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.

Christian Wessels
MSc in Business Administration, University of Cologne. 20 years consulting and industry experience with a focus on Africa.
Founder and CEO of Sunray Ventures, which focuses as an Africa/Middle East Venture Builder on high-impact companies. Sunray currently scales up companies in renewable energy (Daystar Power), green logistics (Bisedge) and industrial services (Nordic Degrees). Promoter of sustainable economic growth in Africa through cleantech/circular economy initiatives. Endeavor Entrepreneur. Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (class 2012).

Silvia Wiesner
Silvia Wiesner is active in Egon Zehnder’s Consumer Practice, leveraging her many years of marketing, sales, and general management experience in the consumer goods industry across various European markets to develop bold ideas and identify ideal solutions for clients. She excels at shaping visions and inspiring others, aided by her multicultural background and command of several languages. Silvia is also passionate about driving diversity, equity and inclusion on executive and board teams. Before joining Egon Zehnder, Silvia spent 17 years in marketing, sales, and general management roles at Unilever, most recently in Brussels as the Managing Director for Belgium and Luxembourg. Prior to that she was based in Hamburg where she held the position of General Manager and Vice President for Marketing in the food category in German-speaking countries.
Silvia earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Graz in Austria while spending an exchange year in the USA. She furthered her education with courses at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, and the Corporate Governance Institute. Outside work, Silvia drives gender equity in decision-making roles in Europe as a member of the executive committee of European Women on Boards and has been identified by BeyondGenderAgenda as “one of the top 100 women for diversity” in Germany and selected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She also belongs to the LEAD Europe network, the Club of European Female Entrepreneurs, and the Corporate Governance Institute in addition to mentoring for the EMEA Fellowship Program of the Marketing Academy and nushu Female Business and providing strategic advice to IMAGINE (cofounded by Paul Polman).

Ted Wiley
Ted Wiley is the Co-founder and President of Form Energy (formerly Baseload Renewables), a startup company developing ultra-low cost, long duration energy storage to enable a 100% renewable energy future. Previously, Ted was president and of McDonough Innovation, a consulting and product development company focused on helping companies implement cradle to cradle and circular economy principles developed by William McDonough. Prior to McDonough Innovation Ted was a co-founder of and head of product at Aquion Energy, a start-up that manufactures sustainable, cost-effective batteries for stationary energy storage applications. Prior to Aquion, Wiley was a Senior Associate at Hudson Clean Energy Partners where he worked on biofuels and solar investments. Before Hudson, he served as a captain in the US Army. As a platoon leader for the 1-23 Infantry Battalion, he spent a year in Iraq leading combat missions and helping to organize the country's first free elections. Wiley earned a BSc in Physics at Seattle University and an MBA from Harvard Business School with concentrations in clean technology entrepreneurship.

will.i.am
Creative innovator, Futurist and entertainer and technology investor. Member: World Economic Forum Fourth Industrial Revolution Advisory Committee and Global Artificial Intelligence Action Alliance. Advisor, Bias & Ethics to Stradigi AI. Honorary Fellow, Institutions of Engineering and Technology. Recipient: TIME 100 IMPACT Award (2022), seven Grammy Awards; Emmy; CLIO; World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2016).
As an advocate for STEAM education, started i.am Angel Foundation, which uses project-based learning modules to deliver STEAM education for at-risk youth via dedicated STEM Academy preparatory schools, after-school tutoring and enrichment activities within the US. At-risk students participate in project-based learning modules for robotics, coding, app development, geographic information system mapping, and study Mandarin Chinese. The i.am Angel Foundation recently teamed with the Los Angeles Unified School District, America's second-largest state-run public school system to offer robotics clubs as an official after-school activity, with capacity to serve 12,000+students. Keeping child safety and protection at the forefront in the US as pertains to school and community shootings that urgently require gun safety law reform, Co-Executive Producer, "Parkland Rising", a documentary film about the students and families that survived a mass school shooting and their journey as advocates for US gun safety reform. Interests: promoting the health and planetary benefits of a plant-based (Vegan) diet; alternative energy-powered cars.

Adebola Williams
Adebola Williams is a pioneer at the intersection of media, democracy and social change. He is co-founder and chief executive officer of RED, which owns Africa’s largest portfolio of youth media brands that engages millions of youths on the continent, including Red Media Africa, StateCraft, the Future Awards Africa, and YNaija.com. Williams co-founded EnoughisEnough (EiE) in 2010, one of Nigeria’s foremost civic participation groups and a voice for young people on politics. He was chairman of the board until resigning to take the lead on the communication and rebranding of the current Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari In 2014. Williams led the team that shaped the national discourse and optimized media engagement to change longstanding perceptions. He did the same in Ghana in 2016, helping the opposition candidate win the presidency on his third attempt. He and is team have recently concluded the Macky Sall campaign with a big win in February 2019.Williams consults in other regions in the continent.

