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.

Anies Rasyid Baswedan

Founder, Indonesia Mengajar, Indonesia

BA in Economics, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia; MA in Public Management, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland; PhD in Political Science, Northern Illinois University. 2007-15, Rector, Paramadina University. 2014-16, Minister of Education and Culture. Since 2017, Governor of Jakarta. Recipient: Nakasone Yasuhiro Award, Institute for International Policy Studies, Japan (2010). Named: one of the Top 100 Public Intellectuals, Foreign Policy Magazine (2008); one of the World's 20 Future Figures, Foresight Magazine, Japan (2010); one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (2010).

Zolzaya Batkhuyag

Co-Founder and Advisor, Women for Change, Mongolia

Zolzaya Batkhuyag is the Co-Founder and Advisor of the Women for Change NGO, Mongolia. Since 2008, she has been an advocate for gender justice and human rights, and leading numerous advocacy projects that have raised public awareness and community-building efforts. Zolzaya has a background in law and holds a BA and MA in Development Studies from The University of Melbourne.

Ms. Zolzaya has fruitful experience as a national trainer on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and youth development. She is active in the media and frequently shares her expertise through public speaking engagements. In 2015, she was selected as the Asian Development Fellow by The Asia Foundation as one of 12 young leaders.

Bolor-Erdene Battsengel

Strategic Engagement Advisor, United Kingdom

Bolor-Erdene Battsengel is a young dynamic leader with over a decade of proven experience working in international organizations, including the World Bank and UN as well as governments and academia.
As the former founding Vice Minister of Digital Development of Mongolia, she led the country's digital transformation, crafting a comprehensive 5-year plan "Digital Nation" policy. She is globally recognised by successfully leading E-Mongolia project which digitalized over 1,500 government services, help reducing red-tape bureaucracy and corruption. Coming from countryside of Mongolia, she founded Girls Code NGO to empower young women and girls from disadvantaged communities to learn STEM education and coding skills.

She has helped many international corporations on AI policies, strategic engagement, public policy and government relations.

Christoph Baumann

Envoy for Sustainable Finance, State Secretariat for International Finance, Switzerland

Christoph Baumann is Envoy for Sustainable Finance at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). In this role, he leads the Swiss government's sustainable finance activities, ranging from negotiations in multilateral bodies (such as the G20) to domestic initiatives. Christoph is a Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He holds an LLM in international law from the University of London, a master's degree in economics from the University of Zurich, and is a CFA charterholder.

Christoph is focused on making global financial flows consistent with a pathway to net-zero carbon emissions and a nature-positive state in his multinational roles as head of delegation of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, Co-Chair of the Working Group on Transition Finance of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance, Member of the Stewardship Council of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, as well as Swiss Sherpa of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. Domestically, Christoph led the mandatory implementation of climate-related reporting standards - based on the TCFD recommendations. Before joining SIF, he worked in executive positions in the private sector, being instrumental in establishing a securities dealer, a digital bank, and a fintech focused on foundations.

Natalia Bayona

Executive Director, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Spain

Natalia Bayona, current Executive Director of UN Tourism and the first person under 40 to reach this position, was distinguished as one of the 10 most influential Colombians residing in Spain and one of the most influential in Latin-America (Bloomberg). Natalia is also member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) network, and one of the 100 world leaders in innovation according to COTEC.

With an Executive MBA from the IE Business School, and a degree in International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia, Natalia Bayona was recognized with the Eisenhower Fellowship for her leadership and commitment to fostering a more prosperous and fairer world through her work in the tourism sector.

After an extensive career working for Colombia´s public sector, Natalia Bayona was Vice President of Spain Startup-South Summit; she then joined UN Tourism in 2018 and created the Innovation, Education, and Investment Department, where the Organization has undertaken ground-breaking initiatives that include more than 10 global entrepreneurship competitions, numerous national challenges, and over 20 innovation and technology forums.

These efforts have fostered the first Global Innovation Network comprising more than 10,000 start-ups from 100 countries, entrepreneurs, companies, public institutions, educational institutions, accelerators, and investors; this dynamic ecosystem has facilitated the acquisition of over US$214 million (as per Jan 2024) in financing for disruptive companies. Hence, the delivery of important technological results for the tourism industry

Furthermore, Natalia has been instrumental in establishing the first UN Tourism Online Academy to enhance opportunities in education for the tourism industry, boasting students from more than 150 countries and offering courses with scholarships available to students worldwide in partnership with some of the best universities in the world such as Les Roches, HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Schiences and Arts), Basque Culinary Center, IE University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, or Sharjah University among others. In addition, she enjoys sharing her knowledge as lecturer in different universities including Harvard, Cornell and MIT,

Following her aspiration of generating investment opportunities for tourism, Natalia created the first Official UN Tourism Investment Guideline; she has worked alongside more than 50 countries on the construction of their Tourism Investment Strategies (including Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Chile among others) generating a concrete outlook that reflects their potential for international investors and the opportunities for diversification.

Candice Beaumont

Chief Investment Officer, L Investments, USA

As CIO of L Investments, oversees capital allocation for the family office. Advisory Board Member, Family Office Association. Steering Committee Member: Yale University School of Management College of Family Offices; Princeton University Council of Family Offices and Endowments; NYU Stern Family Office Council. Chairman, Salsano Group. Served on Board of Directors: I2BF Venture Fund II; several charitable boards, including Most Valuable Kids of Greater New York, and Care for Kenya. Thought leader and active speaker on family office investment allocation and diversification across fixed income, hedge funds, private equity, real assets, commodities, alternative energy and impact investing. Worked previously at Lazard Frères executing over $20 billion of merger and acquisition advisory assignments, and in private equity at Argonaut Capital. Trusted Insight: Top 30 Family Office Chief Investment Officers, Young Global Leader World Economic Forum. Active proponent of increasing women on boards. Former world-ranked professional tennis player.

