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.

David Alexander Walcott

Founder and Managing Partner, Novamed, USA

David is a Medical Doctor (MD., Ph.D. MSc.) and Entrepreneur with over 20 years experience as a healthcare & real estate investor in emerging markets. Professionally, he is committed to attracting world-class healthcare resources into emerging markets through Novamed, a healthcare & real estate investment firm that actions best-practices and global insights through its portfolio companies. His firm invests in and develops hospitals, clinics, health technologies & commercial real estate. He is currently building a google campus’-type Smart business district in the first such commercial change-of-use project in the Caribbean, as well as a smart hospital on the legs on the first such acquisition in the English-speaking Caribbean. His work in healthcare has been recognized by Forbes, World Economic Forum, the United Nations and the IMF and his firm led the largest private donation of PPE into the Caribbean and has completed extensive public & private sector projects in emerging market healthcare. He is also Founding Partner of The Visionaries’ Summit & My Destination Experience, knowledge & opportunity exchange platforms designed to attract investment into the Caribbean convening a community controlling US$140 billion in equity that has seeded over US$300 million in investments in the region. A Rhodes Scholar, his academic profile includes Oxford, INSEAD & Harvard and he is the previous Co-Chair of the Global Shapers’ Covid-19 Steering Committee, and Young Global Leader & a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council.

Andrew Wales

Executive, United Kingdom

Managing Director at Accenture. Global Lead new sustainability services and sustainability integration.

Believes in driving growth through (genuinely) purpose led business strategy and has done so across telecoms and tech (BT), FMCG (ABInBev and SABMiller), utilities (Severn Trent) and manufacturing (Interface Inc).

Transforms businesses by sharpening and energising the purpose and strategy, integrating sustainability ambitions and goals into core business metrics, customer comms and brand campaigns, culture and employee engagement and the investor proposition.

Non Exec Director at Water and Sanitation for the Urbdn Poor - who have helped more than 30m people gain access to water services. Tech for good seed angel investor.

Jimmy Wales

Founder, Wikipedia.org, United Kingdom

Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, is founder of the online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia and co-founder of the privately owned Fandom.com. Wales serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organisation he established to operate Wikipedia. In 2019, Jimmy launched WT Social - a news focused social network. In 2006 Jimmy was named in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for his role in creating Wikipedia.

Lisa Walker

Chief Executive Officer, Ecosphere+, United Kingdom

Lisa Walker recently left BG Group (now part of Royal Dutch Shell) where she served as Vice President for Environment & Climate Change to become CEO of start-up Ecosphere+. Lisa worked in the oil and gas sector for >17 years, closely involved in all aspects of climate change strategy development & implementation, public policy formation, sector coalition building and low-carbon business development. She was a driving force behind the UK Emissions Trading Group, the CCAC Oil & Gas Methane Partnership (which she Co-Chaired), the Sustainable Gas Institute and the CEO-led Oil & Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). Lisa helped BG Group secure multiple industry awards for sustainability. Before BG Group Lisa held various roles at BP including Director of the BP Carbon Ventures corporate-VC fund. Lisa successfully secured capital for many innovative investments in sustainable land-use and forestry, low-carbon technologies and b io-energy, including first-of-their-kind deals for the private sector such as the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Lisa is a mother of four and originally from New Zealand.

Tiffany Xingyu Wang

Chief Trust and Marketing Officer, OpenWeb, USA

An award-winning marketer and social entrepreneur, Tiffany Xingyu Wang’s deep technological understanding, digital trust stewardship and marketing prowess have positioned her at the nexus of the future of media, corporate ethics and the emerging community economy.

She currently serves as the Chief Marketing & Trust Officer of OpenWeb – a role that reflects her leadership in the field. The leading community engagement platform powers over 3,000 publishers and brands and is leading the way in creating trusting spaces for healthy conversations and diverse, engaged communities in the Web3 era. At OpenWeb, Tiffany Xingyu oversees marketing as well as the entire trust and safety P&L and is working closely with the company’s vast partner networks to scale market-leading best practices.

