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.

Betsy Fischer Martin

Executive Director, Women & Politics Institute, American University, USA

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and TV news executive. Currently she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a professor in the AU School of Public Affairs, She is also a member of the International Advisory Council of APCO Worldwide and founded her own consulting business, Fischer Martin Media, where she specializes in providing media training to corporate executives.

During her earlier career in television news, she was the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming, where she was responsible for the development and execution of network political coverage.

Before being promoted to the executive role at NBC News in 2013, Fischer Martin was the executive producer of the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs program, Meet the Press, for 11 years. Overall, her tenure with the program extended over 22 years, beginning as an internship during her senior year of college.
 
She serves on the Board of Directors of Washington’s International Women’s Forum and the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

A native of New Orleans, Fischer Martin did her undergraduate and graduate work at American University in Washington, DC.  She is a cum laude graduate of their School of Public Affairs and earned a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the AU School of Communications. 

Kristin J. Forbes

Professor of Global Economics, MIT - Sloan School of Management, USA

Kristin Forbes is the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management and Global Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She has regularly rotated between academia and senior policy positions. From 2014-2017 she was an External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee for the Bank of England. From 2003 to 2005 Forbes served as a Member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers and from 2001-2002 she was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Quantitative Policy Analysis, Latin American and Caribbean Nations in the U.S. Treasury Department. She also was a Member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers for the State of Massachusetts from 2009-2014.

In 2019, Forbes was named an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to British economic policy. She was previously honored as one of the top 25 economists under the age of 45 who are “shaping how we think about the global economy” (by Finance & Development, 2014) and as a "Young Global Leader" as part of the World Economic Forum at Davos. She is currently the Convener of the Bellagio Group, a research associate at the NBER and CEPR, and a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group and Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves in a number of advisory positions, such as on the Monetary Policy Advisory Panel of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and on the External Advisory Group of the Managing Director for the International Monetary Fund.

Forbes’ academic research addresses policy-related questions in international macroeconomics. Recent projects include work on exchange rate pass-through, capital flows, macroprudential regulation, financial crises, contagion, current account imbalances, capital controls, inflation dynamics, foreign investment, and tax holidays. Forbes has chaired research projects on the Global Financial Crisis, Global Linkages and International Financial Contagion. She has won numerous teaching awards and teaches one of the most popular classes at MIT's Sloan School. Before joining MIT, Forbes worked at the World Bank and Morgan Stanley. She received her PhD in Economics from MIT and graduated summa cum laude with highest honors from Williams College.

Miguel Forbes

Vice-Chairman, Forbes Family Trust, USA

Miguel R. Forbes is President of New Business Development at Forbes Inc., the publisher of Forbes and Forbes Global magazines, and the parent company of Forbes.com, the company?s leading business website. One of his responsibilities is the management of the Forbes International Licensing Division, which currently publishes Forbes Russia, Forbes China, Forbes Korea, Forbes Arabia, Forbes Israel and Forbes Japan. Before taking over the new business unit, Miguel Forbes founded the Forbes Index Inc. in 1998 and served as its General Manager. He joined Forbes in 1996 as a sales representative for Forbes.com. Miguel Forbes has a BA in English and a Master?s in Publishing from New York University. Outside of professional commitments, Miguel Forbes has charitable associations including the Community Coalition, which assists disabled individuals in securing care and employment, and Prep for Prep, which provides scholarships to gifted inner-city students to attend private schools.

Laure Forgeron

Chief Underwriting Officer Casualty, Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, USA

Laure is a Managing Director at Swiss Re and leader of the single risk business in EMEA. Leading a team of nearly 100 colleagues and managing premium income of USD1bn, she is the youngest Managing Director of this leading Global Risk carrier. Together with her team, she is fully engaged to deliver on Swiss Re's purpose to make the world more resilient. Beyond work, Laure is committed to empowering the disadvantaged. She is involved in initiatives to promote diversity, including being a champion for women in STEM, supporting entrepreneurship in Africa and Chair of philanthropy committee of the Swiss Re Foundation in Switzerland. She is the happy mother of three young children and lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Jocelyn Formsma

Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Friendship Centres, Canada

Jocelyn Formsma is the CEO of the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), a lawyer, Board Member of the Indigenous Bar Association, advisor to the Ontario Indigenous Youth Partnership Project, and recently appointed as a Board of Trustee of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

Ms. Formsma is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario, Canada and currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Ottawa. Ms. Formsma has over 20 years of work and volunteer experience building strong relationships and advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples. She is called to the Bar of Ontario and has worked as a lawyer for a First Nations-owned law firm. In previous roles, Jocelyn was appointed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance's Task Force on Women and the Economy, is past Chairperson of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, volunteered in community radio, and was a Board Member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

As CEO, Ms. Formsma brings her legal training and passion for Access to Justice to her work with Indigenous peoples in urban environments and the Friendship Centre Movement towards innovative, positive, and effective systemic change for Indigenous peoples.

