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.

Lena Ng

Chairperson, ASEANMINDS CAPITAL, Singapore

BBA (Hons), NUS; Havard Leadership Programme, Oxford Said Transformational Leadership, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Green Belt and Masters (Cert.) in CIO Practices.

Lena is the Chairperson for Aseanminds Capital, Chairperson for Investment Committee (GMS) for China's Belt & Road Initiative, Chairperson for Hotel Nikko Chonburi and Chief of Investment (CIO) for Amata Corporation Public Company Ltd. Lena have more than 25 years of experience in overseeing billions of assets in Strategic Investments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Real Estate, Urban Township, Industrial & Smart Cities development. She is also the Enterprise Advisory Council Member of Bridge Alliance, a leading mobile alliance of 34 premier Telco operators serving over 800 million customers. Formerly a Singapore Diplomat (Commercial Attaché) based in the Embassy of Singapore in Bangkok; Director (ICT) and Green Programme Office, IE Singapore (Ministry of Trade and Industry); British Telecom and Standard Chartered Bank. Chairperson, Audit Committee and Board Member, Singapore National Paralympic Council. Member, Singapore Institute of Directors. Speaker/judge at int'l forums.
Expertise: Private Equity, Global Investment, Mergers & Acquisition, Global International Affairs. Smart Cities Investment and Development, ASEAN FDI Investment.

Ng Yeen Seen

Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Research, Advisory and Technology (CREATE), Malaysia

Ms Ng Yeen Seen is an entrepreneur and an active member of the society within the think tank circle, and various organisations. She has been working closely between the public and the private sector. She was recognised as one of the Youth Ambassadors by the Malaysian Government (TN50) and as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2016.

Yeen Seen is now the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Research, Advisory and Technology (CREATE). She pioneered various movements and founded various enterprises and Not-For-Profit Organisations like the #OpsHarapan when the 100-year flood hits Kelantan in 2014, and sits on the Board as the Vice President of the Centre for Better Tomorrow (CENBET).

Yeen Seen sat on UNESCO Steering Committee for Youth Leading Change for Peace in ASEAN and was a Board Member at the Global Institute for Women Empowerment. She was appointed to the Entrepreneurial Council of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Yeen Seen established her career as a political researcher; before she moved into the public policy and strategy space over the last 15 years, and now an entrepreneur.
Today, Yeen Seen serves as a Think Tank Member at the Ministry of Environment and Water, Malaysia; and as an Industrial Advisor to UNIMAS in Sarawak and Xiamen University Malaysia Campus.

Yeen Seen works closely with the business community, impact organisations and institutions as their long-term thinking partner. She hopes to contribute constructively towards a mature, united and progressive Malaysia and the global community.

Oliver Niedermaier

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, TAU, USA

Chairman and CEO of Tau Investment Management, a Private Equity firm established to transform global supply chains. Former Operating Partner, Advent Int'l. Previously Founder and CEO, DF King Worldwide. Member Global Exec. Board, Computershare, the world’s largest share registry, which Oliver joined when it acquired Pepper Technologies. Founder, Pepper Technologies. Currently Non-Exec. Director, Equiniti, owned by Advent Int'l, UK. PhD in Strategic Mgmt, Univ. of Munich. 1998. Board memberships include The World Policy Institute and National Museum of the American Indian, both New York.

Tinna C. Nielsen

Lead, Equitable Transformation, Social and Human Sustainability, EQT, Sweden

Anthropologist and behavioural designer specializing in diversity, equity, inclusion, mitigating unconscious bias, human rights, and accelerating sustainable development.
Co-Founder of the global non-profit empowerment initiative Inclusion Nudges (inclusive behavioral designs) and author of 5 Inclusion Nudges guidebooks (inclusion-nudges.org), with the mission to empower people to be change makers by providing actionable insights about how the human mind works and behavioural designs.

Tinna is a Young Global Leader (Alumni) at the World Economic Forum, Co-Chair of the WEF Global Future Council for Behavioural Sciences (2016-18), and part of the WEF Expert Network.