Kiah Williams
Kiah Williams is Co-Founder and Managing Director of SIRUM, a non-profit social enterprise that drives the future of healthcare by connecting people with surplus medications. Prior to SIRUM, Williams helped create the Alliance Healthcare Initiative, a public-private partnership spearheaded by the American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation that engaged Fortune 500 companies to expand healthcare benefits for 2 million children. Her work at SIRUM has been recognized by Forbes 30-Under-30 and Marie Claire's America's 50 Most Influential Women. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University.

Bryony Winn
Bryony Winn is president of Anthem Health Solutions, where she is dedicated to using her platform to champion and advance health equity, maternal health, and whole health across the healthcare system. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring that the 45 million consumers in Anthem’s family of health plans have access to high quality, affordable care. In 2021, she was named as one of Business Insider’s 30 Under 40 in Healthcare and one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40.

Lisa Witter
Lisa Witter is a serial political and policy entrepreneur. She’s the co-founder of Apolitical, a global peer-to-peer learning platform, used by 180k+ public servants in 170 countries and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World. She's the CEO of the Apolitical Foundation whose mission is to support the next generation of trusted and transformation politicians. They have recently released Better Leaders, Better Democracies: Mapping the Organizations Shaping 21st Century Politicians. She’s a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, co-chairs the Forum’s Council on Agile Governance. She is a former public servant with deep experience in gender and behavioral science and has founded numerous political leadership incubators over the last 25 years. She was awarded the 2020 Creative Bureaucracy Award and named a BMW Foundation Futurity Fellow in 2022. Lisa co-authored, with Lisa Chen, The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them. She loves wearing dresses, her childhood nickname was ‘Animal’ from the sports fields, and dreams of being a stand-up comedian (but might not be funny enough).

Brian A. Wong
BA, Swarthmore College; MA Cert, Johns Hopkins (SAIS)-Nanjing U Center; MBA, Wharton School. Managing Director, Seacliff Partners; Founder/Chairman, RADII Media; Author, The Tao of Alibaba. Formerly: Vice President, Global Initiatives, Alibaba Group; Special Assistant to Chairman for Int'l Affairs; Vice President, Global Sales, Alibaba Group; Director, McGraw-Hill Companies; Special Assistant to San Francisco Mayor. WEF Young Global Leader; China Fellow, Aspen Institute; Former Member, Wharton School Executive Alumni Board, Member, Swarthmore College Board of Managers; Vice Chair, 1990 Institute; Member, Committee of 100 Board.

Gareth Wong
Gareth is currently SVP, Group Strategy & Projects in SembCorp Industries Pte Ltd. Seated in the office of the Group President & CEO, Gareth is responsible for streamlining the Group’s strategic plans and key initiatives as a leading energy and urban solutions provider.
Headquartered in Singapore, Sembcorp is a global expert in energy transition and sustainable development. Sembcorp has a balanced energy portfolio of ~17GW, with more than 10.3GW of renewable energy capacity comprising solar, wind and energy storage globally. The company also has a proven track record of transforming raw land into sustainable urban developments, with a project portfolio spanning over 13,000 hectares across Asia.
Prior to joining SembCorp, Gareth was the Founding CEO of Mitbana Pte Ltd, a joint-venture fund management company of Mitsubishi Corporation and Surbana Jurong.
Gareth sits on the Executive Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Singapore and is a member of the Urban Land Authority’s (URA) International Panel of Experts.
Gareth holds a BSc. in Economics (First Class Hons, Dean’s List) from University College London, and a MSc. in Political Science from Columbia University in the City of New York

Douglas C K Woo
Douglas C.K. Woo is Chairman of Hong Kong-headquartered Wheelock Group. The prominent investment and development group is principally engaged in property development in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Singapore; cargo terminals operation; hotels; retail; and property asset management. The group engages about 12,500 staff across Asia-Pacific.
Mr. Woo serves as Chairman of the Environment and Conservation Fund. He is the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he is on the boards or governing bodies of The Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong, WWF-Hong Kong and The Nature Conservancy. He also serves on the advisory council of HKUST Business School.
Mr. Woo graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Architecture and received an EMBA from HKUST and Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University. He was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Savannah College of Art and Design (Hong Kong). He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Chen Wu
Dr. Chen WU received her MD from China Medical University and PhD from Peking Union Medical College. She conducted her postdoctoral studies at Harvard University and joined the faculty of National Cancer Center and Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013. Dr. WU, as a physician-scientist, has been focusing on cancer genetics and functional genomics directed toward a greater understanding of the mechanisms involved in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma transformation and clinical translational applications. Her research achievements include: Leading one of the largest prospective cohort research of esophageal cancer in China with support of newly established biobank and database dedicated for cancer genome evolution research; Systematical identification of cancer susceptible genes and driver genes key to esophageal cancer initiation and development through genome-wide association study and multi-omics sequencing study; Elucidating gene functions and mechanism in carcinogenesis and cancer progression with technologies in molecular oncology, cellular biology and laboratory animal models; Integrating findings from research in pan-squamous cell carcinomas and pan-gastrointestinal cancers and identify ubiquitous target for early cancer prevention and intervention.