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.

Natasha Latiff

Founder and Legal Director, Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights Inc, Singapore

Natasha Latiff is a highly regarded international human rights lawyer known for her work in Afghanistan and beyond. She has made significant contributions through the establishment of two acclaimed non-profit organizations: Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR) in 2008; and Women for Justice in 2018.

She is also Founder of Fair Future, a Singapore-based enterprise with a mission to combat modern slavery practices in the supply chain by focusing on the "human" in corporate human rights due diligence processes and response.

Latiff’s remarkable work has led to transformative changes in law and policy on human rights and access to remedy. She advises and trains lawyers and organizations on international human rights norms and standards. Her efforts have resulted in securing remedies for affected communities and fostering meaningful dialogue between victims, governments and companies.

She holds a Master of Law degree with Distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

James Law

Chief Executive Officer, James Law Cybertecture International Ltd, Hong Kong SAR, China

James Law is the visionary founder of James Law Cybertecture International, dedicated to blend cyber technology within modern architecture since 2001. Law coined the term “Cybertecture” as a fusion of network connectivity, software applications and hardware capacity for a given built environment. The global scope of Cybertecture is paving the way for people to live the future, as it has successfully reached UAE, Hong Kong, China, India and Korea. Graduated with a degree in architecture from University College London in 1992, Law consolidated his knowledge at prestigious Japanese architect firm Itsuko Hasegawa in 1994 and became Director at world renowned design firm Gensler International in 1997. In reward for Law's contribution, he became a Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and achieved the Royal Institute of Architects Award 2003, Asian Innovation Awards 2004, CNBC International Property Awards 2007, and CNBC International Architecture Awards 2009. To enlighten peers of his time, Law is an adjacent professor in KAIST Korea and authored “Cybertecture Now: James Law Cybertecture” published in 2010.

Cina Lawson

Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation, Ministry of Posts, Digital Economy and Technological Innovation of Togo, Togo

Cina Lawson is Togo’s Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation. Drawing from over 20 years of experience and expertise in digital policy and regulation, she has led Togo’s successful transition to an inclusive digital economy.
Lawson began her career at the World Bank in Washington, D.C, assisting governments in emerging markets in executing regulatory reforms. She then worked for Alcatel-Lucent in Paris before joining Orange Group in New York City as Manager of Corporate Strategy and Business Development.
As a minister, she transformed the regulatory environment to foster innovation, competition, and private investments. She has been uniquely innovative in championing private sector investment in the public's interest via joint ventures and partnerships with global enterprises (e.g., Google, CSquared, Asseco, Axian).
Under Lawson’s leadership, Togo became the first West African country to deploy 5G services. Over the last decade, she increased digital service penetration so that a majority of the population now has access to mobile telephony (from 33% in 2010 to 78% in 2021) to mobile internet (from 1% in 2010 to 74% in 2021), and to mobile money (from 1% in 2013 to 57% in 2021).
Lawson also used digital means to better enable financial inclusion. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, she initiated and launched the digital cash transfer program Novissi, which distributed $34M in financial aid to a quarter of Togo’s adult population.
Lawson’s leadership has gained international recognition, including from the World Economic Forum, SXSW, and Forbes. In 2019, she received the Harvard Alumni Public Service Award, becoming the first African female public servant honoree since its establishment. Lawson graduated from Sciences Po Paris and earned a Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. She speaks Fluent French, English, and Ewe (Mina).

Tristan Lecomte

Chief Executive Officer, Pur Projet, France

Tristan Lecomte is the Founder of Pur Projet, specialized in developing agroforestry insetting projects including offsetting the socio-environmental footprint of a product or company within its own supply chain and core business via agroforestry and agro-ecological practices. Tristan is the author of various books and the director of several films on sustainability. Tristan is also the Co-Founder of the International Platform for Insetting, a multi-stakeholders platform of companies and NGOs engaged in the promotion of Insetting via a certification standard and a blockchain registry.