Tiffany Xingyu is also the President and Co-founder of Oasis Consortium. As part of the nonprofit created to define a digital sustainability model for businesses, she launched first-of-their-kind User Safety Standards for Web3, minting industry-backed consensus on digital safety early in the Web3 revolution and earning interest from TIME, MIT Technology Review and more. The momentum continues with over 20 platforms, including Roblox, Pandora, Grindr, Fandom, The Meet Group and Together Labs, pledging to the standards.

Tiffany Xingyu’s pioneering approach to marketing, innovation and advocacy serves as a model for future leaders looking to drive positive change at a global scale. She’s democratizing access to critical digital trust and safety knowledge through a first-of-its-kind LinkedIn Learning course for brand leaders. Active with global organizations that are elevating the dialogue around the future of media and the web, she is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders program, the Atlantic Council’s Trust & Safety Taskforce and a board member of AdCouncil.

Prior to joining OpenWeb, Wang was the Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Spectrum Labs, a leading contextual AI platform that keeps over 1 billion users safe online. She also holds two USPTO patents in machine learning applications for marketing.

Tiffany Xingyu stays abreast of blockchain and quantum computing technologies through investments and advisory board roles. She’s also a venture partner at Tribe, a Singapore government-backed blockchain accelerator, where she leads investor relations in the US.

Her leadership continues to be acknowledged within the industry and the global business community. She was recently on the cover of Adweek’s first edition of 2023 in the “Year of the Tenacious CMO” feature and her work has been highlighted in leading publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Digiday, and VentureBeat. With further recognition from Forbes’ Most Entrepreneurial CMO List and the CMO Club’s Most Innovative Awards under her belt, Tiffany Xingyu has solidified her reputation as one of the seminal innovators of her generation.

Wang Guan

Host and Senior Journalist, Leaders Talk, China Central Television (CCTV) and China Global Television Network (CGTN), China Media Group, People's Republic of China

Wang Guan is a the host and executive producer of Leaders Talk on China Central Television (CCTV) and China Global Television Network (CGTN), under China Media Group (CMG). From 2011 through 2019, Wang was the network's Chief US Correspondent based in Washington DC, where he covered US-China relations from the White House and the State Department. He has interviewed over a hundred world leaders. With 3 million followers on social media, he is one of the most influential Chinese journalists on international affairs. He has appeared on PBS News Hour, BBC, RT and Al Jazeera, and spoke at events at the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, China's State Council, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Harvard University, Columbia University, etc. He is a Young Leader of the National Committee on US-China relations, and an “Asia 21” Young Leader at Asia Society. As a former junior footballer, sprinter and national public speaking champion, Wang Guan is also a youth icon in China, avidly promoting athleticism, oratory skills and globally-mindedness among the younger generation.

James Wanjohi

Managing Partner, Alpha Strategy Consultants, Kenya

James Heads up Alpha Strategy Consulting, an African boutique strategy advisory house; advising large corporates on their expansion in Africa. He previously headed up GEMS Education Solutions work in Africa. Previuosly, he was the Managing Director of the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, established in 2006 by Sir Richard Branson, to spearhead the advancement of young marginalized entrepreneurs. A successful visionary entrepreneur, Wanjohi was educated in India (Aurangabad and Vadodara) in commerce, economics and strategy. Today James partners with corporates to build youth entrepreneurship programs linked to innovation responding to the youth bulge challenge in Africa. He serves on the Boards of Ndiza Micro Finance and UDDI, and is a Strategic Director for Africa Kapital Konnect.

Pooja Warier Hamilton

Chief Partnerships Officer, Apolitical, United Kingdom

Pooja Warier Hamilton is the Chief Partnerships Officer at Apolitical, a global network and learning platform used by nearly a quarter of a million public servants from 160 countries to find and share best practice and gain new skills on 21st century issues from climate to AI. Pooja has a wealth of experience in the public and private sectors, having co-founded her first mission driven organisation at 25. Prior to Apolitical, Pooja was the Founding Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform and was also the co-founder and CEO of UnLtd India, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. She has been recognised for her work as a TED India Fellow, a
World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and an Aspen India fellow.

Caroline Watson

Chief Executive Officer, The Centre for Arts and Leadership, France

Entrepreneur, speaker and leadership consultant. Thought leadership at the intersection of the arts and education, China, migration and globalization, women’s empowerment, leadership, entrepreneurship and spirituality.

