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.

Murat Sarayli

Chair, Sarayli AS, Norway

Murat Sarayli served as National Chairman of the Young Businessmen's Association of Turkey during 2004-2008, worked on issues related to entrepreneurship, education, ethics in government, competitiveness, EU accession process of Turkey. Sarayli also chaired YES, the Brussels-based European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, for three consecutive terms until 2008, representing 40,000 members from 16 countries. Assuming responsibilities at YES in November 2004, Sarayli made the Lisbon Agenda, Europe's strategic plan towards greater economic growth and job creation, the hallmark of his tenure. He worked for a better business eco system for the young entrepreneurs in Europe. He is the co-founder of Visa-Free Europe movement and sits on the Board of the International Competitiveness Research Institute of Turkey He has been active in his family-owned group of companies since 1989. The Group is active in tourism, construction, real estate development and international trade. In addition to his devoted time for the development of entrepreneurship in Europe, he has been active in Sub Saharan Africa during last 20 years both for NGO work and business development. Sarayli graduated with a degree in Management from the Middle East Technical University, attended the Global Leadership and Public Policy module at Harvard KSG and the “Foundations For Leadership in the 21st Century” program at Yale University and living in Oslo.

Thomas Saueressig

Member of the Executive Board, SAP Customer Services and Delivery, SAP, Germany

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. He heads the Customer Services & Delivery Board area with global responsibility for long-term customer value in the cloud. This includes all business areas in customer services, comprising professional services, premium engagements, customer innovation services, and customer support. In addition, Saueressig leads cloud infrastructure, cloud operations, cloud lifecycle management, and private cloud delivery for SAP’s global customer base.
The goal of the Customer Services & Delivery organization is to further increase customer satisfaction by ensuring that customers get the best services, tools, and support to accelerate their cloud transformation and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) through the immense value of the integrated SAP portfolio. SAP helps customers to drive their business transformation effectively while maximizing the benefits of the cloud and AI.
Previously, as a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Saueressig led the SAP Product Engineering Board area and was responsible for the company’s entire application portfolio. This also included cloud offerings, the global SAP Labs Network, the SAP Enterprise Adoption organization, and development priorities. These priorities encompassed innovation, AI, integration, design and user experience, cloud operational excellence, and the overall quality and security of SAP software products.
Before being appointed the head of SAP Product Engineering, Saueressig was chief information officer (CIO) and global head of IT Services at SAP. As CIO, he was responsible for SAP’s IT strategy and execution following a cloud-first approach. Under his leadership, the IT organization pioneered new business models and significantly advanced SAP’s own cloud transformation. Saueressig started his career at SAP in consulting in 2004 before moving on to spend time abroad and holding various management positions with growing responsibility across SAP.
He was included on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list in 2016. As global sponsor for the Business Women’s Network, the largest employee network at SAP, and the SAP Women in Tech initiative, Saueressig supports corporate initiatives for gender equality. Furthermore, he is the executive sponsor for the Accessible Workplace Inclusion Network, an employee network that embraces accessibility and inclusion across all aspects of work at SAP and beyond.
Saueressig has a degree in Business Information Technology from the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim (Germany) and a joint executive MBA from ESSEC Business School (France) and Mannheim Business School (Germany).
Since April 2022, Saueressig has been a member of the Board of Directors of Nokia.

Christopher Schläffer

Founder and Executive Chairman, NYOUM, United Kingdom

Christopher Schlaeffer is the Founder and Executive Chairman of NYOUM, the London-based generative AI company. Previous roles include Chief Digital Officer of VEON (NASDAQ: VEON), Chief Product & Innovation Officer as well as Chief Strategy Officer of Deutsche Telekom (XETRA: DTE), CEO of T-Online International and CMO of T-Mobile International. Christopher served as a Member of the Board at Amnesty International. Together with Andy Rubin, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Chou and Cole Brodman he unveiled the world's first mobile phone based on Android, T-Mobile G1 in 2008. In 2007, he and Tim Cook closed Apple's first partnership on iPhone outside the US. Christopher started his career with Accenture. Christopher has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and ranked one of the Top50 Innovators To Watch. He takes an avid interest in promoting an open information society, science, equality and arts and graduated from the Vienna University of Economics.

