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.

Brian Kaufmann

Head, Private Equity; Portfolio Manager; Member of the Management Committee, Viking Global Investors, USA

Mr. Kaufmann is the Head of Private Equity and a Portfolio Manager for Viking Global Investors, LP, a global investment firm that manages over $40 billion. He is also a member of the firm's Management Committee. From 2010 to 2016, Mr. Kaufmann was a public equity Portfolio Manager and Investment Analyst responsible for investment ideas in the healthcare and life sciences sector. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Kaufmann was an Associate at TA Associates, where he was responsible for originating, researching and executing private equity investments in the healthcare and business services sectors. From 2003 to 2005, he was an Investment Banking Analyst in Merrill Lynch's Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Mr. Kaufmann is a graduate of Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA and was a Baker Scholar, and of Cornell University, where he received a B.S. in applied economics and business management, magna cum laude. In 2021, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Conrod Kelly

Managing Director, MSD, USA

Conrod Kelly is an award-winning marketer and industry leader, as well as a published author and sought-after speaker. Conrod’s tenure at Merck includes commercial leadership of the Diabetes, Anesthesia, Surgery, and Alzheimer’s Franchises. He is currently serving as Merck’s first Executive Director of Health Equity, leveraging data, digital solutions, partnerships, and policy frameworks to improve health outcomes and driving sustainable business and societal value. Prior to joining Merck, Conrod held roles at Johnson & Johnson in diabetes and GlaxoSmithKline in vaccines. In 2020, Conrod was recognized by Medical Marketing & Media’s inaugural 40 Under 40 in Healthcare. His work on the film A Touch of Sugar was a finalist for 33 industry awards and winner of 15. He also received the United Nations SDG Media Award and Top Black in Healthcare Award from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Conrod serves on the SDOH Taskforce and the Global Futures Council at the World Economic Forum. He received his MBA and BS from Florida A & M University and has continued his executive education at The Wharton School at UPenn and Duke University.

Ibram X Kendi

Director, Center for Antiracist Research, Boston University, USA

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is a National Book Award-winning author of fifteen books for adults and children, including nine New York Times bestsellers—five of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor.

Dr. Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest author to win that award. He also authored the international bestseller, How to Be an Antiracist, which was described in the New York Times as “the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.” Dr. Kendi’s other bestsellers include How to Raise an Antiracist; Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, co-edited with Keisha Blain; How to Be a (Young) Antiracist, co-authored with Nic Stone; Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds; and Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

Haley Lowry

Global Sustainability Director, Dow, USA

Haley is a Global Sustainability Director at Dow with 15 years’ experience creating new circular business models and products that integrate social, environmental and commercial goals across CPG, retail, and plastics sectors. She’s found the intersection of business and impact by using her job for good. As a courageous-leader in sustainability, she has shaped one of the largest company risks into growth opportunity. She frequently speaks about plastic waste issues and solutions at Green Biz, USAID, and SXSW and has been published in Sustainable Brands, WEF and the Guardian. Over the years, Haley has held roles in marketing, competitive intelligence and sales at Dow. During her undergraduate degree, Haley worked for Nike focusing on competitive analysis. Haley holds an MBA from the University of Texas. Most recently, during COVID 19, she catalyzed a movement for financially supporting waste pickers, among the world’s most marginalized, but critical to delivering a circular economy for plastic waste. She is passionate about using business as a force for good to solve social and environmental challenges and has completed Harvard Business School’s Creating Shared Value Leadership Program.

Emily Serazin

Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), USA

Emily Serazin is a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Emily is a core member of BCG’s Health Care and Social Impact practices. Within health care, Emily’s focus is on vaccines and global health across the value chain. She also has expertise in digital health and in the formation and optimization of public-private partnerships. Examples of Emily's experience in the commercial health care sector include developing growth and product launch strategies for players in the global vaccines market, leading due diligences, and supporting post-merger integrations. In the realm of global public health, Emily has worked across leading global health institutions such as Gavi, UNICEF, WHO, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to define investment strategies, coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts, prioritize portfolios, and identify key levers to drive uptake in low- and middle-income countries. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Emily has worked extensively with public, private and social sector actors to accelerate the development and deployment of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics.

