New Class

Marking 20 years of responsible leadership, we proudly welcome over 80 exceptional individuals into our community of outstanding leaders. This year's cohort, ranging from tech moguls to former athletes, brings together brilliant minds and passionate leaders from business, civil society, academia, government, and beyond. These responsible leaders will undertake a transformative 3-year journey, addressing global challenges and driving positive change. Join us in celebrating the new class:

11 YGLs in Europe

Katharina Amann

Chief Executive Officer, Volkswagen Autoversicherung, Allianz, Germany

Katharina Amann is an Allianz executive with more than 11 years of general management experience in top-tier strategy consulting, product management and digital business development, specializing in insurance and mobility and their beneficial impact on society. She leads the German Automotive Business of Allianz and is CEO of Allianz subsidiary Volkswagen Autoversicherung AG. Amann has managed P&Ls of up to €400 million and large teams comprising more than 150 members. She strives for societal impact, focusing on a safe and sustainable future of mobility as her core ambition. By connecting the insurance and mobility industry, she creates innovation that not only serves customer needs but also increases safety and sustainability on the road. Amann introduced the first insurance tariff reflecting ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) in the German market.

Natalia Bayona

Executive Director, UN Tourism, Spain

Natalia Bayona, current Executive Director of UN Tourism and the first person under 40 to reach this position, was distinguished as one of the 10 most influential Colombians residing in Spain and one of the most influential in Latin-America (Bloomberg). Natalia is also member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) network, and one of the 100 world leaders in innovation according to COTEC.

With an Executive MBA from the IE Business School, and a degree in International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia, Natalia Bayona was recognized with the Eisenhower Fellowship for her leadership and commitment to fostering a more prosperous and fairer world through her work in the tourism sector.

After an extensive career working for Colombia´s public sector, Natalia Bayona was Vice President of Spain Startup-South Summit; she then joined UN Tourism in 2018 and created the Innovation, Education, and Investment Department, where the Organization has undertaken ground-breaking initiatives that include more than 10 global entrepreneurship competitions, numerous national challenges, and over 20 innovation and technology forums.

These efforts have fostered the first Global Innovation Network comprising more than 10,000 start-ups from 100 countries, entrepreneurs, companies, public institutions, educational institutions, accelerators, and investors; this dynamic ecosystem has facilitated the acquisition of over US$214 million (as per Jan 2024) in financing for disruptive companies. Hence, the delivery of important technological results for the tourism industry

Furthermore, Natalia has been instrumental in establishing the first UN Tourism Online Academy to enhance opportunities in education for the tourism industry, boasting students from more than 150 countries and offering courses with scholarships available to students worldwide in partnership with some of the best universities in the world such as Les Roches, HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Schiences and Arts), Basque Culinary Center, IE University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, or Sharjah University among others. In addition, she enjoys sharing her knowledge as lecturer in different universities including Harvard, Cornell and MIT,

Following her aspiration of generating investment opportunities for tourism, Natalia created the first Official UN Tourism Investment Guideline; she has worked alongside more than 50 countries on the construction of their Tourism Investment Strategies (including Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Chile among others) generating a concrete outlook that reflects their potential for international investors and the opportunities for diversification.

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.

Ian Glasner

Group Head of Emerging Technology, Innovation, and Ventures, HSBC, United Kingdom

Ian Glasner is Group Head of Emerging Technology, Innovation, and Ventures at HSBC, where he leads the global teams covering AI, digital assets, quantum, venture capital, product incubation and digital partnerships. Previously he served as Managing Director and Chief of Staff for the Global Technology and Operations division at HSBC. Glasner has also held key product and sales roles at Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Apple. Early in his career, he founded a technology company in the restaurant space. Outside work, Glasner is dedicated to philanthropy and has launched two non-profit efforts in Haiti. He currently serves as a Board Member for Global Fund for Children. He holds two BSc degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Business Administration.

Marte Jerkø

Chief Financial Officer Yara Europe, Yara International, Norway

Marte Jerkø started her career working in McKinsey & Company. She led transformation projects and was engaged in diversity topics as the leader of the Female Initiative in Oslo. She joined the Corporate Strategy team of Yara International in 2017 to contribute to sustainable food security. Jerkø was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Yara Europe in 2022 and has successfully managed a challenging market context and led major transformations.

