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.

Priyanka Bakaya

Commercialization Adviser, US Department of Energy, USA

Priyanka Bakaya is a climate technology commercialization advisor who has been recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 List, the Fortune 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch List, Conscious Company's Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs List, is a Cartier Women's Initiative Award Laureate, and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She is a graduate of MIT Sloan and Stanford University with Honors and has completed Executive Education at Harvard's Kennedy School and Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Bakaya currently serves as an advisor on Technology to Market Commercialization to the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). She began her career in finance and venture capital, and currently serves on the Impact Committee of the Circular Innovation Fund. She brings extensive experience as a climate tech entrepeneur and coaches founders on the topics of entrepreneurship and sustainability through MIT Bootcamps. She has been invited as a keynote speaker and panelist at dozens of global conferences across six continents; presenting at events such as Fortune Brainstorm Green, Sustainable Brands, Global Entrepreneurship Summit, TEDx, and more.

Kamissa Camara

Senior Adviser, Africa, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), USA

Ambassador Kamissa Camara serves as a Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan. In her role, she brings real-world experience to the theoretical underpinnings of international diplomacy studies. Parallel to this, she contributes her expertise as a Senior Africa Advisor at the United States Institute of Peace and as a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute.

Ambassador Camara has held strategic roles within the Malian government. She notably served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as Chief of Staff to the President of Mali. These high-profile positions cemented her status as a leading authority on African politics and international relations.

Beyond academia and public service, Ambassador Camara is an influential voice in global media circles and contributes to CNN, Aljazeera and BBC, among others, on African and global politics. Ambassador Camara is finalizing her doctoral studies in political science at the University of Oxford, underscoring her commitment to blending academic rigor with practical diplomacy.

Cyrus Habib

Priest, Society of Jesus (Jesuits), USA

2016, elected Lieutenant Governor, at the age of 35. Had previously served in the State House of Representatives and the State Senate, as Democratic Whip and a member of the Democratic leadership team. As Lt. Governor, he is President of the State Senate, serves as Acting Governor whenever the governor leaves the state, and oversees an agency whose key issues include economic development, trade, and higher education. Currently, Co-Chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association. A three-time cancer survivor, has been fully blind since age eight. Parents immigrated to the US from Iran; the first and only Iranian-American to hold statewide elected office in the United States. Graduate, Columbia University, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School. Former Editor, Yale Law Journal. Practiced law at Perkins Coie and served as Distinguished Lawmaker in Residence at Seattle University Law School. Truman Scholar, Soros Fellow, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Aminata Kane

Executive Vice-President, Mobile Financial Services and Fintech, Orange Middle East and Africa, Morocco

Aminata Kane Ndiaye is the Executive VP of Mobile Financial Services at Orange Middle East and Africa, overseeing mobile money, banking and fintech activities across 17 countries. From 2018 to 2022, she was the CEO of Orange Sierra Leone and the Chairwoman of the Board of Orange Mobile Finance Sierra Leone. Under her leadership, Orange Sierra Leone became the market leader, significantly improved its growth and profitability, and has established itself as a key player in innovation with the launches of mobile money microcredit, Orange energy and e-Education. Prior to this appointment, she was the Chief Marketing Officer for Orange Money in Senegal, a business that has grown exponentially and become profitable in the past two years. From 2009 to 2011, she was a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company in France and Africa, designing strategies and operations for telecommunication and technology providers, banks, and consumer goods manufacturers in Europe and West Africa. She is a graduate from HEC Paris, earned her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a MIT Legatum fellow. In 2017, she was named Young Leader of the French African Foundation, and in 2019 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2020, at 36, won the Africa CEO of the Year Award organized by the AfricaCom / AfricaTech Festival. She was in 2021 and 2022 selected as one of the 100 Women CEO in Africa, an initiative by Africa.com and Harvard University. She is a Senior Advisor to the Amadou Mahtar Mbow Association, a board member for several companies and an investor in African tech start ups.

Bogolo Joy Kenewendo

Regionalization & Just Transition Director; Special Adviser, UN Climate change High Level Champions, Botswana

Bogolo Joy Kenewendo's career spans trade & investment, finance & development, and public policy. She is the Regionalisation Director, and Special Advisor to the UN Climate Change High Level Champions.
Kenewendo served as a Specially Elected Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry in Botswana. She serves in various corporate and philanthropic boards including as Chairperson of Bank Gaborone, Non-Executive Director of the Africa Free Trade Area adjustment Fund Corporation and the Africa Center for Economic Transformation.
She also advises governments and international institutions on trade and economic development policy.

Kenewendo has served the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, Advisory group on the gender architecture of the UN and group on Financing for Development.
She is also a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Trade Advisory Group, Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and a WEF Young Global Leader. She is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Center for Global Development.

She is frequently named among Africa's Most Influential People by various publications. In 2022 she was named among Prestigious Time magazine’s TIME100 Next Honorees highlighting 100 emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.

Carol Reiley

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Reiley Consulting, USA

An entrepreneur and an active advocate for diversity/bias in AI, Carol E. Reiley has touched many applications of AI/robotics: healthcare (Intuitive Surgical), space (Lockheed Martin), self-driving cars, etc. She co-founded and was president of the leading start-up drive.ai where she led partnerships with Lyft and Grab and raised over $77 million. She founded Tinkerbelle Labs, specializing in low-cost healthcare. She was an instructor at Johns Hopkins and led a robot outreach event for low-income students. She's written a top selling children's book, is a brand ambassador for Guerlain and was selected by Forbes and MIT Tech Review as one of the top women in AI.

Eva Scherer

Independent, Germany

Eva Scherer is a leader in the Siemens finance community and a diversity advocate. She took over the regional Chief Financial Officer role at age 27 to set up the Middle East/Asia-Pacific headquarters for the Building Technologies division in Singapore. Secured various projects promoting energy efficiency and sustainability across the region, including the company's involvement in the Greener Government Buildings programme in Australia. After five years in Asia, transferred to Germany in 2017 to head the global finance and controlling function for the Mobility division and played an instrumental role in setting up Siemens Mobility as separately managed company within the Siemens Group. From 2020 to 2022 she led the Rail Infrastructure and Software businesses at Siemens Mobility as Chief Financial Officer with the mission of making sustainable transport easily and conveniently accessible to foster decarbonization and improve air quality. As of October 2022, she was appointed Head of Group Investor Relations at Siemens, and serves as interface between Siemens and the capital markets, while continuing to fight for reducing emissions and making air breathable for everyone as the Co-chair of the World Economic Forum‘s Alliance for Clean Air.

Paweł Surówka

Chief Executive Officer, Eurocash, Poland

CFA Charterholder, AMP from Harvard Business School, MA from Ecoles des Hautes des Sciences Sociales and Paris I Sorbonne, Undergraduate from LMU and HfPh Munich, Young Global Leader, Alumnus of the Robert Schumann Foundation for European Integration.

2006-2012 Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch Bank of America, 2012-2014 Management Board Member, Head of Automotive at Boryszew SA, 2014-2016 Head of Investment and Corporate Banking Germany at PKO Bank Polski, opened first Polish Corporate Banking presence abroad
From 2016 to 2020 associated with PZU SA, Poland‘s biggest Financial Institution - served first as Chief Investment Officer, later CEO Life, since 2017 Group CEO of PZU Group. During that time also Chairman of the Board of Pekao SA Bank.
Since January 2022 CEO of Eurocash SA, one of Poland‘s biggest private corporations and one of the biggest Retail companies in CEE. Chairman of the Board of Frisco SA , Poland‘s biggest e-grocery company.

International and multicultural leader passionate about digital transformation across different sectors.