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.

Natznet Tesfay
Ms. Natznet Tesfay leads the Economics and Country Risk Analysis group, which has over 150 experts around the world forecasting the economic, sovereign risk and granular country risk outlooks for 206 countries and geographies as well as comparative performance of over 80 industries and consumer markets globally. Natznet’s areas of focus include geopolitical competition, emerging market debt vulnerabilities, energy transition and global supply chain re-alignment. For over a decade, Ms. Tesfay led Africa analysis group, developing the regional risk indicator and horizon scanning infrastructure, drawing on a range of methodologies such as geospatial analysis, influence mapping and scenario modelling techniques. Natznet supports business growth in emerging markets, advising C-level executives on market entry and risk management, and governments on leveraging their natural resource potential for sustainable economic growth. She regularly speaks in major media outlets, and at high-level conferences. Previously, she had advised on the development of free trade zones, foreign policy and the mining sector in the Horn of Africa. Ms. Tesfay’s degrees include a BA in Government from Harvard University and a MSc in Urbanization and Development from the London School of Economics.

Piyush Tewari
Piyush Tewari is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF), a nonprofit organization committed to saving lives on roads in India and beyond. SLF is best known for getting India a Good Samaritan Law and for developing an award-winning model for reducing fatalities on Indian highways.
Tewari holds an MPA from Harvard and is a recipient of the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise. In 2019 he was recognised as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Piyush is also an Ashoka Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, a Rainer Arnhold Fellow, and a DRKF Entrepreneur. He has been featured by The New York Times, National Geographic and Time Magazine, among others. In 2016, he was recognised by GQ as one of Most Influential Young Indians.
Prior to founding SLF, Piyush served as the Managing Director of the Calibrated Group, a US-based private equity fund. Piyush quit the private sector to establish SLF following the tragic road crash death of a child in the family. Piyush has also served as a Program Manager with the India Brand Equity Fund, an initiative of the Prime Minister of India.

Aaditya Thackeray
Mr. Aaditya Thackeray is a Leader of the Shivsena & President of the Yuva Sena (Shivsena’s youth-wing). He recently served (2019-2022) as a Cabinet Minister in the Government of Maharashtra and handled three portfolios; Environment & Climate Change, Tourism & Protocol. As part of the Government of Maharashtra he also served as the Guardian Minister for the Mumbai Suburban district and Chaired the Padma Awards (national awards for recognition) Recommendation Committee. He represents the Worli constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Thackeray is an avid environmentalist, and works passionately on climate action and urban planning.
His policy drives ensured many cities across Maharashtra like Mumbai got its own Climate Action Plan and the Electric Vehicle Policy 2021, that gave a push for 10,000 electric buses in Mumbai, amongst many more for other cities.
A football enthusiast, he serves as the Vice-President of the Western India Football Association and as the President of the Mumbai District Football Association. He graduated with a BA in History from St. Xavier’s College and an LL.B. from Kishinchand Chellaram (K.C) Law College, Mumbai. Furthermore Mr. Thackeray is also a published poet.

Fagun Thakrar
Fagun Thakrar is a critically acclaimed actor, writer-director, founder, CEO, social entrepreneur, activist and global ambassador. The aim in all of her work and passions are to inspire people, improve lives, and help effect positive change across the globe.
Fagun began her education studying Medicine at the University of London Medical School and went on to study a range of disciplines to Master’s level. Fagun has an MBA from the University of Cambridge, Masters in Acting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the UK and Film Directing from the US.
As an actor Fagun has appeared in several Hollywood and international films and has starred alongside Academy Award winners. Her films have been released in cinemas internationally, have been selected in festivals and have won awards. Fagun’s focus is cinematic roles with strong intellectual social-impact content that encourages positive global change.
As a writer-director Fagun further explores the power of storytelling through film to create meaningful content. Her expertise and passion lie in developing films which shine a light on critical issues. Fagun’s vision is to establish a pioneering film studio which focuses on creating purpose-driven films with the potential to change peoples lives globally.
As an activist, Fagun is involved in local level and global non-profit work with children, girls, women and the health sector. Fagun supports initiatives focused on global health and well-being. She is a certified Yoga and Meditation expert, and she regularly shares her expertise with people from disadvantaged children to world leaders and national presidents.
Fagun is the Global Ambassador and spokesperson for many non-profits, including The Women’s Brain Project. Building on her experience in this field, Fagun founded her own non-profit, The Creatively Inspired Life Foundation that is dedicated to empowering young people through creativity.
Fagun currently lives and works between the UK and the US.

Gagan Thapa
Entrepreneur, engaged in agribusiness in Nepal. 2008, elected to the first Constitutional Assembly, representing the Nepali Congress party; Member, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principle Committee, Constituent Assembly; Member, Natural Resources and Means Committee, Legislative Parliament. Currently, Member of the Constitutional Assembly, Parliament of Nepal. Concurrently, Minister of Health of Nepal. Member of the Central Committee, Nepali Congress political party.

Peter A. Thiel
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
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
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.

Ping Tjin Thum
Dr Pingtjin THUM is a Singaporean historian, and founder and Managing Director of New Naratif, a movement for democracy in Southeast Asia. As civil rights activists, he and his colleagues have been threatened, harassed, and condemned as traitors by Singapore’s government. Dr Thum earned his DPhil in History from Oxford in 2011 and is currently an Academic Visitor at Hertford College. He is a Rhodes Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar, Olympic athlete, and the only Singaporean to swim the English Channel. A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, his work centres on decolonisation in Southeast Asia, and its continuing impact on Southeast Asian governance and politics. His most recent published work is “Independence: The Further Stage of Colonialism in Singapore” in Barr and Rahim (eds.), The Limits of Authoritarian Governance in Singapore’s Developmental State (Palgrave, 2019).

Matthew Tilleard
Matthew Tilleard is co-founder and co-Managing Partner of The CrossBoundary Group, an innovative investment firm that unlocks private capital for sustainable development. It employs over 70 investment professionals across offices in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, Bamako, Washington DC, Dubai, London and New York City. CrossBoundary Advisory provides investment and economic advisory services across a range of developing countries and has also developed innovative mechanisms to attract investment in fragile states affected by conflict. CrossBoundary Energy is the first dedicated investment fund for commercial and industrial solar in Africa. It is now one of the largest distributed solar utilities in Africa with over 15MW of projects under construction or operation in Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana. In 2018, CrossBoundary announced the formation of CrossBoundary Energy Access. A blended finance facility backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and private investors to use project finance to distributed solar-storage mini-grids for rural electrification of over 170,000 people.
Matthew began his career at The Boston Consulting Group where he focused on projects at the intersection of the private and public sector. While at BCG he co-founded ripple.org, a nonprofit website that has reached over 1.25 million people. In 2008 Matthew left BCG to become a policy advisor to Noel Pearson, a respected indigenous leader in Australia. In 2009, he moved to Kabul, Afghanistan to help establish the Afghan Investment Climate Facility (Harakat) - an innovative Afghan led $50M USD facility with a mandate to remove barriers to private sector development in Afghanistan. Matthew holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne, a Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and and MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. In 2015, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Lauren Tilstra
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
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.