Andrew Lee

Member of the Board of Directors, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, USA

Board of Directors: Harvard Honoring Nations Program, US Lacrosse, The Tewaaraton Foundation, Chickasaw Nation Community Development Endeavor. Co-author, The State of the Native Nations. Held variety of executive roles at Aetna Inc. (2005-15), including Chief of Staff to President/CEO and head of Public Policy. Formerly executive director of Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School (1998-2005). Peace and Social Justice Program at Ford Foundation (1996-98). AB from Hamilton College; MPP from Harvard Kennedy School. Expertise: indigenous affairs, economic development, health care, philanthropy.

Ellana Lee

Senior Vice-President and Managing Editor, Asia-Pacific; Global Head, Features, CNN International, Hong Kong SAR, China

Ellana Lee is Senior Vice President & Managing Editor, Asia Pacific, for CNN International, and Global Head of Features Content, based in the network’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.
Lee is the network’s most senior executive outside of the United States. As head of the Asia Pacific region and its editorial output, she manages CNN's award-winning on-air news programming produced there, including the correspondents and newsgathering teams across eight operations, from Kabul to Seoul.
As Global Head of Features content across CNN International television and CNN Digital, she is responsible for the partnership between CNN’s international editorial and commercial teams, helping to drive the network’s business outside the United States.
CNN’s features group is an integrated, cross-platform, award-winning creative team, producing more than 1000 hours of premium original programming every year. This encompasses long-form series, documentaries and specials for TV, digital and social platforms across eight production hubs in Hong Kong, London, Abu Dhabi, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Miami.
Under Lee’s management, CNN has received a variety of prestigious awards, including five award wins at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in 2018. The Royal Television Society (RTS) awarded CNN the coveted Best News Coverage International prize in 2013 for its reporting of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and this and other reporting from the region played a key role in CNN International winning the RTS News Channel of the Year in 2013 and 2012. Lee has also received numerous personal accolades, including ContentAsia’s ‘Asia Media Woman of the Year’ in 2018 for her commitment to the news media industry.
Lee was also an integral part of CNN’s coverage of the historic Inter-Korean and the Trump-Kim summits in 2019 and 2018. She has traveled to North Korea several times and in mid-2017 spearheaded an exclusive report called Secret State: Inside North Korea. The 60-minute documentary followed CNN cameras inside the secretive nation and was awarded Best Documentary Program at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in 2018.
In recognition of her leadership position, Lee was named a 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum and now sits on the board of the Young Global Leaders Foundation. She is an Asia 21 fellow, as awarded by the Asia Society, and is a graduate of Harvard's 'Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century' Executive Program. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific Council, and sits on the advisory board of The Murrow Centre at Tuft University.
Lee has had a longstanding and accomplished career at CNN, beginning in New York as a producer to help launch the program 'In The Money'. She subsequently worked as a business producer and a senior planning producer, coordinating major events out of the Asia Pacific region.
She holds a Master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from New York University and an undergraduate degree in History and International Relations from Georgetown University.

James R. Lee

Chairman and Managing Partner, Lee & Partners, Denmark

Founder, Lee & Partners. Fellow, Wharton School. Boards / Advisory Boards: KX Labs, Variant 3D, NetDragon, Parley for the Oceans, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (UK)

Joo-sung Lee

President, SeAH Steel, Republic of Korea

Joosung Lee is the President & CEO of SeAH Steel Holdings and also serving as the President at SeAH Steel. SeAH Wind is currently building UK's first offshore wind monopile manufacturing facility in Teesside. Previously, he worked at Accenture and Merrill Lynch in Seoul where he was involved in numerous landmark M&A and capital markets transactions. Joosung holds a BA in Economics and East Asian Languages & Civilizations from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Columbia University. Young Global Leader Alumni, World Economic Forum (2013).

Sam Lee

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IndeCollective, USA

Building and leading WeWork’s first central Growth Team, Sam Lee is a recognized growth leader and charged with exponentially accelerating WeWork's membership and revenue growth through data modeling and insight, product innovation, growth strategy, and sales and marketing.

