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.

Ashish J. Thakkar

Group Chief Executive Officer, Y9, United Arab Emirates

Ashish is a celebrated serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. He started his first business in 1996 at the age of 15 with a $5,000 loan. Since then, Ashish and his family have driven the growth of the company from a small IT business in Uganda to the globally recognized multi-sector investment group that exists today. Through its businesses and investments, the family now created a presence across 26 African countries in sectors spanning technology, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. Ashish is passionate about enabling, empowering and inspiring young entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs. In 2009, he launched the families Foundation to foster and support emerging entrepreneurs through mentorship, Mara Mentor is a free online global platform that connects emerging entrepreneurs with business leaders and industry experts. The family's vision is to create a self-sustaining Africa through entrepreneurship.

Peter A. Thiel

Partner, Founders Fund, USA

Peter Thiel is President of Clarium Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund with offices in San Francisco and New York. He oversees the firm's research, investment, and trading strategies. He is also a partner in The Founders Fund, a US$ 50 million venture capital firm. In addition to managing Clarium, Thiel is active in a variety of philanthropic and educational pursuits. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Research Institute and on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. He also serves on the boards of non-profit educational organizations, such as Stanford Law School, where he has also taught, and the Hoover Institution. Before starting Clarium, he served as Chairman and CEO of PayPal, Inc., an Internet company he co-founded in December 1998 that was acquired by eBay Inc. for US$ 1.5 billion. Thiel began his financial career as a derivatives trader at CS Financial Products after practising securities law at Sullivan & Cromwell. He won the Herman Lay Award for Entrepreneurship in 2005. He received a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Anahita Thoms

Partner, International Trade Practice, Baker McKenzie, Germany

Anahita Thoms is an award-winning lawyer who focuses her practice on global investigations, in the field of sustainability and international trade law, including sanctions, export controls, foreign investment review, data protection, business and human rights. She leads Baker McKenzie's International Trade Practice in Germany and is a Member of the firm's Europe, Middle East and African regional Steering Committee for the Compliance & Investigations Group. She is a Board Member of Atlantik-Brücke, serves on the National Committee of Unicef Germany and is Advisory Board Member of the Sustainable Finance Council of the German Federal Government. She is a regularly interviewed by media outlets as an expert and is a speaker at international conferences on diverse topics, such as trade, sustainability, diversity and ethics. Anahita is committed to giving back to society and is passionate about human rights and the fight against modern slavery.

Dune Thorne

Partner; Head, Private Client Growth and Strategy, Brown Advisory, USA

BA from Dartmouth College, MBA Harvard Business School. Founder and Board Member of Invest in Girls, Board Member for Center for Economic Education, Board Member and Investment Committee Member for Milton Academy, Advisory Board and Investment Committee Member of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Board Member of the US Ski and Snowboard Team, Board Member Mass Bay Community College, Member of YPO, Tiger 21 and the Belizean Grove.

Lauren Tilstra

Executive Director; Chief Executive Officer, Communications; Chief of Staff, Verizon Communications, USA

Lauren Tilstra is a seasoned leadership communications advisor who’s spent her career launching and counseling Fortune 50 c-suite executives across technology and media. She currently serves as Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Strategic Communications to the Chairman and CEO of Verizon. She’s the first in the firm’s 22-year history to serve in both roles simultaneously.

Tilstra is a passionate advocate for digital inclusion and in 2020 she joined Verizon’s Chairman and CEO, Hans Vestberg and Chief Strategy Officer, Rima Qureshi in forming the EDISON Alliance with Professor Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. In this role, she leads communications for the Alliance and is working daily to connect 1B lives to the promise of the digital world. She also serves on the Board of grassroots organization, Friends for Global Change and Is a founding member of the National Executive Communication Council. Tilstra is a PRWeek 40 under 40 and was named Penn State University’s College of Communications Outstanding Alumni of 2022.

