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.

Petra Ehmann

Group Chief Innovation and AI Officer, Ringier, Switzerland

Petra Ehmann is the Group Chief Innovation and AI Officer of the global media technology company Ringier. She ranks among the youngest board members in Switzerland. At Ringier her responsibility is to bring AI and innovation into all group companies. Ehmann worked at Google for almost nine years in international roles. Her last position was global lead of augmented reality product partnerships. Ehmann joined the board of directors of Bossard, a publicly listed technology company, at 35. In order to get young people enthused in STEM fields, she joined the Technorama Foundation as a member of the board of trustees in 2020. She advocates for more diversity in the tech industry as an Advisory Board Member at We Shape Tech and Ringier's EqualVoice initiative, which aims to improve the visibility of women in media. Her dedication and contributions have been recognized with multiple awards, including Switzerland’s Top 100 Women in Business, Top 100 Digital Shapers (Hall of Fame) as well as top 25 millennials in Europe who shape society

Ehmann holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich and a Master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She was raised in Bolivia and has lived, studied and worked in four continents. She is fluent in four languages.

Sofia Elizondo

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Brightseed, USA

Sofia Elizondo is a biotech entrepreneur. She is co-founder and COO of Brightseed, an AI company that discovers bioactive molecules for health based in San Francisco. Brightseed makes proactive, precision health a reality by using pioneering advancements in machine learning to identify bioactive molecules in nature. Brightseed has commercialized novel bioactives in gut health and has a pipeline with nutritional and therapeutic applications across a dozen health areas. It been selected as a Technology Pioneer by the WEF and awarded distinctions by Forbes, Nutritional Outlook, R&D World, Rabobank, FastCompany, Nutra Ingredients and Nutritional Business Journal.

Sofia has helped build multimillion-dollar companies and brands in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and technology industries. Before Brightseed, Sofia led the commercialization of plant-based protein products, including the novel mung bean protein isolate. She began her career at the Boston Consulting Group and was also a founding member of the BCG Henderson Institute; the consulting firm's think tank on the future of business innovation. She also served as a Special Advisor to the United Nations supporting their work with the private sector. Her decades of leadership now enable Brightseed's mission to illuminate nature to restore human health.

Sofia's accolades include Top 40 Under 40, San Francisco Business Times; WEF Young Global Leader; 100 Women of Influence, Entrepreneur Magazine; EXTRAORDINARY leaders in Health, Newsweek; Top 100 Female Founders, Inc. Magazine; Women in AI Award, VentureBeat. She has spoken at conferences ranging from nutrition industry with the American Nutrition Association to artificial intelligence and global affairs with the Milken Global Institute and JP Morgan Tech Revolution. Sofia holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ilwad Elman

Chief Operating Officer, Elman Peace Centre, Somalia

Ilwad Elman is a social entrepreneur at the forefront of the Somali peace process.

•Chief Operating Officer at the Elman Peace Center.

•The Elman Peace Centre is a women lead peace building organization founded and based in Somalia. Our dynamic force comprises visionary thought leaders, fearless activists, and trailblazing social- entrepreneurs. Our young and diverse team adopts a start-up like approach to resolving the seemingly intractable conflicts and social justice issues in our community. We're bridge builders, forming potent alliances with civil society organizations and initiating public-private partnerships that fuel the greater, common good.

Amal Enan

Chief Investment Officer, American University in Cairo, Egypt

Amal Enan is the Chief Investment Officer at the American University in Cairo and Partner at 500 Global. She places her expertise to invest at the forefront of technology and global sustainability across asset classes. With a commitment to intergenerational equity and inclusion, Enan applies herself as a catalyst for allocating capital to invest in growth and climate sustainability.

