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.

Sanae Lahlou

Country Representative, Morocco, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Morocco

Committed in promoting sustainable growth in developing economies, Sanae Lahlou is the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Country Representative in Morocco. She ensures the coordination, in Morocco, of the strategy of the UN agency, for the promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrial development. Sanae has a long and rich experience in the conduct and implementation of several economic programs in the public and private sectors, in Morocco and internationally, some of which have been related to industrial development issues

She was before the Director of the African Business Unit of the International Consulting firm Mazars. She has also assisted several Moroccan industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to position themselves in global value chains, as she has been in charge of International Markets for the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency, under the authority of the Morocco Ministry of Industry. Prior to that, Sanae held the position of Development Adviser for Africa at the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sanae Lahlou has been awarded as “Young Global Leader” 2021 by The World Economic Forum (WEF). Advocating for inclusive growth and gender equality are also among Sanae’s career key drivers. She has been also nominated as a “Global Impact” doer by the Pan African Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development Centre, and as “French-African Young Leader 2019” by the French-African Foundation.

She has graduated from Sciences Po Paris and the American University Al Akhawayn. She also obtained an MBA in International Business Engineering in Paris and a Master Degree from ISCAE (High Public Institute of Commerce and Business Administration) in Coaching & Leadership. Sanae recently obtained the Sustainability Certificate from Stanford University California. She achieved as well the Certificate of Achievement of Public Leadership from Oxford University and the Apolitical Academy Global.

Sultan Olayan

Director, Olayan Group, Saudi Arabia

Sultan Olayan joined the Middle East and North Africa private equity team of Olayan (OFC) in 2019 as an Associate Director. He was at Olayan Saudi Holdings Company (OSHCO) since late 2017 as a member of the management team. Before joining Olayan Group, Olayan worked at the private equity arm of Abu Dhabi-based Waha Capital. Olayan is a member of the Olayan Family Council as well as a member of the Steering Committee for the Suliman S. Olayan Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Olayan Group. He is also a member of various boards, including Iliad Partners, TIC, SCC, Education for Employment, Saudi Craft Company, Ba’a Foundation and Aurbis Capital. Olayan began his career at Credit Suisse's Investment Bank in Hong Kong as a Research Analyst. He holds a BA (Hons) in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University. He speaks Arabic, English, German and French.

Mohammad Salem Omaid

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, iBnk.ae, United Arab Emirates

Dr. (Prof) Mohammad Salem Omaid has a storied career as a banker. In his career span of over 17 years, Dr. Omaid handled diverse roles having rich & extensive experience in Finance & Accounting, Corporate Accounts, Trade Finance, Corporate Credit Financing, Operational Banking, Investment Banking and Retail Banking. His association with the banking industry & his pioneering contribution towards the reformation of the banking structure is worth mentioning. He has been the pillar of many innovational projects and digitizing the economy. Over the years, Dr. Omaid developed himself as a leader with calculated thinking coupled with business intelligence and a capacity to take decisions which are result oriented. He developed himself as a strategist with excellence in formulating, developing & implementing business plans and policies to ensure attainment of business goals and profitable sell-though.
Presently he is the founder & CEO of a start-up innovation in the UAE which is a B2B embedded digital marketplace platform and disruptive in nature, which will assist in breaking, disrupting, facilitating, widening & creating a new business chapter not only in the UAE but the entire MENA region and other emerging markets. It will also bring-in a transformation into the "brick & mortar" banking concept with the implementation of BaaS and many other innovative transformations into the e-commerce market.
Dr. Omaid’s expertise and knowledge for a sustainable growth earned him several international accreditations. He has been a motivational speaker on many occasions across the globe while attending various felicitation programs.
He is playing a great role in shaping the young minds in the country & globally by way of sponsoring sports, health-drives and education.

Paolo Petrocelli

Head, Dubai Opera, United Arab Emirates

An internationally recognised cultural leader who promotes cultural diversity, gender equality, and peace through music and arts, Petrocelli is the Founder and President of EMMA for Peace (Euro-Mediterranean Music Academy), one of the largest organisation for the promotion of music diplomacy globally. Currently he serves as the Head of Dubai Opera, the main performing arts center in the UAE. In 2022, he was selected by the think tank Friends of Europe among the 40 most influential young personalities in Europe.

Kira Radinsky

Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Diagnostic Robotics, Israel

Dr. Kira Radinsky is the chairperson and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics, where the most advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence are harnessed to make healthcare better, cheaper, and more widely available.In the past, she co-founded SalesPredict, acquired by eBay in 2016, and served as eBay director of data science and IL chief scientist.One of the up-and-coming voices in the data science community, she is pioneering the field of medical data mining.Dr. Radinsky gained international recognition for her work at Microsoft Research, where she developed predictive algorithms that recognized the early warning signs of globally impactful events, including political riots and disease epidemics. In 2013, she was named to the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Young Innovators Under 35, in 2015 as Forbes 30 under 30 rising stars in enterprise technology, and in 2016 selected as "woman of the year" by Globes. She is a frequent presenter at global tech events, including TEDx, Wired, Strata Data Science, Techcrunch and academic conferences, and she publishes in the Harvard Business Review.Radinsky serves as a board member in: Israel Securities Authority, Maccabi Research Institute, and technology board of HSBC bank. Dr. Radinsky also serves as visiting professor at the Technion, Israel’s leading science and technology institute, where she focuses on the application of predictive data mining in medicine.

Bhavin Shah

Partner; Head, Middle East and North Africa, Forensic Risk Alliance Ltd, United Arab Emirates

I am a senior consulting professional and a trusted advisor to Boards of Directors, CXOs, Governments, and Regulators. I have served clients across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, America, and Europe.

