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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.

Diane Binder

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Regenopolis, France

Diane is an experienced business executive and social entrepreneur with 20 years of international experience in corporate environments, development organizations and NGOs, mostly in the Mediterranean region and Africa, where she has been developing public-private alliances to foster solutions promoting urban resilience, climate adaptation and mitigation, and the preservation of natural capital.

Diane is the founding partner and CEO of Regenopolis, an international initiative catalyzing solutions for
regenerative cities in Africa, and supporting commercially viable value chains for land restoration and economic development mostly in the Sahel along the Great Green Wall.

Before setting up her own venture, Diane spent 10 years at SUEZ, a global leader in providing water and waste management services to populations and industries, successively as Senior Vice-President for International Development in charge of Africa, and Senior Vice-President for International Relations.

Prior to this, Diane has worked with a number of Development Fiancial Institutions and other international organizations such as the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency, the World Bank and the OECD.

Diane is a member of the French Presidential Council for Africa since 2017, President and co-founder of Action Emploi Réfugiés (AERé), the French leading service accompanying refugees into jobs. AERé is since January 2022 a subsidiary of Groupe SOS, Europe biggest social enterprise, with activities in over 40 countries. Diane has joined SOS Group International Advisory Board in September 2022.

Diane has been honored as a « Young Global Leader » of the World Economic Forum (2019), a « European Young Leader » of the leading think-tank Friends of Europe (2018), is amongst the Choiseul 200 « Economic Leaders for Tomorrow » (2017) and a Rising Talent of the Women’s Forum (2014).

She is a graduate from E.M. Lyon with a MSc in Management, from Georgetown University with a MSc in
Foreign Service and an Honour Certificate in International Business Diplomacy and has been awarded a certificate of Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century Program from Harvard University.

Adam C. Bird

Director, McKinsey & Company, Germany

Adam Bird is a Director with McKinsey & Company and Co-Leader of the Global Media and Entertainment Practice. He advises the top management of leading global media, entertainment, technology and consumer goods companies on critical business issues and leads McKinsey's Digital Marketing Practice, as well as the firm's Global Digital Initiative. Prior to McKinsey, Bird was the youngest Senior Partner with Booz & Company (formerly Booz Allen Hamilton). He founded the European Media and Entertainment Practice and led the Global Consumer and Media Practice. He also served as a Member of Booz Allen Hamilton's and Booz & Company's Board of Directors, the firm's highest governance bodies. Bird is co-author of Customer Centricity: New Opportunities for the Media Industry. He often speaks on media topics at conferences and is cited in leading publications. Bird is a Member of the International Council of the Paley Center for Media and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Munich International School. He is an honours graduate of Wesleyan University.

Matthew Bishop

Member of the Board and Founder, Social Progress Imperative, United Kingdom

Matthew Bishop is a leading writer and social innovator. He spent over 25 years at The Economist, including serving as New York Bureau Chief and other roles including business editor and Wall Street editor. He then led the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. Bishop is a co-founder of the Social Progress Index; Catalyst 2030; the SDG-focused initiative, 17 Rooms; and the #GivingTuesday campaign. He was official report author of the G8 Taskforce on Social Impact Investing. He is the co-author of several books, including Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World and The Road From Ruin. He has chaired the WEF Global Agenda Council on Philanthropy and Social Innovation and was honored by the WEF as a Young Global Leader.

Thor Björgolfsson

Chairman, Novator Partners LLP, United Kingdom

Thor Björgolfsson is a self-styled “adventure capitalist”, who became Iceland’s first billionaire. He made his first fortune with Bravo Brewery in St Petersburg, Russia, selling it to Heineken in 2002. Over the next years he invested in telecoms, mostly in Eastern Europe, built up generic drugs company Actavis (now Allergan) and became big investor in one of Iceland’s largest banks, Landsbanki.

Thor continues to be an active investor in the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America through his London-based private equity fund Novator Partners LLP. He is Chairman of Novator and maintains a shareholding in companies including telecoms Play in Poland and WOM in Chile, as well as computer games company CCP, data center Verne Global and pharmaceutical company Xantis Pharma.

Thor graduated from New York University‘s Stern School of Business with a degree in Finance and has served on the School‘s Board of Overseers for the past 8 years.

Thor’s autobiography, “Billions to Bust—and Back: How I Made, Lost and Rebuilt a Fortune, And What I Learned on the Way”, was published in 2014.

Jimena Blázquez Abascal

Director, NMAC Foundation, Spain

Jimena Blázquez Abascal has a PhD on contemporary art and public spaces. Prior to working for the NMAC Foundation, she worked at the Picasso Museum of Paris and for Art Adviser, Marc Blondeau. Since 1999, she has been focusing on the opening and curatorial direction of the NMAC Foundation and has curated more than 40 site-specific art projects by outstanding artists. She has created a platform of creative art and ideas at which artists from all over the world can come to dialogue, particularly between Africa and Europe. In 2003, she became a curator at PS1/MOMA together with Harald Szeemann of “The Real Royal Trip”, one of the biggest exhibitions of young Spanish artists ever presented in the United States and which became a travelling show around Europe. She was also the first curator to introduce the works of Jeppe Hein, Michael Lin, Yael Bartana Marepe and Maja Bajevic to an American audience. Blázquez Abascal has written several books, including a bestseller, "Sculpture Parks in Europe: A Guide to Art ". She is a frequent contributor to international art magazines.

