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.

David Upton

Managing Director; Chief of Staff, Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, Barclays PLC, United Kingdom

David is based in London and has a broad remit focused on bringing together the different aspects of the global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility agenda to help drive Barclays' strategy. As part of the Group CEO Office, David works closely with senior stakeholders across the bank on a range of Group-wide issues and is responsible for the operation of the Group Executive Committee. Previously, he helped to lead the development and execution of Barclays Compliance Strategy and advised on issues relating to Conduct and Reputation Risk, regulatory engagement, and executive governance. Before Barclays, David worked at the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority in Strategic Business Planning and Human Resources. He graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Warwick.

Aakrit Vaish

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jio Haptik Technologies Limited, India

Aakrit Vaish is the Co-Founder & CEO of Jio Haptik, one of the world's largest AI companies. He founded the company in 2013 as Haptik, which was acquired by Reliance Jio Platforms in 2019 in a $100 million transaction, forming the new entity of Jio Haptik. Aakrit has been a pioneer in the conversational AI space, leading the wave of transforming customer experience digitally. Under his leadership, Haptik has powered more than 200 brands globally, including Whirlpool, HP, Zurich Insurance, Disney+, KFC & more. The platform processes over 4 billion interactions annually and is consistently mentioned as a top industry player by Gartner, Forrester & Everest. Haptik was named a category leader in Bot Platforms by G2 in their Spring 2022 report, based on a rating of 4.5/5.0 by more than 100 customers. Outside of Haptik, Aakrit is an active angel investor in startups in India, having made close to 80 such investments. He is a charter member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation and Co-Chair of H2 India. He serves on the boards of various technology startups, helping them with go-to-market, scaling & team building. Aakrit has been recognized by Entrepreneur 35 Under 35, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Businessworld 40 Under 40. He has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.

Felipe Valencia-Dongo

Managing Partner, Grupo Estrategia, Peru

Felipe Valencia-Dongo is Managing Partner at Grupo Estrategia. In Grupo Estrategia they work with large-scale investment projects in emerging markets to achieve Social Acceptance (permission to enter or start a project) and Sustainable Relationship (long-term harmonious relationship with the communities and social organizations of the project's area of influence). He articulates efforts between the private sector, communities, and the public sector to achieve sustainable development for the three of them. They work with several projects of +1 billion USD investment, and Grupo Estrategia is a social-purposed firm that has articulated investments for social good for +USD 500 million.

He served as CEO & Fund Manager of an investment fund in higher education. He also served as Advisor to Peru’s Prime Minister and as Advisor to Peru’s Minister of Education while implementing the educational reform. He worked in poverty reduction with Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Creative Lab and in the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru.

Felipe is a former Global Shaper. He has served as Vice-President of IPAE (distinguished private sector non-profit). He was appointed as the youngest President in 60 years of CADE Ejecutivos (the annual gathering for Peruvian business leaders, politicians, and civil society). He is Board Member of IPAE and Sistema B Perú (B Corps); Member of Es Hoy (Movement of private sector leaders working for Peru) and L+1 (leaders for sustainability).

Felipe graduated with honours in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru) and holds a Master’s degree in the University of Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar. He was selected as Young Global Leader in 2023.

Sumayya Vally

Founder and Principal, Counterspace, South Africa

Principal of Counterspace, an award-winning architecture and research studio, based between Johannesburg and London, Sumayya Vally’s design, research and pedagogical practice is searching for expression for hybrid identities and territory, particularly for African and Islamic conditions. Her design process is often forensic, and draws on the aural, performance, the supernatural, and the overlooked as generative places of history and work.

A TIME100 Next List honouree, named as a figure who will shape the future of architectural canon and practice; and designer of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion (2020/2021), Vally is the youngest architect ever to be commissioned for the internationally renowned architecture programme, which opened to unprecedented critical acclaim in 2021. She has recently worked on initiating and developing Support Structures for Support Structures, a new fellowship programme launched at the Serpentine, which supports artists and collectives who support community through their work at the intersections of art and social justice, art and the archive and art and ecology. Sumayya has also recently been named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and serves on several boards through her interest in dynamic forms of archive and supporting new networks of knowledge in the arts. She is presently immersed in several projects which work to create cultural typologies and platforms for the future, through the lenses of identity and embodied heritage - including work on the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Library in Liberia and through her role as creative director and contemporary commissions curator for the first-ever Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah.