Liam Sobey

Senior Vice-President: Merchandising, National Sourcing & Liquor, Sobeys Inc., Canada

Nourishing families and communities is part of Liam's DNA. He is a value-driven leader with a passion to feed the world. He is Senior Vice-President of Merchandising, Sourcing & Liquor at Sobeys. Being an active member of his family business, Liam ascribes to its more than century-old tradition of giving back to the community. His motivation to support fairness and equality among communities led him to be the only non-aboriginal executive member of NaMeRes, a not-for-profit group that supports Aboriginal men fighting homelessness and addiction in Canada. Liam is a member of his family firm's governance and business committees. He has founded two investment groups that help next-generation family members learn about the financial markets and the positive impact of investing responsibly for a sustainable future. Liam's passion for family and community has also led him to attend multiple family business seminars, including the Scone Project and the WEF Family Business Conference in Gstaad. Liam is currently a board member of Urban Squash of Toronto and has an MBA from McGill University.

Vasudha Vats

Vice-President, Pfizer, USA

Vasudha Vats has grown several multi-billion dollar businesses in pharma and currently manages one of the highest selling small molecule medicines in the world. Her mission is to not only help patients by delivering high-quality medical therapies, but also to improve care delivery across the entire patient experience. As a leader in healthcare, she has forged and led partnerships across the industry to deliver better outcomes for patients, including patient advocacy groups like the American Diabetes Association, technology (Fitbit), pharmacy (CVS and Walgreens), and government (National Institutes of Health). She is an advocate of supporting emerging thinkers to fuel future societal improvement, actively mentoring emerging biotechnology firms with the New York City Entrepreneurship Lab and having helped to co-found the Chandini Foundation, a charity designed to provide underprivileged youths in developing nations with mentoring support to become ethical, impactful and entrepreneurially minded leaders.

Hitesh Wadhwa

Enterprise Technology and Business Leader, Google Cloud, Google, USA

Hitesh holds a distinguished position as a seasoned leader in Enterprise Technology, Sales, and Business at Google within the United States. In his role, he leads growth and adoption of Google Cloud with large enterprises in Central US. His responsibilities are centered around elevating Technology, particularly in the domains of AI, web3, Cloud, Quantum Computing, and more, to the forefront of large-scale Enterprises and their associated communities. He is also a GenAI Ambassador at Google.

Before joining Google, Hitesh's career encompassed a pivotal role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the 'Principal, Enterprise Business' for a rapidly expanding region, where he orchestrated strategies to expand AWS adoption within substantial and medium-sized organizations.

Prior to his tenure at AWS, he occupied the position of Vice President at Tech Mahindra, the IT division of the Mahindra group. In this capacity, he orchestrated a range of strategic engagements and undertakings within the Telco, Media & Entertainment (CME) sector, leading to a noteworthy growth of Tech Mahindra's business by over $100 million through both organic and inorganic means. Hitesh played an instrumental part in Tech Mahindra's CME vertical, a business segment generating more than $2.5 billion annually. He was selected twice for the company's highly competitive "Shadow Board" program, an exclusive initiative where only six individuals out of over 130,000 employees are chosen each year to shadow the board of directors. As a Shadow Board member, he administered several impactful programs spanning digital transformation, diversity, culture, and sustainability.

Over the course of his extensive 17+ years of professional journey at the intersection of Technology and Business, Hitesh has demonstrated adept leadership in team management, business expansion, strategic endeavors, and effective management of Fortune 500 client relationships. Noteworthy clients include AT&T, USAA, Facebook, Verizon, Oracle, UnitedHealth Group, WarnerMedia, Rakuten, and iHeartMedia, among others.

Hitesh's enthusiasm for Technology is profound, driven by his belief in its potential to address significant global challenges when employed judiciously. In 2021, he was named as a 'Young Global Leader' (YGL) by the World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org/press/2021/03/ygl-class-2021/

He has also been chosen by Forbes for "Forbes Business Development Council", an invitation-only organization for Senior-Level Sales and Business Development Executives

Beyond his professional pursuits, he nurtures a penchant for fine Coffee and Bourbon. During his leisure moments, he cherishes quality time with his family - his wife and two children. Presently, he resides in Austin, Texas, USA.

David Alexander Walcott

Founder and Managing Partner, Novamed, USA

David is a Medical Doctor (MD., Ph.D. MSc.) and Entrepreneur with over 10 years experience as a Founder, Operator and Consultant to several businesses in the Caribbean & Latin America. 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.