Christian Jolck

Co-founder and Partner, 2150, Denmark

Christian Jolck is Co-Founder and Partner of 2150, one of the world’s first climate tech venture capital funds. He is also a board member of Nordic Investment Opportunities, a €2 billion-plus fund-of-fund for private markets focused on private equity, credit and real assets. Jolck has spent his career on transformation and business development in executive leadership positions in leading global industrial B2B companies in healthcare and the built environment. He co-founded and chaired SYNERGI, an industry organization focused on climate and energy efficiency bringing together large industry participants such as Danfoss, Grundfos, Velux and others to lobby for Danish and European policy changes to reach the Paris Agreement. He has been an adviser to the Foundation for Climate Restoration in California and is a co-founding steering committee member of the Venture Climate Alliance, a non-profit organization which encourages the venture capital industry on net zero, representing more than $60 billion and backed by GFANZ and the UN. Jolck holds a Masters in Finance and International Business from Aarhus University, an executive degree from INSEAD, and he is a Kauffman Fellow and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (Class 24)

Temi Marcella

Founding Partner, Alcent Capital, United Kingdom

Temi Marcella, a distinguished investment professional, has strategically committed almost $1 billion in capital globally. As the inaugural Executive Director and Board Member of Evercare Hospital in Nigeria, a pivotal player in transforming the country’s healthcare system, she pioneered its development. Leading the region for the $1 billion Evercare Health Fund managed by TPG Capital, Marcella was instrumental in scaling Evercare from inception to a global platform, earning recognition as one of the top 50 leaders set to "define the world of tomorrow". Her achievements include being honoured by successive presidential administrations, to serve on the Presidential Transition & Health Sector Reform Committees, underscoring her significant contributions to the investment landscape and healthcare transformation on the continent. Marcella is a Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle Fellow, Kauffman Venture Capital Fellow, Tutu Fellow, World Economic Forum Global Shaper alumna and a Goldman Sachs Global Leader. She serves on international boards including Save the Children and the Equality Fund.

Eva McLellan

Co-Founder and Co-Chair, UNLOCKING EVE Foundation, Switzerland

Eva McLellan is a global healthcare executive at Roche and the co-founder of Swiss-based Unlocking Eve.

She brings a track record of visionary leadership, known for empowering individuals and organizations to unlock breakthroughs in the challenges facing health systems.

Her nearly 20-year career in biotechnology includes executive leadership roles across Canada, Europe, and Switzerland. A scientist by training, Eva holds an Honours Bachelor of Science and a Master’s of Biotechnology from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of INSEAD business school’s General Management program.

Eva also serves on several industry boards and is an actively sought-after for her insights on leadership at the intersection of human and environmental health, as well as gender equity.

Christoph Pietsch

Chief Growth Officer DACH and Member of the Executive Board, Publicis Media GmbH, Germany

Christoph Pietsch is part of the management board of Publicis Groupe Germany. As Chief Growth Officer, he is responsible for group marketing, business development, innovation management, partnerships and corporate communications. In October 2015 he was appointed as the youngest Chief Marketing Officer in the country and the first in the global organization's history. From 2017 to 2021, Pietsch was Chief Marketing Officer of Omnicom's DDB Group in Germany. During those years, the 400-people-strong creative company became agency of the year two times in a row and finished all national creative rankings as #1. In 2020 and 2022, he was again named Agency Personality of the year by HORIZONT and New Business Magazine.

Thomas Roulet

Professor of Leadership, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Thomas Roulet is a professor, holding the Chair of Organisational Sociology and Leadership at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of King's College Cambridge where he co-founded the King's Entrepreneurship Lab, a venture incubator. His work revolves around stigma and contestation, mental health and the future of work and has been published in premiere research outlets, the Harvard Business Review, and the MIT Sloan Management Review. His latest book, "The Power of Being Divisive" (Stanford Press, 2020) was labelled by the Financial Times as “a fascinating study of the social-media fuelled and fast-changing landscape of public opinion, and the possible ways in which that might be beneficial”. He has been regularly covered in the Financial Times, the Economist, the Telegraph and Le Monde, among others. He has received multiple awards including the Pilkington Prize of Teaching Excellence, was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Mid-Career Fellow of the British Academy, named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under 40 (Poets&Quants) and is on the Thinkers50 Radar.

Birgit Skarstein

Member of the Athletes Commission, International Paralympic Committee, Germany

Birgit Skarstein is a Paralympic Champion, multiple World Champion and world record holder in rowing, as well as an advocate for the value of an inclusive society and opportunities for people with disabilities. Skarstein’s background comes from political science, and her public service includes four years on the Committee of Finance in Oslo City Council and five years on the Norwegian Advisory Board of Biotechnology.

Skarstein is a six-time World Champion and holds 12 World Championship medals in rowing and Nordic skiing. She has competed in six Paralympic Games and was the Norwegian flag bearer in 2018. She is on her second term as elected member of the Athletes Commission for the International Paralympic Committee.

Skarstein is Co-Founder of the WE foundation, which promotes disability inclusion in sports, work life and social spheres. Skarstein also holds seats on several boards, and figures on TV, radio, podcasts and TEDx.

Skarstein currently chairs the Future Advisory Board of Reitan Retail, guiding responsible retail practices, lately working on sustainability and AI.