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.

Chikara Funabashi

Project Director, Public-Private Joint Project for Overseas Education Promotion, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Japan

Formerly: worked on a subway development project in Jakarta; for Itochu Corporation on an airport construction in the Philippines; and at a major trading firm in Japan. 2000, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Willseed, a company that offers consulting and training services to more than 350 major companies and 600 schools in Japan. Co-Chairperson, Beyond Tomorrow, an organization which was established by several Japanese Young Global Leaders after the tsunami, 3/11. It offers scholarships and provides leadership training to young people to enable them to pursue their dreams and become leaders of tomorrow. Adjunct Professor, MBA programme, Waseda Business School. Member, Structural Reform Committee, responsible for the promotion of special economic zones. Member, Asia Society.

Lord Gadhia of Northwood

Member of the House of Lords, House of Lords of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom

Graduate in Economics, University of Cambridge; Sloan Fellow, London Business School. Investment Banker; 1991-98, with Baring Brothers, including Director; 1998, Chief Executive, Manek Investment Managers; 2001-08, Managing Director, ABN AMRO; 2008-10, Managing Director and Head, Advisory, Barclays Capital; 2010-15, Senior Managing Director, Blackstone; 2014-2022, Member of the Board, UK Government Investments. Currently Member of the Board of the Court of the Bank of England; Rolls-Royce Holdings plc; Taylor Wimpey plc, Compare The Market Limited; Bourne Leisure and Accord Healthcare. Appointed as Member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament in August 2016. Former Trustee: Guy's & St Thomas' Charity; National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, UK. Current Chair: British Asian Trust, established by His Majesty King Charles.

Alessandra Galloni

Editor-in-Chief, Reuters, Canada

Graduate, Harvard University; Master’s degree, London School of Economics. Formerly: 13 years at the Wall Street Journal in various positions as correspondent, economics and business writer and editor in New York, London, Paris and Rome. September 2013, joined Reuters as Editor of the Southern Europe bureau; since January 2016, Reuters Global News Editor, based in London. Co-Author of “From the End of the Earth to Rome,” an e-book on Pope Francis. Recipient of several awards, including an Overseas Press Club Award in the US and a UK Business Journalist of the Year Award.

Amy Gao Chao

Founder, Shanghai May Foundation, People's Republic of China

Amy Gao comes from Non-profit background. Her passion in making change in the education field led to her own initiative, the May Foundation that focuses on helping college students build capacity. Gao has a masters degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Javier Garcia-Martinez

Professor, University of Alicante, Spain

President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Previously, he served as a member of the Executive Committee.
Founder of the technology-based company Rive Technology, which markets the technology he developed during his Fulbright postdoctoral stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since 2012, the catalysts that Rive Technology sells are used in several refineries, significantly increasing fuel production and the energy efficiency of the process. In 2019, W. R. GRACE acquired Rive Technology.
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory of the University of Alicante (UA) where he leads an international team working on the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for the production of chemicals and energy.
Founder and President of Celera, a program that identifies young people with exceptional talent in Spain and provides them with the necessary tools to enhance their personal and professional abilities to make the most of their potential.
In June 2014, he was awarded the King Jaime I Award, and in 2015 the Emerging Researcher Award from the American Chemical Society. In the summer of 2017, Javier was recognized by the American Chemical Society with the Kathryn C. Hach Award as the best US entrepreneur in the chemical sector. Javier is a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network and Young Global Leader and Global Young Academy Alumni. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society.

Badruun Gardi

Co-Founder, GerHub, Mongolia

Badruun Gardi is co-founder of GerHub, a nonprofit social innovation firm that develops creative solutions to the challenges caused by rapid urbanization in Mongolia. GerHub primarily works in the ger areas of Ulaanbaatar, where over 60 percent of the city’s residents live, with little access to basic infrastructure for water, sewage, and heating. For the historically mobile society of Mongolia, crowded and sedentary urban living requires significant adjustments in housing and social structures. A key focus for GerHub is adapting the ger, traditional nomadic dwelling, to be more suitable in an urban context. Badruun collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders to develop innovative interventions and to nurture a new generation of creative problem solvers.

A lifelong fan of film and the performing arts, Badruun was until recently a creative executive at Salmira Productions, a company that develops, finances, and produces thought-provoking and conversation-catalyzing projects in film, theatre, television, and podcasts.

Badruun serves on the boards of The Asia Foundation, Arts Council of Mongolia, Mongolia Education Initiative, and Smart Air Mongolia. He was a 2023 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and communication from Stanford University.

