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.

Adriana Ortiz

President, National Handcraft Institute (IPA), Paraguay

Adriana Ortiz is a Paraguayan designer and entrepreneur who studied fashion design in Mexico and Spain. She has a degree in Psychology. She started working as an entrepreneur building her own commercial brand of feminine accessories and jewellery integrating craft design with contemporary design. In 2018, she was appointed President of the National Handcraft Institute (IPA). Her work focuses on promoting Paraguayan crafts through contemporary design practices that enable the strengthening of the value chains of artisanal production. This creates opportunities for fairer trade and better incomes for 20,000 artisans, of whom 70% are women. She is also leading the creation of "Safeguard Schools" for the protection of ancestral knowledge, mainly in rural communities. During her mandate, the first Paraguayan Artisan Fund was created to give financial support to civil society organizations working with indigenous communities to promote and develop indigenous crafts. The public policies promoted by IPA allowed for the creation of more than 70 new commercial units to sell Paraguayan crafts in national and international markets with a positive economic impact for many families in the country. Ortiz aims to contribute to a better future for the country and the world.

Roberto Patiño

Founder, Convive, Venezuela

Roberto is a Venezuelan social entrepreneur focused on democracy and human rights. He holds a master’s in public policy from Harvard University, a master’s in advanced peace studies and mediation from ETH Zurich and a BS in manufacturing engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar. Patiño is the founder of the NGOs Mi Convive and Alimenta La Solidaridad that work in 240 vulnerable communities empowering +4,500 women volunteers to feed daily 15,000 children and reduce violence in hot spots. Patiño is also a director of Institute 2100 focusing on the intersection between democracy and technology. Roberto is a boardmember of Primero Justicia, a political party. He is a former leader of the student movement. He currently resides in Caracas, Venezuela.

Mia Perdomo

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aequales, Colombia

Mia Perdomo is an entrepreneur, activist and feminist. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aequales, a company that provides tools for organizations to close their gender gaps through measurement, consultancy and technology. She is also the Co-Creator of Par Ranking, the largest corporate gender equality ranking in Latin America. She was named one of the 100 transforming women of Colombia, one of the 101 people that are changing the world of work by the BBC, and one of the most creative people in business in 2020 by Fast Company. She received a degree in Psychology from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and an MSc in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is also a Global Competitive Leadership Program Fellow at Georgetown University and an ECLA Program Fellow at Columbia University's Business School. She loves nature, dancing, and is curious about anything that brings passion to people's lives.

Carlo Perez-Arizti

Partner, Baker McKenzie, Mexico

Carlo Perez-Arizti is a Partner at Baker McKenzie's Mexico City office, focusing on large national and international mergers and acquisitions, and on scaling up start-ups in Mexico and Latin America. He has worked at the firm for over 17 years in Mexico and New York City, and was promoted to partner at age 32. He is Mexico and Latin America’s head for innovation for the North America transactional practice Group. For his legal work, he has been recognized by Chambers & Partners, Legal 500 and Latin Lawyer. Perez-Arizti co-founded Fundacion Participacion y Accion Ciudadana, an education and health NGO, and abogadoemprendedor.com, a free legal advice for startups. He has also been a mentor at a number of organizations, including Endeavor Mexico, SUM, MassChallange, AbogadasMX and Centro Mexicano Pro Bono. Perez-Arizti is regularly published by Tier 1 publications for his views on Mexico and Latin America’s entrepreneurial growth, including Reforma, Forbes, el Heraldo de Mexico, and Pro Magazine. He is a Member of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem and of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. Perez-Arizti graduated from Universidad Iberoamericana. He also has a master's in Public Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening and CONACYT scholar.

Marta Pinheiro

Director, XP Inc., Brazil

Before becoming a partner/Director, Marta was head of business development, leading a team focused on innovation, management and transformation of XP Inc. businesses. Previous to XP Inc, Marta worked worked in strategy and management consulting. She holds a degree in public administration. She is the leader of the MLHR3 group, which was responsible for XP Inc. commitment to reach 50% women in all hierarchical levels by 2025.

Viridiana Rios

Founding Director, México ¿cómo vamos?, Mexico

Viridiana Rios is an expert in Mexico’s sub-national economy, citizen security and rule of law. Her career has taken her from positions as a public officer and applied researcher, to entrepreneur and journalist. She has served as an adviser to Mexico’s Minister of Finance and to the Mexican President’s spokeswoman. She was awarded the 2014 American Political Science Award to the best doctoral dissertation written in the last two years. She also received Harvard’s Merit Fellowship for Outstanding Research in 2011, was selected as one of the top-12 young experts by NBER’s Working Group of the Economics of Crime in 2012 and profiled at Harvard Gazette as one of the 15 Harvard’s stellar graduates of 2013.