Entrepreneurship

As the founder and director of Hua Dan and Scheherazade Initiatives, two global enterprises that use participatory theatre to empower migrant and refugee populations to overcome the challenges of enforced displacement and both contribute to and benefit from their host communities. We use a combination of theatre games, exercises, role play and creative arts approaches that develop valuable life skills that enable individuals to take action to solve some of the challenges they are facing in their life.

I am also the founding member of the Global Arts Impact Agenda, an initiative to radically innovate in how the arts can be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaker

I am regularly invited to speak about my work in founding Hua Dan and Scheherazade and my experience running a global business. Some of the topics I address include:

• Leadership and entrepreneurship
• Living and working in China and the emerging world
• Globalization, migration and supply chain issues
• Diversity and inclusion
• Women’s empowerment
• The role of the arts for personal and social development
• Spirituality and transformative leadership

See more at my personal site at www.carolinewatson.org

Leadership consultant

I run inspirational corporate leadership programmes that use interactive and behavioural-change techniques to cascade transformation throughout an entire company, from senior management right down to front-line workers across all areas of the supply chain. I do this both as an independent consultant and also as part of my global social enterprise Scheherazade Consulting. All programmes can be delivered online and in-person, for large-scale team-building, group or 1:1 coaching for executives. Learn more at www.act-for-impact.com.

IMPACT

Driving through all of my work as an entrepreneur, speaker and thought-leader, and leadership consultant, is the importance of behaviour change and the IMPACT that innovative, participatory processes can bring to both individual and global change. We work with partners in the area of data analysis to leverage key performance indicators you would like to see in your company, and bring in knowledge-experts in key areas to complement our behaviour change work.

I am based in Europe and have team members all over the world. Email: caroline@carolinewatson.org

Nolan Watson

President and Chief Executive Officer, Sandstorm Gold Ltd, Canada

President and CEO, Sandstorm Gold, a NYSE American-listed company with a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. Founder and President, Nations Cry, a registered charity building and operating schools in Sierra Leone, Africa. By the age of 26, was the youngest CFO of any NYSE-listed company in the world. Recognized as one of the "Top-40-Under-40", Canada and "CEO of the Year". In addition, Nolan is the youngest "Fellow" of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia and he has been recognized as one of the "Most Motivated" Chartered Financial Analysts in the World by CFA Magazine. Nolan is a regular contributor on various radio programs, television programs, and government conferences on topics ranging from mining, to environmental sustainability and he has been seen on CNBC, Fox Business News, BBC, BNN and CNBC Europe among others.

David M. Webb

Editor, Webb-site.com, Hong Kong SAR, China

David M. Webb is Founder of Webb-site.com, a non-profit site promoting better corporate and economic governance in Hong Kong. Covering such issues as electoral reform, government intervention, tax and budget, competition and transparency, and fraud in individual listed companies, Webb-site.com has over 25,000 subscribers to its free newsletter, a polling system and a Who's Who database of Hong Kong. Prior, Webb was an investment banking Director at Barclays de Zoete Wedd Asia and an adviser to the Wheelock and Wharf Group. He was elected Non-Executive Director of HKEx (2003-2008) and has been a Member of the SFC's Takeovers and Mergers Panel since 2001 and a Deputy Chairman since 2013. In 2003, he established Project Poll, which forced companies to count ?one share, one vote? rather than a show of hands, which is now a mandatory rule. He was also the architect of the HAMS Proposal for a levy-funded, investor-elected body to catalyse shareholder activism and reforms. Webb is the author of games and books for early home computers. He graduated in Maths from the University of Oxford.

Scott Weber

President and Chief Executive Officer, Peaceinvest, Switzerland

Scott M. Weber is President and CEO of Peaceinvest, a Swiss-based, investment firm that harnesses finance to build a more peaceful world. The company identifies and arranges partnerships and financial vehicles, including Peace Bonds, that mobilize capital to create value for all stakeholders concerned and that adhere to the Peace Finance Impact Framework Standards. Rooted in local communities, Peaceinvest is global in scope, the Management team of Peaceinvest has experience working across 100 countries. It seeks to address inequalities wherever they persist and is committed to building Peace at Scale.