New Class

We are delighted to welcome nearly 100 new Young Global Leaders to our community of outstanding people addressing the world's most pressing problems. From courageous journalists uncovering the most critical political and human rights issues of our time to savvy entrepreneurs transforming the way we work with technology, this year's class is packed with brilliant minds and passionate leaders from business, civil society, academia, and government. Discover the new class:

8 YGLs in Greater China

Zhizhong Li

Co-Founder and Secretary General, Shiyu Children Foundation, People's Republic of China

Dr. Zhizhong Li is a co-founder and Secretary General of the Shiyu Children Foundation (SCF). An NGO set up in 2018, SCF is dedicated to promoting awareness, patient education, and drug discovery for pediatric cancers in China. It is the first one focusing on solving children's cancer healthcare issues. Dr. Li has an impressive academic background with a BS in life science from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Duke University before joining Novartis as a research investigator in the department of Oncology Drug Discovery. He published over 20 peer-reviewed research articles, including a cover story on the prestigious Cancer Cell. His work is one of the highest cited papers in the cancer stem cell field and has been cited globally over 7700 times - ranking top 2%. He deeply cares about how science can impact everyone's life. He has demonstrated a strong dedication to sharing knowledge with the broader public by promoting science, especially cancer knowledge in China. He is a best-selling author with six books on cancer biology and oncology drug discovery. His books have won many prestigious awards in China, including Best 30 Books in China and Best Pop Science Book in China. His blog has over 1,000,000 followers, including cancer patients/families and healthcare professionals. Even several China Academy of Science members regularly read his article, and they are amazed by Zhizhongs ability to translate complex biomedical issues to lay language.

Li Yuchun

Artist, Beijing Yellow Stone Media Co.,Ltd, People's Republic of China

Li Yuchun (AKA Chris Lee), is a Chinese pop singer, songwriter, and actress. She catapulted to stardom in 2005 as the first-ever super idol in China by polling more than 3.5 million votes via cell phone text messages at the finals of the singing competition “Super Girl”. Her victory was celebrated nationwide and even featured on the cover of Time Magazine, which coined her sensational rise the “Li Yuchun Phenomenon.” In 2010, with 10,175,595 searches, she became the most searched name on Baidu from 2005 to 2010.
As a pop culture icon in China, Li Yuchun has been honored with over 260 music awards at home and abroad. Her influence extends beyond music, with notable achievements in film, art, and fashion - she is the first-ever Chinese judge of the prestigious ANDAM Fashion Awards, ambassador for the Fashion Awards by the British Fashion Council (BFC) Foundation, and a member of the tenth committee of the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) etc.
In addition to her remarkable professional accomplishments, Li Yuchun is a dedicated philanthropist who has contributed to public welfare over the years. She’s been instrumental in the establishment and success of the “LIYUCHUN Fans Charity Fund,” which has raised over 31 million Chinese yuan for various charitable causes. Through multifaceted initiatives, including aiding seriously ill children, providing rehabilitation training for hearing-impaired youth and fine art education for children in rural areas, as well as coordinating rescue and reconstruction efforts during major disasters and public health crises, the foundation has benefited nearly 150,000 people to date. Meanwhile, Li Yuchun has collaborated with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and other international NGOs to support environmental protection, wildlife conservation, and sustainable development, a testament to her passion for creating a better world for all.

Adam Lou

Chief Executive Officer, Lollipop Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd, People's Republic of China

Adam Lou is the founder and CEO of Lollitech. Launched in 2015 with the mission improve women’s health worldwide, Lollitech has become one of China’s fastest-growing healthcare Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) companies. The company has seen rapid growth in recent years, with over 20 million women users worldwide, sales over 3 million hardware devices per year. Prior to starting Lollitech, Lou has served in various roles in medical sales and marketing, including at the oncology divisions at Eli Lilly and Merck. He became the Top Sales of his business unit in 2011 and 2012, was named National Top Sales in 2012, and a two-time winner of the company’s CEO Award. He has a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Zhejiang University. January 2015, he founded Lollitech and currently serves as the Founder and CEO.

Wei Ying

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

Prior to Déjà Vu, Ying Wei was the head of marketing at Xianyu, China's largest C2C secondhand platform at Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), and Zhihu (Nasdaq: ZH), China's largest social network platform dedicated to questioning and answering. With rich experience in marketing practices, she has always been a super lover of secondhand goods. Ying Wei deeply believes in the power of such scalable and profitable second-hand businesses, hoping to realize a higher utilization rate of social resources through a "business-for-good" way. Recycling offers people a new way to purchase good-quality products at lower prices instead of cheap fake ones. Meanwhile, it makes a significant environmental impact in protecting our earth, especially since the fashion industry is the 2nd largest polluter in the world. In the past five years, the books and clothes recycled by Déjà Vu have achieved over 85,000 tons of carbon reduction. In the future, Déjà Vu seeks to expand its recycling categories, from books and clothes to all consumer goods, offering a new life for each pre-loved item.

Charles Yang Zhaoxuan

Independent, People's Republic of China

Charles Zhaoxuan Yang has served as So-Young International Inc.'s independent director since May 2019. Mr. Yang is the chief financial officer of NetEase, Inc., NASDAQ: NTES, and a director of KANZHUN LIMITED (NASDAQ: BZ). Before joining NetEase, Inc. in 2017, Mr. Yang was an executive director of the China technology, media and telecommunications, and corporate finance team at J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited based in Hong Kong and worked there for almost a decade. Mr. Yang holds a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Hong Kong and a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University with majors in Economics and Mathematics. Mr. Yang is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of Michigan.

Yu Chong

Chief Representative, China, WildAid, People's Republic of China

Yu Chong, WildAid China Chief Representative, graduated from Boston University with a master's in communications. She has been a veteran in environment communications, public relations, and non-profit organizational management for over 13 years. She has been working on wildlife conservation, climate mitigation, and marine protection through strategic and consistent communications leveraging the "Conservation Through Communication" model. She led the team that launched and executed over 50 environment communications campaigns and partnered with various stakeholders across the public and private sectors. Among these, the public advocacy campaign for climate action #BYOer has reached nearly 800 million impressions, and the public campaign for wildlife conservation, "Don't be a villain to wildlife," has reached over 1 billion impressions.

Margaret Zhang

Editor-in-Chief, Vogue China, People's Republic of China

Margaret Zhang became Editor-in-Chief of Vogue China in February 2021 - the youngest Vogue editor in history. Prior, she wore many hats as a filmmaker, writer, photographer, and consultant - co-founding BACKGROUND, a global consultancy company in which she specialised in bridging Western and Chinese cultures for a range of luxury, lifestyle, and brand initiatives. Zhang obtained both a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney, before going on to be listed in Forbes Asia’s 30Under30 and TimeOut’s 40Under40. Her work has been recognized as shaping the international fashion industry by the Business of Fashion BoF500 Index. Zhang is among the World Economic Forum’s class of 2023 Young Global Leaders.

Zhang Yaoyu

General Manager, Global LNG and New Energies, PetroChina International, People's Republic of China

Yaoyu joined PetroChina in 2019 and is currently the General Manager responsible for Global LNG, Power, and Emissions. Before joining PetroChina, Yaoyu's career started at Shell, U.K, in 2009. Over a decade, he has held several technical and commercial positions in the UK, Netherlands, Qatar, and Singapore. He has worked across the gas value chain with experiences covering LNG projects development, M&A, and gas trading and marketing. Yaoyu graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master's degree in Technology and Policy and Heriot-Watt University with a bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering (First-Class Honors).