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.
Christoph Sutter
Christoph Sutter is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur in the field of sustainable development with a focus on renewable energy. He is a Member of the Management Board and Head Renewable Energies at Axpo Power AG. Before joining Axpo, he was the CEO of South Pole Group, a company he co-founded in 2006 and that is globally active in the area of climate change and renewable energy. Prior to that he worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company. He has done his PhD on the subject of sustainability assessment of energy projects at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Christoph Sutter is an investor and non-executive Board member of several companies in the field of sustainable development. He was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation.
Jacek Szwajcowski
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pelion S.A., a company with a 34-year history of operations in the healthcare sector. Graduate of Technical University of Lodz. As a part of postgraduate education completed courses at Harvard Kennedy School, George Mason University, Said Business School – University of Oxford and Jackson Institute for Global Affairs – Yale University. Member of the Supervisory Board of several companies, including listed company Pharmena S.A.. In addition to involvement in the further development of the company, Jacek engages in the Polish Business Roundtable, an organization associating owners and key manager of the largest Polish enterprises, and companies operating in Poland, serving as a President of the association until May 2019 and currently being its Member. Initiator of the "I care for my health" Foundation, whose statutory mission is to provide financial assistance to those who cannot afford to buy essential medicines. Currently the Foundation focuses mainly at Seniors support. As a passionate of the tradition of Polish pharmacy, he initiated the opening of a private Pharmacy Museum in Lodz. Publisher of series of monographs about the most famous Polish pharmacies.
Stacey Tank
In addition to being the first woman and youngest executive to hold her position, Stacey Tank serves five non-profit boards, including those focused on environmental impact and the arts.
Lucian Tarnowski
Lucian Tarnowski, Founding Curator, United Planet & UP.Game
The UP Game is a time traveling immersive reality to create mythologies from a thriving future. Lucian is spent 2 years designing a platform for a planetary unifying narrative to respond to the crisis of meaning and trust. This mission is to deliver on the decade of transformation and seed the vision for a Planetary Civilization in harmony with all life. Lucian believes we succeed by reverse engineering the story from the future. Lucian is a Gaian on a mission to serve the birthing of the Planetary Age.
Lucian has a decade of experience in designing and powering online communities that connect diverse stakeholders around a shared purpose. Communities support virtual and distributed teams to scale and achieve their collaboration, knowledge sharing and problem-solving goals. For 10 years he was Founder & CEO of BraveNew which enabled Fortune 1000 clients such as GE, and collaboratives such as Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Geinsinger Health to cooperate and collaborate around a shared purpose.
Lucian has been honoured as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. He has been an active attendee of Davos and other World Economic Forum meetings for 14 years. He continues to research and experiment around the social science behind communities, knowledge sharing and societal transformation.
Since 2002, he has run Take Heart India, a 53-year-old no overheads charity started by his father that provides blind and handicapped people in rural India with the vocational employment skills to required to get lifelong employment.
He has spoken at gatherings such as Davos, various World Economic Forum meetings, TEDx, The China Digital Summit, Impact Summit and for companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Oracle, Pearson, IBM and PWC. He speaks to audiences around the world about communities and the convergence of talent, knowledge and capital and the impact on society.
Rodrigo Tavares
Founder and CEO of the London-based Granito Group, a company that advances the sustainable economy through strategy consulting, financial advisory, and policy & research. The Group has collaborated with multiple financial organizations (institutional investors, asset managers, family offices, regulators) in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America to enable their transition to a sustainable economy. In 2022 the Group won the “Best ESG Financial Advisory Firm” (Ethical Finance Awards) and the “Most Pioneering Thought-Leader in PE Investment & ESG Strategies 2021” (M&A Awards).
Invited Full Professor of Sustainable Finance at NOVA School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), in Portugal.
He holds over 15 years of experience in government and international organizations working with foreign affairs and economic cooperation. In 2008-2010 he was invited by the UN Secretariat to write Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's annual reports on Africa's development. From 2011 to 2014 served as Head of the São Paulo State Government's Office of Foreign Affairs.
His academic path includes the universities of Harvard (Senior Research Fellow), Columbia (Research Fellow on a postdoc grant), Gothenburg (Ph.D.), and California, Berkeley (Visiting Research Fellow). Author of 4 books, including “Paradiplomacy: Cities and States as Global Players” (Oxford University Press).
He was nominated Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2017), and StartUp Portugal Ambassador (2018). Columnist at Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil) and Expresso (Portugal).
Natznet Tesfay
Ms. Natznet Tesfay leads the Economics and Country Risk Analysis group, which has over 150 experts around the world forecasting the economic, sovereign risk and granular country risk outlooks for 206 countries and geographies as well as comparative performance of over 80 industries and consumer markets globally. Natznet’s areas of focus include geopolitical competition, emerging market debt vulnerabilities, energy transition and global supply chain re-alignment. For over a decade, Ms. Tesfay led Africa analysis group, developing the regional risk indicator and horizon scanning infrastructure, drawing on a range of methodologies such as geospatial analysis, influence mapping and scenario modelling techniques. Natznet supports business growth in emerging markets, advising C-level executives on market entry and risk management, and governments on leveraging their natural resource potential for sustainable economic growth. She regularly speaks in major media outlets, and at high-level conferences. Previously, she had advised on the development of free trade zones, foreign policy and the mining sector in the Horn of Africa. Ms. Tesfay’s degrees include a BA in Government from Harvard University and a MSc in Urbanization and Development from the London School of Economics.