Mariana Vasconcelos

Chief Executive Officer, Agrosmart, Brazil

Mariana Vasconcelos is the Chief Executive Officer of Agrosmart, a technology pioneer alumni of the World Economic Forum and serves as an advisory board member at Thought For Food, Fundação Espaço ECO (BASF) and Instituto Interamericano de Cooperação para a Agricultura (IICA). She is a climate activist and an expert in digital agriculture, considered one of the most influential people in Latin America by Bloomberg Linea. An advocate for gender equality, she was recognized by Globant with a "Women That Build" award in the game-changer category. With a business background and degrees from UNIFEI, LSE and Singularity University, she was also recognized as an Innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, Forbes 30 Under 30 Brasil and Fast Company world's 100 Most Creative in Business.

Vasudha Vats

Vice-President, Pfizer, USA

Vasudha Vats has grown several multi-billion dollar businesses in pharma and currently manages one of the highest selling small molecule medicines in the world. Her mission is to not only help patients by delivering high-quality medical therapies, but also to improve care delivery across the entire patient experience. As a leader in healthcare, she has forged and led partnerships across the industry to deliver better outcomes for patients, including patient advocacy groups like the American Diabetes Association, technology (Fitbit), pharmacy (CVS and Walgreens), and government (National Institutes of Health). She is an advocate of supporting emerging thinkers to fuel future societal improvement, actively mentoring emerging biotechnology firms with the New York City Entrepreneurship Lab and having helped to co-found the Chandini Foundation, a charity designed to provide underprivileged youths in developing nations with mentoring support to become ethical, impactful and entrepreneurially minded leaders.

Elisa Vegas

Artistic Director, Fundación Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, Venezuela

Elisa Vegas founded the first orchestra aimed at improving quality of life of Venezuelans through music and cultural change. She is a living example of how the arts unify people of very different backgrounds and beliefs.

Sudarshan Venu

Managing Director, TVS Motor Company Limited, India

Sudarshan Venu is the M.D. of TVS Motor Company. He is also on the board of Sundaram - Clayton Ltd, the holding Company, and MD of TVS Credit, the group's financial services arm. He is an automotive enthusiast and grew up amidst the roar of the engines of India's oldest factory racing team. Over the last few years, Mr. Venu has been charting the future of one of India's leading two-wheeler manufacturers, making it the most awarded two-wheeler company. He now plans to transform the Company into a top global mobility player. Under his leadership, TVS acquired U.K.s iconic motorcycle brand Norton Motorcycles and has set up a completely new manufacturing facility in the U.K. Mr. Venu also strongly believes in staying ahead of the emerging trends: electrification and personal mobility are two big areas of focus. He is looking to build a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands. He recently led TVS to acquire the European e-bike brand EGO Movement and Switzerland's largest e-bike company, Swiss E-Mobility Group. With the vision of enriching the life of every Indian, he is also leading the change at TVS Credit Services. He holds a Graduate Degree with Honors in Management and Technology from the University of Pennsylvania. He also obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Engineering and, a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School & an M.Sc. in International Tech from the University of Warwick in the U.K.

Claudia Vergueiro Massei

Maternity leave, Kuwait

Claudia is currently on a challenging mission to transform the culture of one of the most successful business units of Siemens, with the intent to ensure higher collaboration among its 14,000 team members and more co-creation with partners and customers. After all, there is no digital transformation without an accompanying cultural transformation.

In her previous role, as Siemens Oman CEO, Claudia was committed to enabling the digital transformation in the sultanate and to contributing to its economic development. She drove business in power generation and distribution, smart grid, smart buildings, control and automation, and digital solutions for industrial applications. She assumed her role after working with Siemens in Germany, Denmark and China for various business fields, including wind power and rail automation.

Originally from Brazil, she commenced her career in strategy consulting, undertaking assignments in France, Morocco, South Africa and the United States, besides her home country. She subsequently co-founded a SaaS edtech startup in Brazil, Eduqo, which she ran for a couple of years before joining Siemens. Claudia developed her passion for education during her college days, when she worked as part-time teacher preparing students for university entrance exams in Brazil.