Previously worked for the Danish Institute of Human Rights, as Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Arla Foods, strategic advisor and educator in gender parity and inclusion at the United Nations (all UN entities), and as a social entrepreneur and consultant in her own organisation Move the Elephant for Inclusiveness.

Boris Nikolic

Managing Director, Biomatics Capital, USA

MD, Zagreb Medical School; clinical training, Medical Centre, University of Zagreb, Croatia. 1994, Harvard Graduate Program in Immunology; postdoctoral fellowship in transplantation immunology; Instructor in Surgery; Instructor in Medicine; Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School; since 2002, Founder and Director, Advanced Immunology Laboratory for Tolerance Induction Stem Cell Transplantation, Renal Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School; since 2007, current position, on leave from faculty position, Harvard Medical School. Author of over 50 articles and patent applications. Co-Founder, three biotechnology companies. Research interests: immunogenetics, immunological tolerance induction for transplant, auto immunity and stem cell research. Recipient of awards.

Kohei Nishiyama

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CUUSOO SYSTEM, Japan

Kohei Nishiyama is a serial entrepreneur and investor in the IT field and a pioneer in crowdfunding, setting up the world' s first prototype in 1997. He is a co-founder of ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS ltd., a venture investment company focusing on online platform technologies, and founder of CUUSOO SYSTEM co., ltd, an online open innovation platform that aggregates distributed intellectual resources. Kohei's strong interests in innovation, new technology, design and robotics coupled with "thinking-outside-the-box" attitude have lead him to become an expert in the fields of innovation management, new product development and design management. One of his projects, LEGO CUUSOO, a crowdsourcing/crowdfunding site jointly operated with LEGO SYSTEM SA., had its exit to LEGO and is now operated by its official service, LEGO IDEAS. At present, Kohei is applying his knowledge to emerging technologies by building an open innovation platform in the electricity industry.
Prior to ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company where he primarily handled new product development projects. Kohei holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo and continues his postdoc research at Copenhagen Business School.
Kohei grew up in South America until 19 and is fluent in Japanese, Spanish, and English.

David Novak

Co-President, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, United Kingdom

Mr. Novak has been with CD&R for 25 years and is a member of the Investment Committee. Based in London, he is responsible for the Firm’s European business and international activities. Mr. Novak has been actively involved in CD&R's investments in B&M Retail, BCA, Belron, BUT, Conforama France, Huntsworth, Kalle Group, Mauser Group, Motor Fuel Group, SIG plc, SOCOTEC, and Westbury Street Holdings, and played a key role in many others. Previously, he worked in the private equity and investment banking divisions of Morgan Stanley. Mr. Novak has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Amherst College.

Cherie Nursalim

Vice-Chairman, Giti Group, People's Republic of China

Bachelor's in Engineering Science and Economics, Oxford University; MBA, Columbia University. Vice-Chairman, Giti Group. Special Climate Advisor to Government of Indonesia, Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investments. Member: International Advisory Board, Columbia University; MIT Sloan School; Asia Board, Harvard Planetary Health, Climate Change Center, University of Indonesia, Co Chair of Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center and UN SDSN Southeast Asia. Founding Member: Global and Asia Philanthropy Circle; United in Diversity Foundation. Initiated HIV/AIDS awareness for GT organization, which won award from Indonesian Government, ILO and UNAIDS.

Jasandra Nyker

Chief Executive Officer, Nala Renewables, United Kingdom

Most recently, Jasandra Nyker was the Chief Executive Officer of BioTherm Energy, a leading African based renewable energy investment and independent project development platform. Previously, she managed the direct investment portfolio on behalf of a US$ 680 million global energy and clean technology investment fund. Nyker played an integral role in transaction sourcing, due diligence, investment execution and post-investment management. The portfolio included investments in green infrastructure (sugar ethanol, co-generation, wind projects and solar base-load applications), solar technologies, wind turbines, water (desalination, purification) and energy efficiency technologies. Nyker has previously worked in investment banking, strategy consulting and private equity and in multiple regions, including the US, London, Kuwait and Asia. She has an MBA from the London Business School, where she was a Merrill Lynch Scholar, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Science from the University of Cape Town.

