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.

Leslie Dewan

Chief Executive Officer, Tailfin Technology, USA

BSc in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, MIT; 2013, PhD in Nuclear Engineering, MIT, with a research focus on computational nuclear materials. Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Transatomic Power, a nuclear reactor design company developing sustainable, fuel-efficient power plants. Member, MIT Corporation, MIT’s board of trustees. Named; a TIME Magazine 30 People Under 30 Changing the World; MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35; National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

Rajeeb Dey

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Learnerbly, United Kingdom

1st Class Hons in Economics and Management, University of Oxford. Founder & CEO of Learnerbly - a curated marketplace of the best professional learning content including coaching, courses, conferences, books, and more. Learnerbly partners with 100+ global employers to upskill and fuel employee performance and to create a culture of learning where employees are empowered to own their professional development. Previously Founder of Enternships.com, connecting talent 7000+ start-ups and innovative firms and co-founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by the Prime Minister in 2011. Rajeeb was named one of 1000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard; recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion, by Her Majesty (2013) & appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2016.

Roopa Dhatt

Executive Director Emerita, Co-Founder, Women in Global Health, USA

Dr. Roopa Dhatt is a passionate advocate for gender equality in global health and a leading voice in the movement to correct the gender imbalance in global health leadership. She is also a practicing Internal Medicine physician in Washington, D.C. Dr. Dhatt is particularly committed to addressing issues of power, privilege, and intersectionality that keep many women from global health leadership roles and to opening up spaces for the voices of these women to be heard. Determined to build a movement to transform women’s leadership opportunities in health, Dr. Dhatt co-founded Women in Global Health in 2015. Today, Women in Global Health has 58 chapters, 100,000 supporters in more than 100 countries, and continues to grow. Dr. Dhatt, was the Executive Director, where she led the global team and its network of chapters drive change by mobilizing a diverse group of emerging women health leaders, advocating for governments and global health leaders to meet commitments made, and holding those leaders to account. Dr. Dhatt has worked in global health for nearly 15 years, collaborating with 120+ countries. She holds numerous advisory and board roles. She advises global health institutions on matters of the health workforce, gender equity, and universal health coverage. Dr. Dhatt was recognized in the Gender Equality Top 100, the most influential people in global policy. She was on the Lancet COVID-19 Commission. She is a former W7 Germany Advisor and W7 Japan Advisor on advocating feminist agendas to the G7 governments (2023), a member of the Global Council on SDG3, a member of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Scientific Advisory Board, and is a member of the Virchow Prize Committee. She was invited as a public delegate to the historic U.S. Delegation to the United Nations 65th Commission of Status of Women Meeting in March 2021, which was led by Vice President Kamala Harris. She has published in the Lancet, British Medical Journal (BMJ), and Forbes and has been interviewed in National Geographic, Nature, NPR, EuroNews, and numerous other channels.

Illac Diaz

Founder and Executive Director, Liter of Light, Philippines

Eva Dichand

Editor, Heute, Austria

Eva Dichand is the publisher of Heute, an Austrian freesheet newspaper with 506,000 copies daily. Heute was founded in 2004 and is today Austria's strongest growing newspaper and, even in the economic crisis, a huge business success. Previously, Dichand worked for UnternehmensInvest, Austria's leading stock listed private equity fund. Dichand graduated from the Economic University of Vienna. Beside Heute, which is run totally separately and on its own, the family owns 50% of Austria's largest Mediagroup Mediaprint (Kronen Zeitung, kroneradio, Kurier).

Porter Diehl

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Bridgewater Associates, USA

Porter joined Bridgewater in 2009 and is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer. He partners with the CEO to set and drive the strategic goals and oversee the day-to-day management of the firm. Previously, Porter was Lead of Portfolio Analytics, working closely with our co-CIOs to evolve our portfolio construction process, evaluate and manage investment risks, and design investment strategies for clients. His work has included evolving our risk controls and event risk strategy, researching how to best combine beta and alpha, and systemizing our portfolio construction and trade generation logic. He is a member of the firm's Commercial and Business Strategy Committee, co-chair of the Operating Committee, and a Partner. Porter is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Abdigani Diriye

Co-Founder, Odola, Kenya

Dr. Abdigani Diriye is a technology leader and entrepreneur who is having an impact in the AI and Fintech fields. Dr. Abdigani is the co-founder of Odola. A neobank serving migrants. He has held positions in industry and academia at Amazon, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, and Carnegie Mellon University where he led the development and deployment of machine learning-based systems and voice technologies to millions of people in the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Abdigani has commercialized various technologies and published over 50 papers and patents and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from University College London and an Executive MBA from INSEAD.