Alexis Bonte

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, eRepublik Labs Ltd, Spain

Alexis Bonte is the Group COO and President NA of Stillfront (Nasdaq traded Games company) where he focuses on operations and co-leads Stillfront's game studios alongside the Group CEO. He also supports the exec team on strategy and M&A. Alexis was previously the CEO of eRepublik Labs the studio he founded and that is part of Stillfront. Within Atomico VC, Alexis sourced investments in Spain and France as well as in the Games and consumer verticals and helped portfolio companies accelerate their growth. Although he is an active angel investor, Alexis has now taken a step back from VC to focus on Stillfront. He also serve on the OhBibi and Tezos Foundation boards where he is now the chairman. Alexis co-founded Chamberi Valley (Madrid entrepreneur's non-profit), is an early pledger in Founders Pledge and was part of the founding team of lastminute.com one of the first European Internet Unicorns.

Geoffrey Bouquot

Chief Technology Officer and Group Vice-President, Corporate Strategy and External Relations, Valeo, France

Geoffrey Bouquot has joined Valeo in December 2015 as Group Vice-President, Corporate Strategy & External Relations.
In June 2020, Geoffrey Bouquot has been appointed Group Senior Vice-President R&D and Product Marketing in addition to his current role.
Since 2014, he was Technical Advisor for Industrial Affairs of the French Minister of Defence.
Previously, he was Chargé d'Affaires of the Aerospace & Defense sector within the French Agency of State Participation (Agence des participations de l'État, APE).
He was also Project Manager Purchasing and Subcontracting within the Latécoère Group, and served as Head of Mission to the CEO of the OCP Group.
Born in 1985, Geoffrey Bouquot graduated from the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique (2005) and the Ecole des Mines de Paris, distinguished for the outstanding performance of its research centers.

Martin Bruncko

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Steam Capital, France

Senior executive and board member in fintech and R&D-based companies, including as EVP for Europe at Binance, founding CFO/CSO at AeroMobil (pioneering flying cars company), and board member in GA Drilling, the global leader in accessing ultra deep geothermal energy.

Previously, founder and managing director of tech investment and advisory firm Steam Capital, member of the investment committee of the European Innovation Council Fund (largest deep tech investment fund in Europe) and the founder and executive chairman of Neulogy.

Senior positions in the Government of Slovakia, including minister for innovations and deputy for European affairs of the minister of finance. Board Member of the European Stability Mechanism and Head of Europe at the World Economic Forum. B.A. from Stanford and M.P.A. from Harvard.

Sinéad Burke

Chief Executive Officer, Tilting The Lens, Ireland

Sinéad Burke is a Disabled educator, advocate and author who champions accessibility, equity and social justice to build a better world for everyone. In 2020, she founded the accessibility consultancy Tilting the Lens on the three pillars of education, advocacy and design. Advising major global brands including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Netflix, Pinterest and Starbucks, Tilting the Lens guides clients in their move from awareness to action by creating more accessible practices, policies, products and services, places and promotions.
Sinéad serves on Gucci's Global Equity Board, ITV’s Cultural Advisory Council, the Irish President’s Council of State and Ireland’s Future of Media Commission. She is also part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, as well as the European Young Leaders. As a passionate writer, podcast host and public speaker, Sinéad facilitates honest conversations about identity, disability and accessibility. Her work has been featured and recognised by Vogue, The Financial Times, Fast Company, WWD, Vanity Fair, The Business of Fashion, and many more. In 2017, she delivered a powerful TED Talk on ‘Why design should include everyone.’ Her children’s book, ‘Break the Mould,’ is a primer on how to take your place in the world – with lessons for all. It won the ‘An Post Irish Book Award’ in 2020.

Matthew Caruana Galizia

Director, Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, Malta

Advances the causes of transparency, anti-corruption, freedom of speech and access to information. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose work on the Panama Papers uncovered the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens.

Caroline Casey

Founder and Director, The Valuable 500, Ireland

Caroline Casey is the businesswoman and activist behind The Valuable 500, the world’s largest CEO collective and business move for disability inclusion.
Casey launched the movement at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Summit in 2019 and since then has signed up 500 multinational organisations with a combined revenue of over $8 trillion, employing 20 million people worldwide to radically transform the business system. The membership includes 36 of the FTSE 100 companies, 46 of the Fortune 500 and 28 of the Nikkei.
In addition to being President of the IAPB, Caroline also sits on several diversity and inclusion boards to include L’Oréal, Sanofi and Sky and is a much sought-after speaker.
Caroline has received an honorary doctorate as well as multiple awards and accolades for her work as a disability activist.

Merieme Chadid

Explorer and Astronomer, Antarctica Research Station, France

Merieme Chadid is Explorer and Astronomer. She is considered the first astronomer in the world to have been committed to install a large astronomical observatory in Antarctica and was the first to place an Arab flag (Moroccan) at the South Pole. She is also one of the first pioneering astronomers to install VLT telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest desert in the world. Chadid has been honoured by the MY HERO project. She was listed as one of the 30 most fascinating workers in the world by Forbes Magazine. Chadid received her PhD in Astronomy and Space from Paul Sabatier University and completed several executive education programmes at Harvard University. Her research fields are focused on stellar and universe evolution. Her scientific discoveries are published in numerous international reviews and books. She gives lectures and supervises PhD students.