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.

Wesley Spindler

Managing Director, Global Sustainability Leadership, Accenture, USA

Wesley Spindler is a catalyst for change, working with organizations around the world to reimagine the global economy into a circular, regenerative and equitable one. As Managing Director and member of the Global Sustainability Leadership Team at Accenture, Spindler runs the firm’s global Circular Economy and Nature & Biodiversity agendas. Her focus in all her work is to drive genuine sustainability transformation – from strategy to delivery – with partners and companies across industries to achieve outcomes at the intersection of growth and sustainable innovation. Spindler also acts as People Experience Lead for the entire Global Sustainability Group. She is a frequent public speaker, lead co-author of The Circular Economy Handbook (Palgrave, 2020), Program Director of The Circulars, Expert Advisor to the Earthshot Prize and a delegate to the World Economic Forum Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy. Spindler is active in her regional community, supporting critical environmental initiatives on the livelihoods and well-being of individuals and positive outcomes for nature.

Mirjam Staub-Bisang

CEO, BlackRock Asset Management Switzerland AG, Switzerland

Dr. Mirjam Staub-Bisang is Head of BlackRock Switzerland, member of the EMEA Executive Committee and Senior Advisor to BlackRock Sustainable Investing. She currently serves as a non-executive director of the global shoe retailer Bata as well as the leading global business school INSEAD.

Prior to BlackRock, Mirjam Staub-Bisang co-founded and was formerly Managing Partner of Independent Capital Group AG an investment management firm focusing on sustainable investing based in Zurich. She served on the investment committees of pension funds and endowments and on the board of several several public and private companies, among which as chair of Profond Sammelstiftung, one of Switzerland’s leading multi-employer pension plans. Prior to these roles she held senior positions in asset management and private equity at Commerzbank and Swiss Life, Quadrant and was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.

Mirjam Staub-Bisang holds a PhD in Law from the University of Zurich and an MBA from INSEAD. She authored the standard work “Sustainable Investing for Institutional Investors: Risks, Regulations, Strategies" (Wiley 2012) and co-authored the second edition of "Infrastructure as an Asset Class" (Wiley 2016). In 2009 she was elected a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Kirstine Stewart

