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.

Emily Serazin

Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), USA

Emily Serazin is a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Emily is a core member of BCG’s Health Care and Social Impact practices. Within health care, Emily’s focus is on vaccines and global health across the value chain. She also has expertise in digital health and in the formation and optimization of public-private partnerships. Examples of Emily's experience in the commercial health care sector include developing growth and product launch strategies for players in the global vaccines market, leading due diligences, and supporting post-merger integrations. In the realm of global public health, Emily has worked across leading global health institutions such as Gavi, UNICEF, WHO, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to define investment strategies, coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts, prioritize portfolios, and identify key levers to drive uptake in low- and middle-income countries. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Emily has worked extensively with public, private and social sector actors to accelerate the development and deployment of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics.

Bhavin Shah

Partner; Head, Middle East and North Africa, Forensic Risk Alliance Ltd, United Arab Emirates

I am a senior consulting professional and a trusted advisor to Boards of Directors, CXOs, Governments, and Regulators. I have served clients across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, America, and Europe.

My key areas of expertise are strategy development, business set-ups, transformations, M&A, restructuring, turnarounds, digital, complex regulatory matters, financial crime, public finance, and economic policies. I also have strong experience with financial performance improvement projects, balance sheet recapitalizations, Investor support, and cross-jurisdictional distress cases.

I mentor several Digital/FinTech start-ups in the region and have expertise in investing in venture, private and public markets. I hold an MBA and a Chemical Engineering degree and am an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

Shen Peng

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shuidi Company, People's Republic of China

In 2016, Shen Peng founded Waterdrop, a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. He pioneered the business model of "Medical fundraising + Health insurance + Healthcare Services", helping 2.4 million families to raise 48 billion RMB medical funding, and providing high-quality and inclusive insurance services to 110 million users. Waterdrop Company is successively winner of "Advanced Company in Covid 19 Response" by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and "Advanced Organization of Beijing Poverty Alleviation Cooperation" by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Beijing Municipal People's Government.

He’s a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience and expertise in the technology and internet sectors in China. Prior, he co-founded Meituan Waimai and served as business head of it. Listed on “2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia”, “2021 Fortune 40 Under 40 China”. Winner of “40 people in 40 years for China's insurance “Special tribute Award. Winner of “Advanced individual in Covid 19 response”by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Democratic National Construction Committee. Winner of “Advanced individual in Poverty Alleviation” by the Democratic National Construction Association. Winner of “ACES 2021 Young Entrepreneur of the Year”. Member of the "Young Entrepreneur Committee” of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Visiting professor of Business School of China University of Political Science and Law. Winner of "2021 Outstanding Contribution Award" from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.

Yichen Shen

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lightelligence, People's Republic of China

Shen Yichen is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightelligence, the world's first and leading optical computing company. Before founding Lightelligence, he was a scientist and engineer by training. He received his PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BSc in in Mathematics and Physics from Johns Hopkins University. During his doctoral period, he filed 10 US patents and published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal papers in Science, Nature Photonics, ICML and other top journals. In 2017, Yichen published a cover article on Nature Photonics, which for the first time proposed a theory to use light to perform AI algorithms. With this breakthrough, he was included on MIT Technology Review’s list of 35 Technology Innovators Under 35.

Naif Sheshah

Assistant Deputy Governor for Planning and Development & Chief Digital Officer, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Saudi Arabia