Serpil Timuray

CEO EU Cluster, Member of Group Executive Committee, Vodafone Group, United Kingdom

Serpil Timuray, Chief Executive, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Region, joined the Executive Committee on 1 January 2014. Serpil joined Vodafone as Chief Executive of Vodafone Turkey in January 2009 and was appointed as a Director on the Board of Vodacom Group in South Africa in September 2012. She was appointed to the Boards of Vodafone India, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Safaricom Kenya in November 2013, Vodafone Egypt in January 2014 and Vodafone Qatar in June 2014.
Serpil was previously General Manager of Danone Turkey from 2002-2008. She began her career in 1991 in marketing at Procter & Gamble where she was later appointed to the Executive Committee of Procter & Gamble Turkey.
Serpil is currently the Chairperson of the Board of YASED (International Investors Association), Vice-Chairperson of the Board of DEIK-TIIK (Turkish-British Business Council of Foreign Economic Relations), a Board Member of TOBB-GGK (Young Entrepreneurs Council of Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges) and sits on the Board of Trustees at Koc University, Turkey.

Win Win Tint

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, City Mart Holdings, Myanmar

Win Win Tint is an award-winning Myanmar businesswoman. Following an education in Myanmar and Singapore, Win Win, at the age of just 21, assumed the management of City Mart Holding Company Limited (CMHL), a recently-formed family company. At that time, CMHL operated just a single supermarket in central Yangon. Despite facing difficult economic and political conditions, Win Win built the business into the leading modern retail company in Myanmar. As well as expanding City Mart supermarkets to 25 branches, she launched the Ocean Supercenter brand of hypermarkets (now present in 6 cities across Myanmar), Seasons bakery and café, City Care health & beauty stores and several other retail and food and beverage brands – all household names in Myanmar. She now leads a group with over 170 outlets and 8,000 employees.
Win Win has been recognized for several international honors and awards. In 2012 she was appointed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2015 she was ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful businesswomen in Asia-Pacific. She has also found success in the ASEAN Business Awards: in 2014 she won the Woman Entrepreneur Award and in 2016 she won the Young Entrepreneur Award.
In addition to her role at CMHL, Win Win serves as the president of the Myanmar Retailers Association.

Christopher Wing To

Counsel, Gilt Chambers, Hong Kong SAR, China

Christopher To is currently an Independent Arbitrator and Mediator, specialising in International trade, aviation and engineering disputes. He was previously the Executive Director of the Construction Industry Council (2008 to 2016). Prior to that, he was Secretary-General of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (1998 to 2008). To holds adjunct professorships from a variety of academic institutions and is involved in educational reform and governance. He is a member of various academic societies and actively participates as Chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors. He is also involved in a variety of boards and companies, ranging from engineering, IT and R&D. In 2001, To was the youngest person to be awarded the Director of the Year Award in Hong Kong.

Lokesh Todi

Chairman, Avasar Equity Limited, Nepal

Lokesh Todi is the Chairman of Avasar Equity, which manages Nepal's first licensed Private Equity Fund. He is also a director in Reliance Group Nepal, a conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, trading, energy, and financial services. As a director in Reliance Group Nepal, he oversees the group's carpet manufacturing operations.

Prior to working at Reliance Group, Lokesh was a Senior Analyst at Analysis Group in Boston where he provided his economic expertise in litigation related cases to various government organizations and Fortune 500 firms such as Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Toyota, British Petroleum, and the Israeli Finance Ministry. Lokesh received his MBA degree from Yale University in 2014 where he was an Emerging Entrepreneurship Fellow. He received his BA degree from Colby College where he was awarded the prestigious Baker Scholarship and graduated the school with magna cum laude honors with a distinction in Economics and Political Science in 2009.

Ray Tong Zhilei

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, COL Group, People's Republic of China

Tong Zhilei, Founder, Chairman and CEO of COL Group Co., Ltd.
Beijing People's Congress Representative and Member of Dongcheng District People's Congress Standing Committee. Deputy Chairman of China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, Vice President of China Editorial Association.
Tong graduated from Tsinghua University in 1998. Tong was awarded the degree of International Master of Business Administration in Tsinghua-MIT joint Program in 2000. Tong was also the team leader of the champion of first "Challenge Cup" National College Student Business Plan Competition, which made him the earliest graduate entrepreneur in china.
Founded by Tong in 2000, COL Group has been one of the largest digital providers of copyrighted content and service. Meanwhile, it always sticks to the policy of “authorization before dissemination" to promote copyright protection. Furthermore, it has created the Initiated Federated Media Publishing Model and keeps working on improving the sustainable development of publishing industry. COL has made great contribution to the development of digital publishing, ‘nationwide reading’ activity, digital education and the copyright protection. On Jan.21, 2015, COL was listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as the first Chinese digital publisher to go public.
He has won many awards, such as the “Capital Labor Medal” and the “Beijing Youth May 4th Medal". He was the "China's Copyright Industry Figure of the Year", "National Leading Talent in the Press and Publishing Industry", and "2015 China Cultural Industry Figure of the Year". He also won the title of the "Young Global Leader" at the Davos Economic Forum.