Founder, Media Mughals Inc., USA

Former Head, Shaping the Future of Media, Entertainment and Information and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum.
Kirstine Stewart is an internationally award-winning technology and media leader with a reputation for turning around revenue performance and driving new market expansion on a global scale.
Her work spans executive roles with Twitter, Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), Crown Family Media/Hallmark, the World Economic Forum, as well as other media corporation and technology companies.
Kirstine is presently focused on her work serving across a number of public and private company boards, and serving as advisor on projects in the US and Canada.
In her last executive role at the World Economic Forum, Kirstine headed the Future of Media, Entertainment, & Sport as a member of the WEF Executive Committee, collaborating with C-level leaders from multinational enterprises like Facebook, Google, ByteDance, Publicis Groupe, P&G and others, addressing emerging trends in areas such as digital disruption, AI, metaverse and Web3, revenue creation in the media ecosystem, consumer data privacy, and the future of work.
Prior to joining the WEF, Kirstine had moved from recognized media leader to the tech industry when she was appointed by Twitter as the Founding Head of Canada, setting up their first Canadian offices and establishing it as
a sales leader for Twitter globally with the highest per capita revenues. She soon moved to New York when asked to
take on the role of Twitter VP Media, responsible for Entertainment, Sports and all content partnerships for Twitter across North America.
Kirstine was recruited to Twitter from the CBC, where she sat as the first women in the top programming role at the national broadcaster. She is credited with catapulting ratings and launching into the digital market as CBC’s EVP of TV, Radio & Digital. Prior to that, she served as Senior Vice President growing the subscriber base and revenues for Alliance Atlantis, a media company with a portfolio of lifestyle channels including HGTV, Food Network, BBC Canada, National Geographic, History, and many others.
As Head of Programming for Crown Media/Hallmark in Denver, CO, she opened new international markets, positioning the portfolio for a profitable sale, directly following her as General Manager and Head of Programming for Trio/Newsworld International where she helped secure the $300M sale of those channels to NBCUniversal.
Kirstine launched her media career fresh out of school at Paragon, a media licensing and distribution firm where she rose from her initial entry-level position to become president, leading a multi-million dollar business in content licensing and global distribution..
In 2016, Kirstine authored the bestseller, Our Turn, an internationally award-winning book on leadership published by Penguin RandomHouse.
A sought-after board member and corporate advisor, Kirstine serves as the World Economic Forum Advisor for Young Global Leader (YGL) and member of the board for Think Research, a publicly traded medical technology company and Rivalry a global Esports and Gaming company. She was recently appointed as Chairwoman of Blink49Studios, a venture between former Eone leadership and Endeavor Content. Her leadership extends into non-profit advocacy as well, after serving as a member of the Founding Board for CILAR (Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism) and as a member of the board for the Center for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation and serves on the Board of Ingenium, Canada’s National Museums of Science, Tech, Space and Aviation.
She is also a Founding Member of Chief and Soho House as well as a Board Member of C-100 a collection of Top Canadian Technology/Business Leaders in the US. Her husband Zaib Shaikh is currently Canada’s Consul General to Los Angeles, Nevada and Arizona. They have two children and live in Los Angeles.
Kirstine is internationally known as an industry leader having earned recognition including membership in the YGL - Young Global Leaders, The Power 50: Canada's Most Powerful Business People by Canadian Business in 2016, Person of the Year by Playback Magazine for 2012, Woman of the Year by Canadian Women in Communications, Media Player of the Year by Marketing Magazine, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2007, among others.
A native of Canada, Kirstine earned her bachelor of arts from the University of Toronto before completing executive leadership programs including the Global Leadership in the 21st Century through the Harvard Kennedy School, the Transformational Leadership program through the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School, and Leading with Finance, Capital Markets and Valuation through the Harvard Business School.

Shelley Stewart

Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, USA

Shelley Stewart III is a Senior Partner within McKinseys Growth, Marketing and Sales Practice, where he works across the US, Europe and Asia with industrial and technology companies to help them scale their businesses in a global context. Shelley leads the firms research on inclusive economic growth in his role as leader for McKinseys Institute for Black Economic Mobility. In this capacity, he focuses on conducting research related to Black economic development and translates these insights into tools that corporations, philanthropists and governments can use to create meaningful impact for Black individuals and communities. Shelley is on the Board of Directors of the National Black MBA Association, a non-profit supporting 15,000 members with career placement and development. He is also on the Board of the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the first and only public foundation solely dedicated to Brooklyns charitable community. He is a member of the United Justice Coalition, a non-profit working across disciplines to raise awareness around social justice issues, emphasizing the need for criminal justice reform. Shelley has a BA in economics from Boston College, an MBA with a focus on finance from Columbia University, an MPA in political economy from Harvard and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New Haven.

Mark Stoffels

Global Business Unit Leader, Image Guided Therapy Systems, Philips, Netherlands

Mark Stoffels is a senior global health tech executive. As Global Business Unit Leader and Senior Vice-President of Royal Philips’ Image Guided Therapy Systems, he is highly driven to improve global access to healthcare. Other roles at Royal Philips include Managing Director and Senior Vice-President Connected Care North America, Vice-President and General of Latin America, Country Manager Mexico, General Manager Health Systems Mexico and Strategic Marketing Director for Latin America. Stoffels is the author of "3 Billion Heart Beats", a novel on Buddhism which principles he works tirelessly to implement in his leadership style.

Richard Stromback

Founder, Stromback Global Advisors, USA

Richard D. Stromback is the founder of Stromback Global Advisors. He is a former professional hockey player, entrepreneur, investor and advisor. Stromback founded several successful ventures in the information technology and the clean technology space, most notably Web Group and Ecology Coatings. He currently serves on multiple boards and advisory boards and is a shareholder in many ventures. For the past 10 years, he has advised Fortune 1000 CEOs on business strategy, leadership development, market development and positioning within global spheres of influence. In this capacity, Mr. Stromback leverages his deep global relationships and knowledge of influential organizations and international markets to assist businesses with their global business interests.

