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.

Dana Leong

Musician and Founder, TEKTONIKmusic.org, USA

Dana Leong is a two-time Grammy award winning musician, composer, and producer. Considered by many to be the world’s top electric cellist, he has also been referred to as world’s top trombone player by members of the world renowned Balkan Beat Box. Dana’s music spans across multiple genres. His distinctive sound is an emotionally mesmerizing combination of jazz, healing music, electronic dance and hip hop. He has taught Jazz at Stanford University from the age of 16; completed the Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; has given conference opening musical speeches and presentations at TEDxShanghai and the US OPEN Tennis Championship; won two Grammys in Latin Jazz for his collaboration with Paquito D’rivera; worked with Kanye West and Sean P. Diddy Combs in Hip-Hop, and with DJ A-Trak and DJ Qbert in EDM; been a guest musical director for “Fela” on Broadway; and has composed themes for international brands such as Hermès, Virgin Galactic, Porsche and Mont Blanc. A leading innovator at the intersection of music, technology and wellness, Dana has performed healing music at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Congress and Summer Davos Closing Ceremonies and is a composer on a ‘musicians against violence’ album produced by Harry Belafonte. He also worked with Yamaha to consult on the design of the “Silent Cello”, serves as a U.S. Musical Ambassador and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Follow him at @danaleongmusic

Leo Schlesinger

Founding Curator and Alumni, Mexico City Hub, Aliat Universidades, Mexico

Leo Schlesinger has an MBA from London Business School and additional courses at LBS, Yale, Harvard and Michigan University. He began his professional career in 1992 at Sun Chemical in New York and then joined Citigroup´s Global Leadership Program which took him to Santiago, Sao Paulo and London where he stayed until 2002 when he moved to Cigna International Europe and then Cigna USA. In 2005 he joined Gruponueva, a USD 1.4BN Swiss Private Equity fund as Corporate Vice President and he sat at the boards of the controlled companies (Masisa, Amanco, Plycem) where he restructured, merged and sold several of them. In 2007 Leo moved to Mexico as the CEO of Masisa.

In 2015 he became the CEO of Aliat Universidades (a PE company from Tresalia Capital); one of the major higher education private-for profit groups with presence in 15 Mexican states, +50 campus and 54,000 students. Aliat it’s the fastest growing Private for profit University group in Mexico and it includes 16 higher education institutions/ brands that teach from High School, Bachelors, Master and post graduate degrees both in traditional classrooms and online.

Leo in 2010 he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, also he has been awarded the Global SEN award as the CEO of the year by the Young Presidents Organization, was named Chairman of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Natural Capital, and currently is the president of the Young Presidents Organization Mexico City Chapter.
He also is a board member of KIO Networks, Subastas Ventura, a mentor at Endeavor and Ashoka and the Vice President of the Board of Trustees at the American School Foundation. He is the writer of “Mi mejor yo” (“my best self”) published by Pearson which has sold over 40,000 copies.

Leo Varadkar

Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament), Parliament of Ireland, Ireland

Studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and qualified as a General Practitioner. Former Member and Deputy Mayor of Fingal County Council. 2007, first elected to Dáil Eireann, Ireland (House of Representatives) as the TD (Member of the House of Representatives) for Dublin West. 2011-14, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. 2014-16, Minister for Health. 2016-17, Minister for Social Protection. Since June 2017, Leader of the Fine Gael Party and Taoiseach.