Prior to joining WeWork’s Leadership Team in 2016, Sam held various strategy and general management roles in the financial services (Goldman Sachs) and consumer Internet industries (AOL). Sam is a board member, advisor, and investor in various venture-backed and non-profit organizations that span the technology, education, and healthcare industries. He is also a Limited Partner and Board Member at Redesign Health, a venture studio that partners with entrepreneurs to identify, launch, and scale new direct-to-consumer healthcare businesses that improve access and elevate patient experience.

Sam earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his Masters in Finance and Public Policy from Harvard University.

Julianne Lee Jihyun

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Julianne Lee & Co., Republic of Korea

Julianne Lee is publisher of ARS VITAE, a limited-edition serial publication about what it means to live well. She is also Co-Founder of Krueger & Lee, a Swiss-based non-profit organization which organizes the Science & Spirituality Forum through which she shares evidence-based perspectives on life with wisdom and joy to be "the change that one wishes to see in the world". She was formerly anchorwoman and journalist at SBS TV network, Korea, the first female journalist in Korea to become solo anchor of primetime news hour; the first female Spokesperson of Korea's National Security Council; first Presidential Spokesperson for Foreign Press; Presidential Secretary for Foreign Press Affairs. She was also host of ""Korea Now"" on Arirang TV, the English-language broadcasting channel in Korea and Senior Adviser to RBS, Korea. She is Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and also one of the Future Leaders of Korea-China-Japan by the Korea Foundation.
BA, Brown University; MA, Harvard University.

Lee Xiaodong

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fuxi Institution, People's Republic of China

Founder and CEO of Fuxi Institution, which is focusing on Internet and Digital Economy, e.g. Internet Infrastructure, Internet Governance, Data Governance, Digital Economy and Digital Civilization.

Professor and Director, ICT Laboratory for Internet Infrastructure, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Professor and Director of Center for Internet Governance, Tsinghua University.

He is serving as Vice President of Internet Society of China, Commissioner of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), Commissioner of Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), Member of All-China Youth Federation.

He used to be CEO of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC, 2013-2017), Vice President of ICANN (2011-2013), Founder CEO of National Engineering Laboratory for Naming and Addressing Technologies (2013-2017), Member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of United Nations (2014-2017), Member of ICANN Security, Stability and Resiliency Review Team (SSR-RT, 2010-2012),Member of ICANN Security, Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC, 2010-2019), Member of Global Agenda/Future Council of WEF (2013-2019). He was appointed to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG, 2014-2016), which made the transition of key global Internet functions successfully happened in 2016. He was awarded Young Global Leader in 2014, China Outstanding Youth Medal in 2009 and Ten Outstanding Youth of China Software Industry in 2008.

Michael Lefenfeld

President & Chief Executive Officer, USA

Michael Lefenfeld is President and Chief Executive Officer at Hexion Inc. and serves as a member of the Board of Managers for ASP Resins Holdings LP. Michael joined Hexion in January 2023. Prior to joining Hexion, Michael served as President and CEO of Cyanco International, where he led the world’s largest manufacturer of gold and silver extraction materials, while driving the effort to make recovery safer and more efficient. From 2007 to 2017, he was President and CEO of SiGNa Chemistry, a global chemical manufacturer of reactive metal materials serving oil & gas recovery, petrochemical refining, alternative energy and chemical processing industries. Michael also founded Alkami Consulting Group, a technology investment advisory group, and Blood Gas Diagnostics, a medical device technology growth company. With a unique combination of executive, operational and entrepreneurial experience, Michael holds more than 100 patents and patents pending that are intended to collectively address some of the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainable product-related challenges. A serial entrepreneur, he has been named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2016, while SIGNa was recognized with the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Award under his leadership.

Michael earned a Master of Philosophy and Master of Science in Chemistry from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.