashemi co-founded Coffee Republic, one of the United Kingdom's leading coffee chains, in 1995. She also started Skinny Candy, a guilt-free confectionery brand, which was sold to Glisten in 2007. Hashemi left Coffee Republic in 2001 and co-wrote the best-selling book, Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from our Kitchen Table, which has been translated into six languages and is the second highest selling book on entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom. Her latest book, Switched On, is about entrepreneurial behaviour in established companies. Hashemi lectures around the world on how to use entrepreneurial habits to promote innovation and creativity in the corporate world. She was awarded an OBE for services to the United Kingdom's economy and to charity in the Queen's 2012 birthday honours list. Hashemi studied Law at Bristol University and qualified as a corporate lawyer at Frere Cholmeley in London.