Nino Enukidze

Rector of Business and Technology University, Founder of Coding School for Women, Business and Technology University, Georgia

Nino Enukidze is Rector of Business and Technology University in Tbilisi, Georgia's Silicon Valley. With a decade of dedication to education and innovation, she has founded Georgia's largest Coding School for Women and the Sustainability Lab. Enukidze holds other positions, such as President of the Academic Consortium at the European Marketing and Management Association, Member of Advisory Council at the Committee of Education and Science at the Parliament of Georgia and Member of the Business Advisory Council at UNICEF Georgia. Her leadership has transformed Silicon Valley Tbilisi into a catalyst for Georgia's technological advancement, establishing the first Global Startup Foundation and facilitating membership in MIT's Martin Trust Center. Her work has earned global recognition, including being named among Architects of Tomorrow by Emerging Europe and the Strong Women in IT Global Edition's 200 Leaders, and delivering a keynote address at the UN CSW67 expert panel.

Kow Abaka Essuman

Legal Counsel to the President, Office of the President of Ghana, Ghana

Kow Essuman is an international lawyer in every sense, who specializes in corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration. He is currently serving as counsel at the office of the President of Ghana. He is licensed to practice law in England & Wales (2008), New York (2010) and Ghana (2011). He holds a Master of Laws degree with Honors in International Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Institutions from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (2009). He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from BPP Law School, London (2008) and is a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws from University of Westminster, London (2007) and was previously a Global Shaper at the Accra Hub.

Richard Ettl

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, SkyCell, Switzerland

Richard is the CEO and Co-founder of SkyCell; SkyCell delivers a system-critical service to secure the distribution of medicine and vaccines worldwide to doctors, patients, and pharma companies while reducing the CO2 footprint of the shipments by 50%. Before SkyCell, he helped to build up the Institute for Value-Based Entrepreneurship "IVE Institute" in Switzerland, which provided more than 3500 students with business plan creation classes and leadership insights from top CEOs free of charge. He co-led the Alumni Organization for more than ten years. Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management from Université de Fribourg. Richard is married and lives in the Zurich area with his two daughters. His hobbies include skiing, sailing, and coaching startups pro bono.

Jonathan Fantini Porter

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Partnership for Central America, USA

Jonathan Fantini Porter is a government official and executive in the private and social sectors. He currently serves as CEO of the public-private Partnership for Central America and previously held leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The White House, U.S. Congress, and McKinsey & Company.

Under his tenure, the Partnership raised $4.2 billion in foreign direct investment, procurement, and lending in 18 months for projects in the region and delivered programs to 5 million individuals across environmental, social, and governance programs to address the economic roots of migration in frontier and emerging markets. The Partnership has been cited by the President of Microsoft, Administrator of USAID Samantha Power, and the President of the World Bank as a case study on how to mobilize private sector investments for public-private economic development partnerships.

Jonathan previously served as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company; advisor on national security and private sector engagement to the Presidential transition of Joe Biden; a White House advisor on transnational security during the Presidency of Barack Obama; as a senior congressional aide in the U.S. Congress; and Chief of Staff in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where he oversaw management operations of a $6 billion homeland security budget supporting 22,000 personnel in 48 countries.

He was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and has served on advisory bodies to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, World Economic Forum, Amnesty International, and as a consulting fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Jonathan is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Georgetown University and was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. He speaks Spanish, French, and German.

El Seed Faouzi

Artist and Founder, Atelier El Seed Artifacts and Artworks Trading LLC, United Arab Emirates

eL Seed uses Arabic calligraphy and a distinctive style to spread messages of peace, unity and to underline the commonalities of human existence. His artwork can be found all over the world and consistently aim at unifying communities and redressing stereotypes. Born in 1981 in Paris to Tunisian parents, he was disconnected from his Arabic roots, speaking only the Tunisian dialect of the language at home. In his teenage years in a kind of quest for his identity, he began to delve into his own heritage and learned to read and write standard Arabic.It was during this journey that he began to develop his artistic style of calligraphy, which would later bring him worldwide acclaim. He found that Arabic calligraphy was a way of building a link between his equally important French and Tunisian backgrounds and as he matured, eL Seed began to use that same calligraphy as a tool to build bridges all over the world. Whenever he works within a community, he spends a long time researching to find an appropriate quote to summarise the voice of the community he is working within and to underline his key principals of love, respect and tolerance. His work has been shown in exhibitions and in public places all over the world including most notably on the façade of L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, in the favelas of Rio di Janeiro, on the DMZ in between North and South Korea, in the slums of Cape Town and in the heart of Cairo’s garbage collectors neighbourhood. In 2017, he won the UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. He was named a Global Thinker in 2016 by Foreign Policy for his project ‘Perception’ in Cairo. In 2013, he collaborated with Louis Vuitton on their famous ‘Foulard d’Artiste’.