Raphael Schoentgen

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Hydrogen Advisors, France

MA in Engineering, Ecole des Mines de Paris; MBA, Corps des Mines. Formerly: National Expert to the European Competition Directorate; Head of the Economic Development Department, France's northern region; Adviser for International and European Affairs to the Minister of France in charge of energy, telecommunications and industry; senior executive in a number of companies, including Alcatel-Lucent China, Gas de France Mexico and Degremont France; 2009-14, President, GDF SUEZ China. 2014-2017, Member of the Executive Commitee and Director Research & Technologies (CTO) ENGIE (formerly GDF SUEZ). 2018, Founder and CEO of Hydrogen Advisors. Board Member of French Institute of Petroleum and New Energies since 2014. Elected President of Hydrogen Europe 2016-2017 and Chairman of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (EU fund for the sector). Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum. Member, Young Global Leaders of the France-China Foundation and Young Global Leaders of the World Cities Summit.

Nicole Schwab

Co-Head, Nature Positive Pillar; Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

Nicole Schwab is Co-Head of the Nature Positive Pillar at the World Economic Forum, and member of the Executive Committee. In that role she oversees the Forum’s work on the transition to a nature-positive economy, as well as 1t.org, the Forum’s trillion trees platform focusing on restoration and conservation of forest landscapes. Prior to joining the Forum, she served as a consultant and strategic advisor to non-profit organizations focusing on forest and ocean conservation and restoration, including National Geographic Society’s Campaign for Nature. With a scientific and public policy background, she started her career working on health policy in the Andes for the Government of Bolivia and the World Bank, before returning to Europe to become Founding Director of the Forum of Young Global Leaders – which she currently chairs – and co-founding EDGE Certified Foundation, a business certification standard for gender equality in the workplace.

Klaus Schweinsberg

Chairman and Founder, Center for Strategy and Higher Leadership, Germany

Prof. Klaus Schweinsberg is Chairman of the Centre for Strategy and Higher Leadership and Founding Member of the European Center of Digital Competitiveness at ESCP Business School. He is a personal advisor to eminent CEO in Europe, Asia and the US. Klaus is a senior lecturer at the General Staff College of the German Armed Forces. He is Deputy Chairman of the Lennart-Bernadotte-Foundation, Chairman of Meisterkreis and Advisory Board Member of HSBC Germany. He earned a PhD in Economics at the University of Fribourg (CH) after having studied economics and communication sciences at the Universities of Fribourg, Siena and St. Andrews. He startet his career with Bertelsmann/Gruner+Jahr Publishing House as a Editor at Financial Times Germany and Editor in Chief of Impulse and Capital Business Magazines. He is a Member of the Papal Foundation Centesimus Annus and serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Order of Malta - one of the oldest institutions in the humanitarian field.

Robyn Scott

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Apolitical, United Kingdom

BSc in Bioinformatics, Auckland University; MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise, Gates Scholar, Cambridge University. Social entrepreneur and author. Formerly, co-founded Brothers for All, which provides entrepreneurship and coding skills to at-risk youth and women, offenders and ex-offenders in Southern Africa, and OneLeap, which helps large corporates be more innovative by working with experienced entrepreneurs. Currently, Co-Founder and CEO, Apolitical, which tells stories of inventive and effective solutions in the public service globally, and connects the innovators behind what's working in government. Ambassador, Access to Medicine Index. Author of a memoir about growing up in Botswana against the AIDS epidemic; currently writing second book, the true story of maximum security prisoners who adopted AIDS orphans.

Divya Seshamani

Managing Partner, Greensphere Capital, United Kingdom

BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Oxford; MBA, Harvard Business School. Twenty-five years of experience in private equity from mid-cap PE to large-scale infrastructure. Former Partner, TPG, a global private equity house; has worked at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Unilever Ventures, Parthenon and Goldman Sachs. Currently, Managing Partner and Founder, Greensphere Capital LLP, a sustainable investment firm. Former two-term Council Member, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Currently, Non-Executive Director, Forterra. Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Passionate supporter of various environmental charities in the Pacific Northwest.