Naif Sheshah, serves as the Assistant Deputy Governor for Planning and Development & Chief Digital Officer at the Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST), In addition to his role as the Chief Transformational Office at the Saudi Space Commission. He also has a wealth of corporate strategy experience and a reputation for developing and implementing complex technology business process solutions in demanding environments. Prior to his current role, Naif was the General Manager of Planning and Development & Acting General Manager of Postal and Logistics Services. Particular highlights of his time at the CST include spearheading the formulation of the organizational strategy for the year 2019-2023, playing a prominent role to develop the Saudi ICT sector strategy, and leading a team that was twice awarded the EFQM’s certificate of Institutional Commitment to Excellence. A strategic thinker who combines extensive corporate experience, an entrepreneurial spirit, and unique academic insight, Naif’s career has crosscuts with multiple sectors such as healthcare, education, aviation, telecommunications, and petrochemicals industries, where in due time he has demonstrated a strong track record helping to steer forward-thinking businesses through periods of significant growth, change, and improvement. Naif Sheshah is a graduate of INSEAD’s Management Acceleration Program and holds a master’s degree in Business Process Management from the Queensland University of Technology, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. He sits on the board at the National Information Technology Academy, and for several years acted as ambassador for ADAA, the Kingdom’s center of excellence for performance measurement.

Sally Shin

Co-Founder, Raive, USA

Sally Shin is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Raive. Raive is building state of the art multimedia foundation AI models to enable multimedia AI to reach the masses, and solve the fundamental IP problems impeding the widespread adoption of AI by the multimedia industries. Before Raive, she was the Chief Strategy Officer at UnitedMasters. She spent over 10 years in media working at CNBC and Bloomberg. She launched CNBC's first tech show, Squawk Alley and was the youngest ever bureau chief leading the San Francisco office for the network. She is also a scout for Kleiner Perkins.

Izkia Siches

Izkia Siches Pastén, MD, is a graduate of the Universidad de Chile Medical School and trained in internal medicine at the same university. She works in the Infectious Diseases Unit of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Santiago de Chile since 2018, one of the most reputed Infectious Diseases units in Chile. She is also a member of the board of directors of the NGO "Médicos Sin Marca" which seeks to promote evidence-based clinical practice, free from pharmaceutical influences. In 2017, after a superlative performance as a student union representative, she assumed the Chilean College of Physicians' presidency, being the first woman in this position and recently reelected in 2020 for a second period. Nowadays, after the social outbreak in Chile in October 2019, she leads the most valued institution for the Chilean population in a convoluted country. Notably, she and the Human Rights department of the Chilean College of Physicians have denounced the use of kinetic impact projectiles by the police, which resulted in severe ocular trauma and permanent disability to thousands of Chileans during the social outbreak. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been advised by a reputed group of experts from different disciplines, being the voice of evidence-based recommendations and interventions that connect with common sense and most disadvantaged populations. Siches has been the counterweight of a government with one of the highest mortality and contagion rates. Today, she still works in the pandemic response and argues for health rights in her country's new constitution, about to be written in April 2021.

Susana Sierra

Chief Executive Officer, BH Compliance, USA

Susana Sierra is a global leader in the field of compliance and corporate governance, recognized for her influential work in promoting transparency, ethics, and good practices in the private sector.

Ms. Sierra is the CEO of BH Compliance. This company measures the effectiveness of existing corporate governance programs, allowing global companies to evaluate the efficacy of their good practices and identify gaps that can lead to white-collar crime and corruption. The platform also measures governance [G] policies to strengthen a company's ESG criteria.

In 2020, Ms. Sierra was recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL), which aims to strengthen the leadership skills of influential professionals to advance a global sustainable future.

Between 2016 and 2022, she was a board member of the Chilean chapter of Transparency International, Chile Transparente, serving as President between 2020 and 2022; she was also Co-Chair of a high-level commission responsible for defining Transparency International's strategy for 2030.

She also has experience in the field of entrepreneurship. She founded the Independizate Foundation, a civil society organization that aims to provide methodological support to entrepreneurs in various fields, mostly professionals who have decided to work for themselves and require support in their business models in a competitive environment and demanding market.

Ms. Sierra sits on the boards of the Chilean-North American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Chile) and the Financial & International Business Association (FIBA) in Miami. She is also a member of the Forbes Business Council.

Ms. Sierra's influence extends globally, as seen in her engagements as a speaker at prestigious events such as the #RISK London 2023, Nexus 2023, the Cities Summit of the Americas 2023, and the IX Summit of the Americas, among others.