My key areas of expertise are strategy development, business set-ups, transformations, M&A, restructuring, turnarounds, digital, complex regulatory matters, financial crime, public finance, and economic policies. I also have strong experience with financial performance improvement projects, balance sheet recapitalizations, Investor support, and cross-jurisdictional distress cases.

I mentor several Digital/FinTech start-ups in the region and have expertise in investing in venture, private and public markets. I hold an MBA and a Chemical Engineering degree and am an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

Naif Sheshah

Assistant Deputy Governor for Planning and Development; Chief Digital Officer, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Saudi Arabia

Naif Sheshah, serves as the Assistant Deputy Governor for Planning and Development & Chief Digital Officer at the Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST), In addition to his role as the Chief Transformational Office at the Saudi Space Commission. He also has a wealth of corporate strategy experience and a reputation for developing and implementing complex technology business process solutions in demanding environments. Prior to his current role, Naif was the General Manager of Planning and Development & Acting General Manager of Postal and Logistics Services. Particular highlights of his time at the CST include spearheading the formulation of the organizational strategy for the year 2019-2023, playing a prominent role to develop the Saudi ICT sector strategy, and leading a team that was twice awarded the EFQM’s certificate of Institutional Commitment to Excellence. A strategic thinker who combines extensive corporate experience, an entrepreneurial spirit, and unique academic insight, Naif’s career has crosscuts with multiple sectors such as healthcare, education, aviation, telecommunications, and petrochemicals industries, where in due time he has demonstrated a strong track record helping to steer forward-thinking businesses through periods of significant growth, change, and improvement. Naif Sheshah is a graduate of INSEAD’s Management Acceleration Program and holds a master’s degree in Business Process Management from the Queensland University of Technology, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. He sits on the board at the National Information Technology Academy, and for several years acted as ambassador for ADAA, the Kingdom’s center of excellence for performance measurement.

Mayank Singhal

CEO, 10xAD Investments, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), United Arab Emirates

Mayank Singhal is CEO of 10xAD, a UAE based investment firm representing strategic capital from Abu Dhabi. In his current role, Mayank runs a global investment mandate with a hybrid investment strategy spanning fund commitments and direct deals across global markets.

He was recognized by the World Economic Forum in 2022 as a Young Global Leader (YGL) for his efforts in global technology investing across emerging and developed markets. Mayank was also invited by Fortune to its ‘40 under 40’ young leaders cohort in 2019. He holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he served as the youngest member of its Global Management Board. Mayank previously served on McKinsey and Company’s New Ventures Advisory Council in New York, advising the firm on its technology initiatives. 

Prior to 10xAD, Mayank helped establish ADQ, a leading sovereign wealth fund in the UAE, where he served as Executive Director and Global Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital. While at ADQ, Mayank is credited with building the world’s largest technology-focused sovereign investment program. He led investments in excess of $25 billion across several technology businesses in North America, Europe and Asia, and made mega-sized LP commitments to develop deep partnerships with several top tier funds and top-rated GPs. During his time at the firm, Mayank was a Member of the firm’s Management Committee and Investment Committee.

Before ADQ, Mayank served as a close personal advisor to Ratan N Tata, Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group, and helped set up RNT Capital, a $300 million venture fund backed by Ratan Tata to invest in global technology start-ups including AirBnB and Xiaomi.

Mayank also spent a number of years at established global firms including Temasek, TPG and McKinsey, where he built his career across consulting and private equity investing.

Ahmed Sobhy

Chief Investment Officer, Banque Misr S.A.E., Egypt

Ahmed Sobhy is Chief Investment Officer of Banque Misr, Egypt's second-largest commercial bank. He oversees the bank’s principal investments in private equity, debt capital markets and third-party assets under management. With extensive experience in investing and investment banking, Sobhy has worked in the UK, US and Egypt, leading and participating in M&A transactions valued at over $31 billion. He has served as an Investment Principal at Ezdehar Fund Management and was Vice-President in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. Sobhy's background includes work in the Financial Advisory and Principal Investments teams at Swicorp, a MENA-focused M&A and investment firm based in Geneva and Riyadh. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and a Master's degree in Finance from the London Business School.

Omar Sultan Al Olama

Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, Office of the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates

Omar bin Sultan Al Olama was appointed Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work of the United Arab Emirates in 2020. He joined the government in 2017 as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, where he was responsible for enhancing government performance by investing the latest technologies and tools of artificial intelligence and applying them in various sectors. Al Olama is also the Managing Director of the World Government Summit in the Prime Minister’s Office at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, and Deputy Director of the Future Department at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, where he contributed to the preparation of the UAE Centennial 2071 strategy and the UAE 4th Industrial Revolution Strategy. Al Olama has a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the American University of Dubai, and a Diploma in Project Management and Excellence from the American University of Sharjah.

Noor Sweid

Managing Partner, Global Ventures, United Arab Emirates

Noor Sweid is a visionary and tenacious leader. Recently named one of the World's Top 50 Women in Tech, she drives venture capital in the region. She once served as Chief Investment Officer in the Dubai Future Foundation and made history as the first woman to lead an IPO in the Middle East.

Abdulrahman Tarabzouni

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Saudi Technology Ventures, Saudi Arabia

Founder and CEO of STV, the largest technology investment firm in the Middle East that's backing the region's most disruptive technology champions and shaping its technology venture capital ecosystem. Held executive leadership roles at Google’s headquarters including heading the company's global efforts to build new businesses and partnerships for Android, and establishing Google's emerging business operations in the Middle East. A member of the board of trustees and directors of several leading organizations. Attended MIT and received BSc and MEng degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a concentration in Economics. Actively solving the technology advancement and talent development agendas through impactful investments and public-private partnerships.