Fawaz Farooqui

Managing Director, Cruise Saudi, Saudi Arabia

Fawaz Farooqui is a public sector entrepreneur and innovator who led multiple transformations and established several entities and companies. He dedicated his career to improving the quality of life in Saudi Arabia and creating unforgettable experiences that are inspired by the culture and people of Saudi. He currently serves as the Chief Advisor to the Saudi Minister of Culture and sits on the board of several organizations such as Saudia Airlines, Cruise Saudi Corporation, AlUla Development Company and the Saudi Sports for All Federation. In addition, he is the interim CEO of Cruise Saudi, which he led to launch the cruise industry in Saudi and promote the Red Sea to global cruise lines. Previously, Fawaz was appointed as the first CEO of the country’s National Transformation Program (NTP) to lead the first revamp of the program to enhance execution and delivery, resulting in specialized programs, such as Quality of Life, which he helped establish and was a board member of. Before that, Fawaz served as an Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Planning, focusing mainly on recreation and quality of life portfolio of the country. He led the establishment team of the General Entertainment Authority and various other public and social programs focused on improving the quality of life of the citizens in Saudi. Before joining the government, Fawaz led key initiatives in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) where he launched KAEC’s entrepreneurship program, as well as partnering with the global Messengers of Peace (MoP) initiative to initiate several programs in add KAEC on the global agenda of MoP initiative. Fawaz started his career with Saudi Aramco, where he led several transformations, starting from revamping field operations and establishing technology support in Aramco’s Satellite Communications to a complete turnaround and re-launch of the Corporate Telecom Network Operations Center. Fawaz has an MBA from Stanford University. He also earned a BSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science, a BA in Political Science, and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He has authored several technology articles including 3 technical papers that were published in global journals and were presented in different conferences worldwide.

Daniel Feldman

Founder and Architect, Zona Industrial Taller de Arquitectura, Colombia

Daniel Feldman Founder and Chief Executive of ZITA (Zona Industrial Taller de Arquitectura), a mission-based architecture and urban design and development firm whose processes are rooted in community participatory design, environmental innovation, and historic preservation centered urban development. Since age 26, he has been a university educator leading architecture studios and seminars where he challenges his students to immerse themselves in complex social realities as a way of practice. He designed and developed multiple kindergartens in underserved rural communities as the Lead Architect in the office of the First Lady of Colombia, and was Head of Architecture at the Colombian office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) where he led the infrastructure investments that support the extreme poverty reduction programme in war-stricken areas. The public buildings he has designed and developed within secluded and overlooked communities in Colombia, Brazil, Kenya and the US have been internationally awarded and published in multiple occasions including the ward for the Best Young Latin American Architect in the Venice Architecture Biennial, 2018. Feldman holds an MA in Urban Design from Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Architecture from Universidad de Los Andes.

Kate Fitz-Gibbon

Professor (Practice), Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Monash University, Australia

Kate Fitz-Gibbon is a Professor (Practice) in the Faculty of Business and Economics and former Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre at Monash University (Victoria, Australia). She is also an Honorary (Professorial Fellow) with the Melbourne Law School at University of Melbourne. Internationally recognized as a research leader, Fitz-Gibbon specializes in domestic and family violence, femicide, responses to violence against women and the impacts of law and policy reform in Australia and abroad. Her research findings are widely disseminated through books, academic journals, funded reports and presentations at national and international conferences and forums. She has provided expertise on homicide law reform and family violence reviews in Australia and internationally. Her research has been cited by the High Court of Australia. Fitz-Gibbon holds a PhD in Criminology, a Masters in Human Rights Law, and a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education.