Mamadou Kwidjim Toure

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ubuntu Group, USA

Inspired by the wisdom of his ancestors, Mamadou Kwidjim Toure believes that co-creating a better world is possible when diversity is nurtured and access to opportunities is evenly distributed. This philosophy was the driving force behind establishing Africa 2.0, a non-for-profit pan African civil society organization with the aim to create a sustainable vision for the transformation of Africa. Named one of the top 10 Most Influential Men in Africa by Forbes Magazine in 2014, Mamadou founded the Ubuntu Group in 2015 and built on his global network and investment savviness to launch socio-economic projects throughout the continent of Africa. His recent venture, Ubuntu Tribe, a digital platform promoting shared economy through tokenization of gold and other mineral ressources as a means for financial inclusion and wealth redistribution received in 2019 a distinction as finalist at the African Bankers Awards. In 2020, he was listed among the top 30 most influential in the world in blockchain technology. Over the past 20 years, Mamadou worked in instituons such as KPMG, BNP Paribas Investment Banking, IFC (World Bank Group) and finally General Electric as Managing Director in charge of Investments and Project Finance for Subsaharan Africa. He has worked on infrastructure, mining, banking, agriculture technology projects exceeding a combined value of US$ 25 billion, thus creating opportunities and hope for many people in Africa. Mamadou has been at the forefront of international high finance and remains a strong proponent for digital economy as an engine for emancipation and shared wealth creation.

Mamadou is a global citizen, passionate of culture, art and avid reader of history books, he continues to advocate for a bright future for humanity through pushing the boundaries. He believes in the power of collective action to build lasting enlightenment and prosperity. Mamadou went to the prestigious High School Lycee Louis Le Grand in Paris and holds MSc in Finance from EDHEC Business School (ranked global top 10 graduate school in Finance by Financial Times) and completed two education programs at Harvard Kennedy School on « Global Leadership and Public Policy for 21st Century » as World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2018 and « Public-Private Partnership » in 2010.
Mamadou completed program on artificial intelligence at MIT in 2020.

Lila Tretikov

Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft, USA

Lila Tretikov is Chief Executive Officer of Terrawatt (TWI), a global organization that aligns corporate, financial, NGOs and political interests to alter the trajectory of Earth's ecology. TWI brings next-generation clean energy to humankind through innovative models rooted in shared economic value, enabled by technologies such as artificial intelligence and financial engineering.

Named one of the 21 Most Powerful Women in Bay Area Technology by San Francisco Chronicle, one of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes and invited by the World Economic Forum to join the Young Global Leaders in 2016. She has co-authored numerous articles, patents and inventions across areas of policy, management and technology.

Previously, Ms. Tretikov was Chief Executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, an organization supporting Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia available in 300+ languages and the fifth most popular internet media site. She transformed the organization to prepare for upcoming changes in the age of ubiquitous Internet and machine learning. She also led Wikipedia’s rapidly expanded regional presence to nearly 100 global organizations, doubled revenues and launched the Wikipedia Endowment to support modernization and expansion of knowledge access in perpetuity.

Ms. Tretikov is Board Director and CEO Advisor at numerous companies such as Rackspace, Onfido, PrivacyShell Corp., OpenEd (acquired by ACT), Zamurai (acquired by Join.me), Crunchbase and Bonsai. She advises leaders on identifying and navigating through major market and consumer behavioral shifts propelled by technical innovations.

Ms. Tretikov launched her first company, Grok, while attending college at UC Berkeley creating intelligent data mapping of the Human Genome Project. She founded and scaled several pre-IPO companies, as well as accelerated 10-100% YOY growth of strategic projects within multi-billion USD corporations. Her cross-discipline background has allowed her to play a seminal role in helping businesses and their leaders synthesize and operationalize successful, lasting strategies and paths of execution.

Born in Moscow, Ms. Tretikov started college at the age of thirteen and emigrated to the United States independently as a teenager. She has more than two decades of experience as a transformational leader in Silicon Valley companies where she honed her passion for harnessing human-focused technologies for global impact. She currently resides in Paris, France.