Genki Oda

Managing Executive Officer, SBI Holdings, Japan

Genki Oda is the serial entrepreneur. I have changed the era in many meanings. I founded my first company when I was the University Student. I sell-offs my business and invest many venture companies in Japan. At that time, 2002-2004year, in Japan most venture capital required the venture company to show the phase 3 worth financial statements and the performances. But I thought it was wrong. From my own experiences, most venture companies don't have the performances. They just have the passion and plan , and they need the money. I invest for the entrepreneurs who don't have the evidence or the performances even don't have the company yet. My work have succeeded and many venture capital imitative the start-up venture capital now. So, today in Japan the number of the venture company is increasing.

Second, I familiarized the concept of the Social Entrepreneur. I have donated and supported many NPOs and the social entrepreneurs and generated their activities through many media. I was the first member of the Ashoka Japan and the Social Venture Partners Tokyo-Bay. With my works, today working in the NPOs has become one of the choice for the students. Today, I challenge the revitalization for company and entrepreneurs. Most Japanese think the failure is critical and regard the failed people as a garbage. But I think everyone have a mistake and sometimes unfortunately one mistake is critical one. I want to change the mind for the failure. I have revived the Remixpoint which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange markets and the market capitalization have raised from 400million JPY to 100Billion JPY in this 5 years. And the Remixpoint is the attention as the successful company.

Chinny Ogunro

Chief Operating Officer, The Africa Center, USA

Dr. Chinny Ogunro is the Chief Operating Officer of The Africa Center, a New York based non-profit that seeks to serve as a hub for the exchange of ideas around culture, business, and policy related to the continent, and in the spirit of collaboration and engagement with individuals and institutions who share the Center’s values. The mission of the organisation is guided by a leadership team that includes Board Co-Chairs Chelsea Clinton and Hadeel Ibrahim, and Board President Halima Aliko Dangote.

Previously, she was the Chief Executive Officer of WellSpring Health, an Africa-focused integrated care consortium backed by DAI, committed to delivering quality, affordable healthcare at scale. Chinny is a co-founder of Africa Health Holdings (AHH), a healthcare investment and operations company in which she raised over $13M in investor funding. AHH was born out of her doctoral research and her first company, CarePoint Hospitals and Clinics.

Chinny also currently serves as Director of Health Research at the Center for the Study of the Economies of Africa, where her research has explored innovative business models for health care delivery in growth economies, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. She was also a Senior Director at BroadReach Group, responsible for technology implementation and operational excellence. She is the founder of Company Is You, a professional development edtech firm that prepares individuals and companies for the future of work.

Her work in healthcare operations has delivered high-quality, low-cost healthcare to over 40,000 patients across West Africa and India. Her research has received over $700,000 in direct support from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.

Chinny is an advisory board member at Growth Capital—the investment arm of CCHub, a Steering Committee member of the Africa Leadership Academy’s Health Network, serves on the leadership committee of MIT Solve, and is frequently a guest lecturer at top international business schools. She has previously worked at Morgan Stanley, Veralon Partners, and provided long-term consultancy for the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, the U.N. Special Envoy for Malaria, as well as multiple other development and partner organizations.

Chinny holds a Ph.D in Health Management (Technology and Operations Management, Strategy) from the Harvard Business School, a M.A. in Health Administration from Cornell University, and Bachelors degrees from Stanford University.

Tero Ojanpera

Co-founder and Chairman, Silo.AI, Finland

Tero is CEO and Co-Founder of Silo.AI, the largest private AI Lab in Nordics. Silo.AI transforms businesses using AI and machine learning.

He is Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Vision+ Fund, early stage VC fund and Chairman of the Board of Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Tero serves as a member of the Board of DNA Plc and Bittium Plc.

Previously, he served as Nokia's CTO and Chief Strategy Officer as well as Head of Research. Tero was a Member of the Group Executive Board of Nokia for seven years. He served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the NAVTEQ Corporation. He also served as Member of the Board of Directors of Veikkaus, a Finnish lottery company.

Tero was nominated as Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum 2006. He has been recognized as 7th Most Creative People In Business 2009 by Fast Company.

Tero has a Ph.D. from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He is married and has three children and in his spare time he enjoys olympic weightlifting, boating, triathlon and skiing.