Diego Schalper

Member of Congress, Congress of Chile, Chile

Diego Ignacio Schalper Sepúlveda is a Chilean politician currently serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing District 15 of the O'Higgins Region since 2018. He is a member of centre-right party National Renewal. Vice President of the International Democratic Union (IDU). Legislative coordinator of the Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA). Doctor of Law, University of Marburg (Germany), with the topic ?Constitutional protection of social rights in Chile and Germany. ?A comparative study.? Magister Legum ? LLM from the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany), approved with maximum distinction. Lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, graduated with maximum distinction. Professor at the San Sebastián University.

Nathan Shabot

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, LIP Ventures, Mexico

Nathan Shabot is an accomplished entrepreneur with a diverse range of professional achievements. With a background in civil engineering and finance, his entrepreneurial journey began in 2010. Since then he has founded or collaborated in the establishment of 13 companies in various sectors, such as venture capital, innovation and technology, construction and engineering, arts, culture, education and ethics. Shabot is Co-founder and Managing Partner of LIP Ventures Boutique, which provides specialized venture capital and business development services to multi-regional technology start-ups. LIP aims to leapfrog Mexico and Latin America’s access to leading technology and innovation projects, accelerating adoption and generating a positive impact. One of Shabot’s social entrepreneurship endeavours is LUAN, a platform to spread globally the value of art in human development. LUAN’s philosophy is that art, creativity and culture are the best ways to ignite change. Shabot’s passion for music and commitment to social impact led him to serve on the Executive Committee of the Orchestra of the Americas Group and to organize concerts to support young musicians.

Otto Sonnenholzner

Vice-President of Ecuador (2018-2020), Ecuador

Otto Sonnenholzner was elected to be the vice president of Ecuador in December 2018. For 12 years, he was a radio personality with his own talk show. Sonnenholzner also served as the president of the Ecuadorian Association of Broadcasters and is a champion for freedom of speech. He was part of the faculty at Universidad Católica de Guayaquil and is a successful entreprenuer in the broadcasting, telecommunications, construction, commerce and agriculture industries.

Felipe Valencia-Dongo

Managing Partner, Grupo Estrategia, Peru

Felipe Valencia-Dongo is Managing Partner at Grupo Estrategia. In Grupo Estrategia they work with large-scale investment projects in emerging markets to achieve Social Acceptance (permission to enter or start a project) and Sustainable Relationship (long-term harmonious relationship with the communities and social organizations of the project's area of influence). He articulates efforts between the private sector, communities, and the public sector to achieve sustainable development for the three of them. They work with several projects of +1 billion USD investment, and Grupo Estrategia is a social-purposed firm that has articulated investments for social good for +USD 500 million.

He served as CEO & Fund Manager of an investment fund in higher education. He also served as Advisor to Peru’s Prime Minister and as Advisor to Peru’s Minister of Education while implementing the educational reform. He worked in poverty reduction with Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Creative Lab and in the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru.

Felipe is a former Global Shaper. He has served as Vice-President of IPAE (distinguished private sector non-profit). He was appointed as the youngest President in 60 years of CADE Ejecutivos (the annual gathering for Peruvian business leaders, politicians, and civil society). He is Board Member of IPAE and Sistema B Perú (B Corps); Member of Es Hoy (Movement of private sector leaders working for Peru) and L+1 (leaders for sustainability).

Felipe graduated with honours in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru) and holds a Master’s degree in the University of Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar. He was selected as Young Global Leader in 2023.

Mariana Vasconcelos

Chief Executive Officer, Agrosmart, Brazil

Mariana Vasconcelos is the Chief Executive Officer of Agrosmart, a technology pioneer alumni of the World Economic Forum and serves as an advisory board member at Thought For Food, Fundação Espaço ECO (BASF) and Instituto Interamericano de Cooperação para a Agricultura (IICA). She is a climate activist and an expert in digital agriculture, considered one of the most influential people in Latin America by Bloomberg Linea. An advocate for gender equality, she was recognized by Globant with a "Women That Build" award in the game-changer category. With a business background and degrees from UNIFEI, LSE and Singularity University, she was also recognized as an Innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, Forbes 30 Under 30 Brasil and Fast Company world's 100 Most Creative in Business.

Elisa Vegas

Artistic Director, Fundación Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, Venezuela

Elisa Vegas founded the first orchestra aimed at improving quality of life of Venezuelans through music and cultural change. She is a living example of how the arts unify people of very different backgrounds and beliefs.