Katherine Garrett-Cox

Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management, Gulf International Bank (UK), United Kingdom

BA (Hons), History, Durham University. Chief Executive Officer, GIB Asset Management. Operating between London and New York, the business was established in 1975 and focuses on client-related activities in asset management and treasury. GIB UK's asset management strategy is focused on scaling and mobilizing capital in support of sustainable investment strategies, across equities and fixed income. Formerly Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer, Alliance Trust PLC, one of Europe’s largest providers of sustainable and responsible investment funds. Chair, Clean Air Fund; Chair, CDP Worldwide Board. Former Member: Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG (2011-2020); UK Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group; Scottish Business Board; Commission for the Green Investment Bank; Steering Group, Capital Markets Climate Initiative; Executive Committee, World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Founder Member, Advisory Council of The CityUK. Former British Business Ambassador for Financial Services. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2006). Member of the Foundation Board of Young Global Leaders until December 2019 and former Member of the Board of Trustees, Chair, Global Agenda Council on Values (2012-14), World Economic Forum. Patron, City Week UK. Recipient of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), New Year's Honours 2014.

Kate Garvey

Co-Founder, Project Everyone, United Kingdom

Kate Garvey is Director of Freud Communications, where she specializes in promoting global campaigns and issues, including the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Product (RED), Live Earth, tcktcktck, 1Goal: Education for All, Gimme Shelter Campaign for UNHCR, and Tony Blair Faith Foundation Maternal Mortality campaign. Previously, she worked for Bob Geldof and Richard Curtis on the Make Poverty History Campaign and Live 8 concerts. Her career began in politics where, from 1997 until 2005, she worked for Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street in the Prime Minister's Private Office. Garvey was responsible for the presentation and planning of the prime minister's events and visits, domestically and abroad, as well as major roles in the 1997 and 2001 general elections and running Tony Blair's election tour in 2005.

Barbara Garza

Operations & Product Strategist, Mexico

Barbara is a dynamic and visionary leader who has spearheaded impactful projects that prioritize inclusivity and innovation. Her extensive experience in multicultural settings has enabled her to gain valuable insights into diverse realities and needs, equipping her to tackle challenges with creativity and ingenuity. 

Throughout her career, Barbara has been passionate about driving change, promoting equality, and fostering innovation in a range of industries, including healthcare, ridesharing, food delivery, and crypto. She has held key roles in global startups, where she has made significant contributions to operations, strategy, and product development. 

Barbara earned a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from ITESM and a Certificate in Global Management from Grenoble Ecole de Management. She has been recognized as one of the 500 Latin Americans in 2022 by Bloomberg Línea, a prestigious honor awarded to only 54 Mexicans who are making significant contributions to business development and the economic landscape. In addition, she has been named one of the 50 Women of Impact in Latin America by Bloomberg Línea and has been included in Expansión's 30 promesas in Mexico, a list that recognizes young professionals under 40 who are making a meaningful impact in the business world.

Agon Gashi

Chief Executive Officer, Meridian, Kosovo

Agon is born and lives in Pristina, Kosovo. Agon graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Bard College in New York and he also completed a leadership program at IMD in Switzerland a few years later.

Agon joined his family business in June 2010, and in two years, he co-founded Meridian Express, a chain of neighborhood stores, now one of the leading retail companies in the country. In 2020, Agon managed to acquire 100% of SPAR Kosovo, an international chain of supermarkets.

Agon is a very active member of society and positively transforms Kosovo's business environment by showing that we can all do well by doing good. He is Vice-Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, founder and board member of Kosovo CSR Network, founder and board member of the Kosovo Retail Association, and a signatory of WEPs (Women's Empowerment Principles).

In 2018, Agon led Meridian to become a New Champion at the World Economic Forum. Agon is currently the CEO of two retail companies in Kosovo (Meridian Express and SPAR) with more than 1000 employees and concrete plans to further expansion locally and regionally.

Maelle Gavet

Chief Executive Officer, Techstars, USA

Maëlle Gavet is CEO of Techstars. She has been named one of Fortune's 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and was on Time Magazine's list of the 25 Top "Female Techpreuners."

An entrepreneur at heart, Maëlle founded her first business at sixteen and went on to start two other companies. She has been a senior executive at numerous large tech companies around the world, including Ozon, the Priceline Group (OpenTable, Kayak, Booking.com) and Compass. She was also a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group for 6 years.

Author of the widely-acclaimed book Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It (Wiley, 2020), she is currently based in New York City.

Simón Gaviria Muñoz

Senior Fellow, New York University, Colombia

Economist from Pennsylvania University, emphasis in Mathematics, Econometrics and Political Sciences, with award-winning thesis about pension’s reform. He served as a Director of the Colombian Liberal Party. He was elected as member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia during two consecutive terms. In his early career, he worked as a financial analyst at JP MORGAN CHASE CORPORATE FINANCE in New York. Since August 2014, he is the General Director of the National Planning Department (DNP) of Colombia.