Ms. Sierra's impact is acknowledged at national and international levels. She was recently recognized as CEO of the Year by The Women in Governance, Risk & Compliance, as well as the "Female Entrepreneur of the Year" Award by TITAN Awards Women in Business. Her outstanding leadership has been acknowledged three times with the "100 Mujeres Líderes" award in Chile. Furthermore, she received the "Hispanic Leadership Award" in the Business Award category from the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Miami, and in 2018, Ms. Sierra was honored with the "Women Who Make a Difference" award by the International Women Forum in the United States.

In the academic world, from 2014 to 2020, she was co-director of the Compliance and Corporate Best Practices Diploma at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC). In addition, she is a professor of the MBA UC and other universities worldwide.

She is currently based in Miami.

Tara Singh Vachani

Executive Chairman, Antara Senior Living Limited, India

Tara Singh Vachani is the Managing Director of Antara Senior Living, focused on improving the lives of seniors. Antara Senior Living is the first Indian venture creating vibrant residential communities that offer lifestyle with lifecare. Tara is also engaged with the Max India Foundation.

Virginijus Sinkevicius

Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, European Commission, Belgium

Virginijus Sinkevičius has been the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries since 2019. He was formerly the Minister of Economy of Lithuania (2017-2019). Before becoming the Minister of Economy, Sinkevičius led the Economic Committee of the Parliament of Lithuania. Sinkevičius was elected to Parliament in October 2016. Before that, he was a Team Lead for Regulatory Affairs at Invest Lithuania. Prior to joining Invest Lithuania, Sinkevičius was Managing Editor at the US Office of The Lithuanian Tribune in Washington D.C. Sinkevičius holds a BA in International Relations and Affairs from Aberystwyth University and a Master’s degree in European International Affairs from Maastricht University.

Varun Sivaram

Group Senior Vice-President, Strategy, Innovation, Portfolio, Partnerships and M&A, Ørsted, USA

Dr. Varun Sivaram is Senior Vice President and member of the Group Executive Team at Ørsted, a leading renewable energy company with the world’s largest offshore wind energy portfolio, where he leads strategy, innovation, portfolio and capital allocation, and partnerships and M&A. He previously served in the U.S. Biden-Harris administration as the managing director for clean energy and innovation for Secretary John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, where he spearheaded flagship U.S. initiatives such as the First Movers Coalition. He has also served as Chief Technology Officer of ReNew Power (NASDAQ:RNW), a multibillion-dollar renewable-energy firm that is India's largest; on the faculty of Columbia University and Georgetown University; as director of the energy program at the Council on Foreign Relations; and as senior energy advisor to the Los Angeles Mayor and New York Governor. TIME Magazine named him to its TIME 100 Next list of the next hundred most influential people in the world, and MIT Technology Review named him one of the top 35 innovators under 35. His books include "Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet," "Energizing America: A Roadmap to Launch a National Energy Innovation Mission," and "Digital Decarbonization: Promoting Digital Innovations to Advance Clean Energy Systems." His TED Talk on India's clean energy transition has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. A Rhodes and Truman Scholar, he holds a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Oxford University and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.

Liam Sobey

Senior Vice-President: Merchandising, National Sourcing & Liquor, Sobeys Inc., Canada

Nourishing families and communities is part of Liam's DNA. He is a value-driven leader with a passion to feed the world. He is Senior Vice-President of Merchandising, Sourcing & Liquor at Sobeys. Being an active member of his family business, Liam ascribes to its more than century-old tradition of giving back to the community. His motivation to support fairness and equality among communities led him to be the only non-aboriginal executive member of NaMeRes, a not-for-profit group that supports Aboriginal men fighting homelessness and addiction in Canada. Liam is a member of his family firm's governance and business committees. He has founded two investment groups that help next-generation family members learn about the financial markets and the positive impact of investing responsibly for a sustainable future. Liam's passion for family and community has also led him to attend multiple family business seminars, including the Scone Project and the WEF Family Business Conference in Gstaad. Liam is currently a board member of Urban Squash of Toronto and has an MBA from McGill University.