In acknowledgement to his contribution to innovation, Dr. Abdigani is a recipient of a TED Fellowship, Next Einstein Forum Fellowship, and NSF Fellowship and has been selected by MIT Technology Review, Quartz, and Institut Choiseul as one of the leading innovators and global leaders. Dr. Abdigani contributes to the research community and sits on the program committee of several Special Interest Groups and conferences including SIGIR, CHIIR, RecSys, and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

Diskul Dispanadda

Chief Executive Officer, Doi Tung Development Project, Thailand

M.L. Dispanadda Diskul (Duke) is the Chief Executive Officer of Mae Fah Luang Foundation. He has an extensive background in sustainable development having been in charge of the foundation's rural development initiatives both domestically and internationally. He leads the strategic mission and vision, and is the key representative disseminating the foundation's core principles and knowledge as well as advising on policy in major forums. Duke oversees the foundation's flagship social enterprise, the Doi Tung Development Project and the brand's five different social businesses. He is very active in the Thailand social enterprise scene where he is a member of Thailand Social Enterprise Board. In 2019, he co-founded and was elected President of the Social Enterprise Thailand Association (SE Thailand), a platform to help build capacity for new enterprises in Thailand. Duke has a Masters in Business Administration from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University.

Mei Ling Doery

Managing Director, MDMD Pty Ltd, Australia

Mei Ling is a medical doctor strategist at the intersection of medicine, technology and design with a particular interest systems transformation and the emotional factors that impact decision-making in healthcare.Credentialed as the youngest Ministerial appointment to the Board of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (1996-2011), Mei Ling guided the transition to digital grant-making systems for the AUD $32M annual investment budget.

Her perspective on contemporary health challenges is informed by roles as medical advisor for the Department of Veteran Affairs(2016 - current), Australian Defence Force (2007-2009), team doctor for an AFL Football Team (2005-2008), as Executive Physician at BUPA Wellness (2012-2014), Board Member to the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and as independent advisor to several organisations including the Parliament of Victoria, Singtel and Commonwealth Scientific Research and Industrial Organisation (CSIRO).

A skilled coalition builder, Mei Ling has over 16 years experience within and advising start-up ventures including developing ‘RUPERT’ (Rational Use Protocol for Expert Recommended (Clinical) Testing), Doctors,net,uk and the Live Council initiative, and as advisor to Appete, Umps Health, NebulaHealth, Smileyscope, 8i, Black.ai among many.

As a seasoned public communicator, Mei has been engaged to address audiences for TEDMed, IBM, Art Series Hotel Group, Mallesons, the Department of Small Business Innovation and Trade, the Australian Medical Association, the International Aeronautical Federation, Rock Health, WEF Young Global Leaders Summit, World Congress of Sport and Culture(Tokyo) and UN Sustainable Development Impact Summit

In 2014, Mei was appointed doctor-in- residence for digital agency Portable Studios (named in BRW’s Fast 100 for 2013) and co-hosted the RockHealth speaking tour in Australia. In 2016, Mei Ling co- founded SugarByHalf, became innovation advisor to Nightingale Housing and a Board Member to the Chisholm Institute and Chisholm Online.

In 2017 Mei Ling lead the implementation of a Market Led Proposal to establish an international campus and lifestyle destination for entrepreneurs, investors and connectors in Melbourne. This project was recognised as a major grant recipient by LaunchVic(Victoria’s State Innovation Fund).

Mei Ling holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Medical Science and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Melbourne.

Nobuo Domae

President and Representative Director, Ryohin Keikaku Co. Ltd, Japan

Nobuo Domae is the President of Ryohin Keikaku, whose business is known as MUJI. Before joining Ryohin Keikaku/ MUJI, he was with Fast Retailing / UNIQLO as the Executive Vice-President. Before that, he was a Consultant at McKinsey and Company. Nobuo has a BSc and an MSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

Ola Doudin

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BitOasis, United Arab Emirates

Ola Doudin is the co-founder & CEO of BitOasis, the first and largest regional digital asset platform in the Middle East. She has an engineering background and has worked in tech and security advisory in Ernst & Young in London and engineering research prior to her move back to the region where she got involved in tech entrepreneurship and later started BitOasis. Most recently, Forbes Middle East featured Ola among the ‘Top 10 Women Behind Middle Eastern Tech Brands 2021’.

Ismail Douiri

Co-Chief Executive Officer, Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco

Ismail Douiri is Co-CEO of Attijariwafa Bank, a regional financial institution based in Casablanca Morocco and serving 9.1 million clients in 26 countries in North, West and Central Africa, as well as Western Europe. He joined Attijariwafa Bank in 2004 as VP of Strategy and was promoted in 2005 to Deputy General Manager and in 2008, was appointed by the Board of Directors to Co-CEO. He started his professional career with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland, then joined Casablanca Finance Group, a boutique investment bank based in Morocco. After getting his MBA, he worked for Morgan Stanley in London, for McKinsey & Co. in the North Africa Initiative and founded a mobile internet startup. He holds two engineering degrees from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (Paris) and an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School.