Mr. Stromback’s repeated successes have been acknowledged by both the media and the global business community. His insight has been sought out by such publications as The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. His accomplishments as founder and CEO of Web Group were recognized by Inc. Magazine, which named Web Group the 189th fastest growing private company in the United States in the year 2002. In 2006 his leadership of Ecology Coatings garnered a Wall Street Journal Innovation Award and a Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum. In 2007, Stromback was named a Young Global Leader and in 2008, Crain's Business listed him as one of the top 40 leaders under 40 years of age.

Stromback holds a Bachelor of Computer Science Degree from Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. He also completed Harvard Kennedy School’s invitation only program in Global Leadership and Public Policy.

Andrea Stürmer

Chief Executive Officer, Zurich Austria, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd, Austria

Andrea Stürmer is a senior executive at Zurich Insurance Group and serves as Chief Executive Officer of Zürich Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft in Vienna, Austria. She joined Zurich in 2007 and has since served as Chief Operating Officer for Business Insurance at the subsidiary Farmers Insurance Group and as the Strategic Assistant to the Zurich Group's Chief Executive Officer. She previously held various positions as finance and M&A professional at Zurich Insurance Group, Allianz and JPMorgan. Stürmer is Member of the Board of Zurich Reinsurance Company as well as of the Austrian Insurance Association. Stürmer is a sought-after public speaker on a wide range of topics including sustainability in the financial service sector, innovation and leadership. Stürmer holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics as well as the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2012 she was nominated to the Forum of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum.

Ludovic Subran

Chief Economist, Allianz, Germany

Ludovic Subran leads economic research at the largest insurer and investor in Europe. He has helped design public policies in over 30 countries and influences several organizations as a board member.

Anjali Sud

Chief Executive Officer, Vimeo, USA

Anjali Sud is CEO of Vimeo (NASDAQ:VMEO), the world’s leading all-in-one video software solution. Anjali leads a global team dedicated to empowering professionals and businesses with the tools to create, communicate, and collaborate with video. Anjali previously served as General Manager and Head of Marketing at Vimeo, where she oversaw the growth of over 260 million users to the platform. Before that she held various positions in e-commerce, finance, and media at Amazon and Time Warner.

Anjali has been included in Fortune's 40 under 40, Crain’s 40 under 40, Adweek's Power List, and The Hollywood Reporter's Next Gen Under 35. She is a designated Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and serves on the Board of Directors of Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB). Anjali grew up in Flint, Michigan, and now lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Shokei Suda

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Enigmo Inc., Japan

Shokei Suda is Co-Founder and CEO of Enigmo, which operates BUYMA.com, Japan's largest social fashion website. BUYMA offers a reliable shopping experience through its unique escrow payment system, optimized social shopping interface and in-house customer service division. Enigmo is listed with 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. We also operates BUYMA.us for English speaking countries and launched traveling service named BUYMA TRAVEL.
He earned a Master's degree in Computer Science.
He completed the Sahara Desert Marathon, the Antarctic Triathlon and Amazon Jungle Marathon.

Christy Lei Sun

Founding Partner & Chief Marketing Officer, Yatsen Global, People's Republic of China

Christy is dedicated to developing Chinese leading cosmetic brand -Perfect Diary and luxury skincare business, managing marketing and public relationships. She is committed to exploring C-beauty and empowering women in China and around the world to discover, create and preserve beauty. Christy was awarded “CMO Power List TOP 50”, and she holds a bachelor's degree from Sun Yat-sen University and MBA from Yale University.

Dorjee Sun

Chief Executive Officer, Bioeconomy, Singapore

CEO of Bioeconomy which focuses on large scale carbon and biodiversity projects. Investor and advisor to companies in AI, quantum computing, precision fermentation, blockchain etc. Named by TIME Magazine as a “Hero of the Environment”; honoured by African Rainforest Conservancy with the Earth Day Species Award “Kinyongia dorjeesuni”; CPA Top 20 Business Leader; one of Esquire Magazine’s 5 Gentlemen of Philanthropy.