Fagun Thakrar
Fagun Thakrar is a Founder and CEO, an award-winning & critically acclaimed actor, film director, a doctor and a global health ambassador.
Fagun was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2023.
Fagun began her education studying Medicine at the University College London where she specialized in Neuroscience. She then went on to study a range of disciplines to Master’s level. Fagun holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, Masters in Acting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the UK and Film Directing from the US.
As an actor, Fagun has appeared in several Hollywood and international films and has starred alongside Academy Award winners. Her films, released in cinemas internationally, have been selected for festivals and have won awards. Fagun’s focus is cinematic roles with strong intellectual meaningful content that encourages positive global change.
As a writer-director Fagun further explores the power of creativity and storytelling through film to create social-impact content. Expanding upon her practical experience and academic research carried out at the University of Cambridge, Fagun established The Purpose Movie Studio, where she serves as the Founder and CEO.
Fagun has recently expanded her vision with an innovative venture that revolutionizes purpose-driven cinema by integrating Artificial Intelligence in filmmaking. This approach creates a powerful combination of human creative talent and artificial intelligence, crafting some of the finest films of our era. The Studio focuses on the power of storytelling through films and documentaries to create purpose-driven content that impacts positive change worldwide.
Fagun actively engages in both local and global non-profit initiatives, focusing on children, girls, women, and the healthcare sector. She has earned recognition as a worldwide advocate for health and well-being, working with underprivileged children, world leaders, and presidents.
Fagun is the Global Ambassador and spokesperson for many non-profits, including The Women’s Brain Project. Building on her experience in this field, Fagun founded her own non-profit, The Creatively Inspired Life Foundation, that is dedicated to empowering young people through creativity.
Fagun’s expertise spans three major disciplines: Creativity and Storytelling in Global Influence; Innovating at the Intersection of Film and Artificial Intelligence; and Leading Transformational Initiatives in Healthcare and Non-Profits.
Under Fagun’s leadership she has profoundly impacted and touched the lives of millions of people. Fagun currently lives and works between the UK and the US. Fagun’s life story is one of impactful transformation, driven by her core mission to inspire people, transform lives, and drive positive global change.
Anahita Thoms
Anahita Thoms is an award-winning lawyer who focuses her practice on global investigations, in the field of sustainability and international trade law, including sanctions, export controls, foreign investment review, data protection, business and human rights. She leads Baker McKenzie's International Trade Practice in Germany and is a Member of the firm's Europe, Middle East and African regional Steering Committee for the Compliance & Investigations Group. She is a Board Member of Atlantik-Brücke, serves on the National Committee of Unicef Germany, Chairwoman of the ESG board of a DAX40 Company and is Advisory Board Member of the Sustainable Finance Council of the German Federal Government. She is a regularly interviewed by media outlets as an expert and is a speaker at international conferences on diverse topics, such as trade, sustainability, diversity and ethics. Anahita is committed to giving back to society and is passionate about human rights and the fight against modern slavery.
Serpil Timuray
Serpil Timuray, Chief Executive, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Region, joined the Executive Committee on 1 January 2014. Serpil joined Vodafone as Chief Executive of Vodafone Turkey in January 2009 and was appointed as a Director on the Board of Vodacom Group in South Africa in September 2012. She was appointed to the Boards of Vodafone India, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Safaricom Kenya in November 2013, Vodafone Egypt in January 2014 and Vodafone Qatar in June 2014.
Serpil was previously General Manager of Danone Turkey from 2002-2008. She began her career in 1991 in marketing at Procter & Gamble where she was later appointed to the Executive Committee of Procter & Gamble Turkey.
Serpil is currently the Chairperson of the Board of YASED (International Investors Association), Vice-Chairperson of the Board of DEIK-TIIK (Turkish-British Business Council of Foreign Economic Relations), a Board Member of TOBB-GGK (Young Entrepreneurs Council of Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges) and sits on the Board of Trustees at Koc University, Turkey.
Irene Tinagli
Irene Tinagli is an economist, serving as an advisor for firms and governments on innovation and labor policies. From Feb 2013 to March 2018 she was a member of the Italian Parliament and of the permanent Committee on Labor and Employment. Previously she was an Academic, teaching and conducting research at the University Carlos III in Madrid. Her research focused on policies for innovation, creativity and regional development, studying and benchmarking hundreds of cities and regions worldwide. Her work on the creative potential of cities and regions has been featured in international journals such as Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times. She served as an Expert on Creativity and Innovation for the European Commission and consulted for the United Nations (UNDESA) as well as for several national and regional governments. She has been a columnist for the Italian newspaper La Stampa and is a published author. She received her PhD and Master's of Science in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Iliyana Tsanova
Iliyana is Deputy Director-General and Chief Risk Officer at DG Budget of the European Commission. Prior to that, she was Deputy Managing Director of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), an EUR 26 billion-guarantee facility launched jointly by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group to boost and support investments in the European Union. She has over ten years of experience in development finance with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, UK. Iliyana has held several board positions in international infrastructure companies and investment funds. In 2013 and 2014, Iliyana was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in two consecutive caretaker governments in Bulgaria. She holds MSc in Finance from the University for National and World Economy, Bulgaria and a postgraduate diploma in Financial Management from George Washington University, USA.
David Upton
David is based in London and has a broad remit driving forward the strategy of the Private Bank and Wealth Management business for Barclays, both in the UK and internationally. He has a background in executive governance, strategy development, corporate affairs, and Reputation and Compliance Risk management.