In her free time, Claudia enjoys to dance, travel and learn about different cultures, as well as to mentor young entrepreneurs. She is a Board Member of ITAex and of the Casimiro Montenegro Filho Foundation and she sits on the Advisory Board of Battery Associates. She was nominated by Forbes as one of the most powerful businesswomen in the Middle East in 2021 and 2020, by Business Insider Germany as among the Top 25 Female FutureMakers in 2021, and by LinkedIn as one of its 2020 Top Voices. She is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Claudia holds an Aeronautical Engineering Degree from Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica, an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania. She also later pursued executive education courses in universities such as Stanford, Princeton, Cambridge, Oxford, London School of Economics and Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

Maria Vircikova

Chief Executive Officer, MATSUKO, Slovakia

Maria Vircikova is the Co-Founder and CEO of MATSUKO, which aims to revolutionize everyday communications through a 3D hologram connection. The world’s first real-time app for holographic presence, MATSUKO, winner of the 2022 SXSW in Extended Reality and Immersive Technology, allows users to embark on a holographic experience through the use of smartphones and mixed reality glasses. Prior to embarking on this entrepreneurial endeavor, Vircikova performed research in the field of AI, human-robot interaction and service robotics, lectured at universities and conferences on all continents. In recognition of her expertise and accomplishments, she has also notably been awarded the European Tech Women Award and she is a 2023 European Young Leader.

Hitesh Wadhwa

Enterprise Technology and Business Leader, Google Cloud, Google, USA

Hitesh holds a distinguished position as a seasoned leader in Enterprise Technology, Sales, and Business at Google within the United States. In his role, he leads growth and adoption of Google Cloud with large enterprises in Central US. His responsibilities are centered around elevating Technology, particularly in the domains of AI, web3, Cloud, Quantum Computing, and more, to the forefront of large-scale Enterprises and their associated communities. He is also a GenAI Ambassador at Google.

Before joining Google, Hitesh's career encompassed a pivotal role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the 'Principal, Enterprise Business' for a rapidly expanding region, where he orchestrated strategies to expand AWS adoption within substantial and medium-sized organizations.

Prior to his tenure at AWS, he occupied the position of Vice President at Tech Mahindra, the IT division of the Mahindra group. In this capacity, he orchestrated a range of strategic engagements and undertakings within the Telco, Media & Entertainment (CME) sector, leading to a noteworthy growth of Tech Mahindra's business by over $100 million through both organic and inorganic means. Hitesh played an instrumental part in Tech Mahindra's CME vertical, a business segment generating more than $2.5 billion annually. He was selected twice for the company's highly competitive "Shadow Board" program, an exclusive initiative where only six individuals out of over 130,000 employees are chosen each year to shadow the board of directors. As a Shadow Board member, he administered several impactful programs spanning digital transformation, diversity, culture, and sustainability.

Over the course of his extensive 17+ years of professional journey at the intersection of Technology and Business, Hitesh has demonstrated adept leadership in team management, business expansion, strategic endeavors, and effective management of Fortune 500 client relationships. Noteworthy clients include AT&T, USAA, Facebook, Verizon, Oracle, UnitedHealth Group, WarnerMedia, Rakuten, and iHeartMedia, among others.

Hitesh's enthusiasm for Technology is profound, driven by his belief in its potential to address significant global challenges when employed judiciously. In 2021, he was named as a 'Young Global Leader' (YGL) by the World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org/press/2021/03/ygl-class-2021/

He has also been chosen by Forbes for "Forbes Business Development Council", an invitation-only organization for Senior-Level Sales and Business Development Executives

Beyond his professional pursuits, he nurtures a penchant for fine Coffee and Bourbon. During his leisure moments, he cherishes quality time with his family - his wife and two children. Presently, he resides in Austin, Texas, USA.

Dominic Wadongo

Chief Risk Officer, Smartcash Payment Service Bank, Nigeria

Dominic Wadongo is the Group Head of Operational Risk at Equity Group Holdings, overseeing operational risk management across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also in charge of driving the operational risk management in non-banking subsidiaries, which include Equity Investment Bank, Equity Insurance, Equity Group Foundation and Finserve. The scope encompasses driving the integrated operational risk management framework covering operational risk, IT and cyber risk, business continuity management, fraud risk, data privacy and protection, and security. Previously, Wadongo was Acting Chief Risk Officer and Head of Enterprise Risk at the National Bank of Kenya, where he ensured an effective risk management framework covering key risk areas in the company. Before joining National Bank of Kenya, Dominic started his career at Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya (SCBK) in 2007 where he worked for six years. He was the Senior Operational Risk Officer, in Global Shared Services Centre Africa. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with an MBA in 2015. He also has a BSc in Wildlife Management from Moi University. Wadongo is currently pursuing professional certifications in operational risk management (PRMIA) and Certified Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC). He is also a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).