Jessica Beckerman

Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Muso, USA

Jessica Beckerman is a health justice advocate who works to end preventable deaths rooted in poverty by building rapid universal healthcare systems. She is Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Muso, which has given care to 330,000 patients throughout Mali and supports the country’s national community health efforts to deliver health systems impact for 3.4 million of the country's most vulnerable citizens. Muso's work has been featured by The Atlantic, Forbes, The Guardian, BBC World Service and The Financial Times. She is also a practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Oakland, California.

Farida Bedwei

Software Engineer, Microsoft, Ghana

Farida Nana Efua Bedwei is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Logiciel (Ghana) Ltd, a software company developing banking systems for the microfinance industry. Her role involves assessing the industry and coming up with practical solutions, which are easy to use by persons with no formal banking training. She believes the informal sector, which make up between 60%-70% of the population across Africa, deserve the same banking services as those in the formal sector. Thus by building affordable banking systems for them, the microfinance industry will be able to realize their full potential and offer adequate banking services to their customers.

Prior to co-founding Logiciel, Farida worked in the telecom software industry, developing mobile gateways and services for mobile networks and content providers.

Farida is also an author and a disability-rights advocate, and has been featured on many media platforms, notable amongst this is C NN African Voices in February 2015. She has also won a number of local and international awards, and was adjudged the most influential woman in business and governance (finance sector) for her work in computerizing the microfinance industry. She currently serves on the Board of the National Communication Authority and Sharecare Ghana (an NGO which raises awareness for persons with autoimmune and neurological conditions).

Brian Behlendorf

Chief Technology Officer, Open Source Security Foundation, Linux Foundation, USA

Brian is Managing Director of the Open Source Security Foundation, a software consortium hosted at the Linux Foundation focused on securing the global software supply chain. He also serves on the boards of the Mozilla Foundation, Filecoin Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Formerly he was Chief Technology Officer at the World Economic Forum; Founder and Chief Technology Officer, CollabNet, a company focused on bringing open source collaborative software development tools and methodologies into enterprise environments; and an advisor at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House in 2009 and 2010. Brian co-founded and served as the Founding President of the Apache Software Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit that organizes volunteer open source software development projects around key Internet technologies.

Venetia Bell

Group Chief Sustainability Officer; Head, Strategy, Gulf International Bank (GIB), United Kingdom

Venetia Bell is the Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Gulf International Bank (GIB), and Head of Strategy at GIB Asset Management. Amongst other responsibilities, Venetia leads GIB’s drive to embed sustainability and responsible banking principles in everything it does. In 2021, she was instrumental in the successful close of GIB’s sustainability-linked loan, making GIB the first Bahrain-headquartered bank to close such a facility. She also led an award-winning multi-stakeholder initiative to enhance data and funnel private capital towards humanitarian and resilience projects.

Venetia is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a fellow of the Forward Institute, faculty for the Competent Boards Programme, and an alumna of the Mentoring Foundation. She is a Chartered Governance Professional, a designated Climate Competent Director, a Certified Investment Fund Director, and the Chair of Trustees of several charities.

Prior to GIB, she had several roles at the Bank of England, and has published a range of policy-focused research. Venetia graduated with an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, an MA degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge UK, and the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD, France.

Stefany Bello

Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships, Retail & Commerce, Mastercard, USA

Stefany Bello is a Head of Digital Partnerships and Strategic Alliances in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at Mastercard. In her role, she is responsible for executing Mastercard's digital strategy with digital giants, marketplaces, streaming services, e-commerce software enablers, social media platforms, gig platforms, ride-sharing, fast fashion, gaming, crypto, and innovative startups. Stefany is responsible for expanding Mastercard's digital footprint, managing relationships with key players, and driving innovation and transformational efforts across digital payments in LAC. Before this role, Stefany led partner engagements with Operating Systems and Social Network players globally and with a broader Product team, launching proximity and remote wallet solutions leveraging the Mastercards tokenization platform. Stefany joined Mastercard in 2009 and has played a key role in driving Mastercard preference, product strategy, co-brand engagements, value-added services, and data insights. Stefany also holds a patent for the Mastercard Aid network, an end-to-end, non-financial service designed to streamline aid distribution even in the absence of telecommunications infrastructure. Stefany holds a B.A. in International Business Management with a double concentration in finance and Latin American Studies from Manhattanville College in N.Y. Additionally, she is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian and proficient in French.

Moustapha Ben Barka

Vice President, Banque Ouest Africaine de Dévelopement (BOAD), Togo

Mr. Moustapha Ben Barka is Deputy Secretary General at the Office of the President of the Republic of Mali. From 2013 to 2015, He has served in the Government of Mali as Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in charge of Investment Promotion and Private Sector and Minister of Industry and Investment Promotion. Prior to joining the Government of Mali, Mr Ben Barka worked as Director for a Moroccan investment bank based in Senegal to manage Project finance and Structured finance transactions in West Africa. Before deciding to come back to Africa to contribute to its development, Mr. Ben Barka worked for the National Bank of Canada where he held the positions of Analyst, Senior Analyst and Internal Auditor at he Treasury and Financial Markets department. Mr. Ben Barka holds an Executive MBA from Université du Québec à Montréal, a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers, a Graduate Certificate from McGill University and a Bachelor in Finance and Inte rnational Business from HEC Montréal. Web presence