Yulia Shakhnovskaya

Founder, Aubaree Group, Spain

Ms. Shakhnovskaya was born in 1979 and graduated from Faculty of Law, Moscow State University in 2001. She has worked in Russian and international law firms, then held numerous leadership positions at RAO UES, the former electric power monopoly of Russia. At the time, the company underwent a period of extraordinary reorganization as the liberalisation of utility market was happening in Russia. In 2008-2009 as Director of the Iris Art Support and Development Foundation she managed the creation and construction of the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture and organization of large-scale projects, including exhibitions of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and François Pinault Foundation collection. The Garage Center has become the leading modern art exhibition centre in Russia. Since 2009 she held leading positions at the Polytechnic Museum, national science and technology museum first as the CEO of the Polytechnic Museum Development Foundation leading an unprecedented $500m fundraising campaign for the Museum's new building and the renovation of its historical building. Since 2013, she is the CEO of the Polytechnic Museum itself leading its transformation from an old-style Soviet institution to a modern science museum.

H.R.H. Anjhula Mya Singh Bais

Chair, International Board, Amnesty International, United Kingdom

Described by the Sunday Times as “an activist, academic, and an aristocrat out to shatter myths surrounding mental illness and psychology”, Dr. Anjhula Mya Singh Bais is an international psychology trauma specialist, Founder and Director of Fourth Dimension Consultancy, and the Chair of the International Board of Amnesty International. Dr. Bais's focus is human rights and mental health through a feminist lens. She was a thought leader and strategist inspiring on psychology, leadership, and human rights on her Lite FM radio show Mind Matters which had a weekly listenership of 1 million. Named a Fellow of the Apolitical Academy, Prestige Magazine's 40 Under 40, and bestowed the Global Citizen Psychologist Citation from the American Psychological Association, Bais is an alumni of Lady Shri Ram College, University College London, Columbia University, The Chicago School, a member of YPO and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. With two decades in the international fashion industry as a model and named a super model by Vogue, Bais's prerequisite for appearing on covers is that staunch attention is paid to body positivity. She has received Savvy's people's choice award for being the role model women most believed in.

Jens Martin Skibsted

Partner, Manyone A/S, Denmark

1994, graduate, ESEC Film School, Paris; 1998, degree in Philosophy, Copenhagen University; 2000, degree in Project Management, University of California, Berkeley; 2011, degree in Cross Media Communication, Copenhagen University. Founder/Partner, Skibsted ID, KiBiSi, Manyone, design consultancies; Founder Ogojiii, African design innovation media. Founder, Biomega, bicycle and urban mobility company. Works collected by Cnap, MoMA, Designmuseum Danmark and SFMoMA; Former member of the Board: Danish Design Coucil (Chair), Design2innovate (Vice-Chair); Danish Design Center; Member of the board: Danfoss Foundation. Co-Author, Expand: Stretching the Future by Design, Instant Icon, Tilbage til Virkeligheden (Back To Reality). Author, blog column in Fast Company, Huffington Post, Core77. Recipient of awards: Wallpaper Design Award; I.D. Consumer Design; Red Dot Award, IF, Good Design Award; European 40 under 40. Member, World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Urban Mobility Transitions."

David Skilling

Founding Director, Landfall Strategy Group BV, Netherlands

Dr David Skilling is the founding Director of Landfall Strategy Group, an economic and policy advisory firm based in the Netherlands and Singapore. David advises governments, companies, and financial institutions in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe on the impact of global macro, globalisation, and geopolitics, from a small advanced economy perspective. David writes regularly on global economic and political issues, including in a column in Singapore's Straits Times as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, and Nikkei Asian Review. David has recently served as a Senior Advisor to the McKinsey Centre for Government; as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Trade in New Zealand; and as a Fellow at Singapore’s Civil Service College. Previously, David was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company in Singapore, as well as being a Senior Fellow with the McKinsey Global Institute. Prior to joining McKinsey at the start of 2009, David was the founding Chief Executive of the New Zealand Institute, a privately funded, non-partisan think-tank. Until 2003, he was a Principal Advisor at the New Zealand Treasury, where he worked primarily on economic growth issues. David has a PhD in Public Policy and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University, as well as a Master's of Commerce (Hons) in Economics from the University of Auckland.