Justin Fox

Journalist, Bloomberg, USA

Justin Fox is a columnist writing about business and economics for Bloomberg View, the opinion arm of Bloomberg News. He was previously editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, and before that a columnist at Time and a writer and editor at Fortune. He is the author of The Myth of the Rational Market, and has been a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. He graduated from Princeton University and was a Rotary International Fellow at the University of Leiden. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Camille François

Chief Innovation Officer, Graphika, USA

Camille François is an authority on digital safety and security, specializing in cyber conflict, online harms and artificial intelligence. For the past decade she has advised governments and parliamentary committees on both sides of the Atlantic – from investigating Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election on behalf of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, to leading the French government’s 2022 inquiry into the economic opportunities and social challenges presented by the metaverse. In 2023, President Emmanuel Macron of France appointed François to steer a national consultative assembly (États Généraux) on information and society. She is Senior Director for Trust & Safety at Niantic, an augmented reality company, where she built and now leads the trust and safety function.

François was previously Chief Innovation Officer at Graphika, overseeing investigations, analysis and research in cybersecurity and disinformation networks. As a leading figure in trust and safety, she has pioneered methodological advances. She is a faculty member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she teaches trust and safety, and heads a programme on artificial intelligence and democracy. François has been recognized as a TIME 100 NEXT and MIT Tech Review 35 Under 35 honouree in 2019 for her contributions to making digital technologies safer and more trustworthy.

Chrystia Freeland

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Canada

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Ms. Freeland was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre in July, 2013. She was elected as Member of Parliament for University—Rosedale in October, 2015 and re-elected in October, 2019 and September, 2021.

From 2015 to 2017, Ms. Freeland served as Canada's Minister of International Trade, overseeing the successful negotiation of Canada's free trade agreement with the European Union, CETA. From January, 2017 to November, 2019, she served as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. During this time, she was a leading advocate for democracy, human rights, and multilateralism around the world.

As Foreign Minister, she led and successfully concluded the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

In November, 2019, Ms. Freeland was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. In this capacity, she led Canada’s united response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She was appointed Minister of Finance in August, 2020. In her role as Minister of Finance, the Deputy Prime Minister has supported the Canadian economy’s strong recovery from the pandemic recession, introduced Canada’s first national system of affordable early learning and child care, and ensured the sustainability of Canada’s finances after the winding-down of emergency pandemic spending.

An esteemed journalist and author, the Deputy Prime Minister was born in Peace River, Alberta. She was educated at Harvard University before continuing her studies on a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford.

After launching her career in journalism as a Ukraine-based freelance correspondent for the Financial Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist, Ms. Freeland went on to various roles at the Financial Times of London. She then served as deputy editor of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail between 1999 and 2001, before returning to the Financial Times as deputy editor and then as United States managing editor.

In 2010, she joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters. She was a managing director of the company and editor of consumer news when she decided to return home and enter politics in 2013.

Ms. Freeland has written two books: Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution (2000); and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (2012). Plutocrats has been an international best-seller and won the Lionel Gelber Prize and National Business Book Award.

In 2018, the Deputy Prime Minister was recognized as Foreign Policy's Diplomat of the Year. She was also awarded the Eric M. Warburg Award by Atlantik-Brücke, for her achievements in strengthening transatlantic ties. In 2020, she was awarded Freedom House’s Mark Palmer Prize, in recognition of her years of work in championing democracy and human rights.

She is a member of the Forum's Board of Trustees

Alessandra Galloni

Editor-in-Chief, Reuters, Canada

Graduate, Harvard University; Master’s degree, London School of Economics. Formerly: 13 years at the Wall Street Journal in various positions as correspondent, economics and business writer and editor in New York, London, Paris and Rome. September 2013, joined Reuters as Editor of the Southern Europe bureau; since January 2016, Reuters Global News Editor, based in London. Co-Author of “From the End of the Earth to Rome,” an e-book on Pope Francis. Recipient of several awards, including an Overseas Press Club Award in the US and a UK Business Journalist of the Year Award.

Maelle Gavet

Chief Executive Officer, Techstars, USA

Maëlle Gavet is CEO of Techstars, the largest pre-seed investor in the world (4,000+ portfolio companies in 60+ companies). She has been named one of Fortune's 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and was on Time Magazine's list of the 25 Top "Female Techpreuners."

An entrepreneur at heart, Maëlle founded her first business at sixteen and went on to start two other companies. She has been a senior executive at numerous large tech companies around the world, including Ozon, the Priceline Group (OpenTable, Kayak, Booking.com) and Compass. She was also a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group for 6 years.

Author of the widely-acclaimed book Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It (Wiley, 2020), she is currently based in New York City.

Joe Gebbia

Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, Airbnb, USA

Degrees in Graphic Design and Industrial Design, Rhode Island School of Design. Formerly: Designer, Chronicle Books; Previously developed web and consumer product startups. Currently, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb. He plays a leading role in shaping Airbnb’s future innovation, distinctive culture, and design aesthetic, and through his work, seeks to expand the richness of human connection in the world.

Jared Genser

Co-Founder and General Counsel, The NeuroRights Foundation, USA

Jared Genser is Managing Director of Perseus Strategies, Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States, and General Counsel to the NeuroRights Foundation. Referred to by the New York Times as “The Extractor” for his work freeing political prisoners, he has served as pro bono counsel to five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including the last three Laureates who won their Prize while imprisoned — Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma, 2006-2010), Liu Xiaobo (China, 2010-2017), and Ales Bialiatski (Belarus, 2023-Present) — as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel. Genser was previously a partner in the government affairs practice of DLA Piper LLP and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. And he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the University of Michigan Law School. His most recent book is The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Commentary and Guide to Practice (Cambridge University Press). And he is currently working with former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on a new co-edited volume for Oxford University Press entitled The Oxford Handbook on the UN Human Rights System. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.P.P. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School.