Who we are

The Young Global Leaders ® Community is an accelerator for a dynamic community of exceptional people with the vision, courage, and influence to drive positive change in the world.

Our growing membership of more than 1,400 members and alumni of 120 nationalities includes civic and business innovators, entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, educators, activists, artists, journalists, and more.

Aligned with the World Economic Forum’s mission, we seek to drive public-private co-operation in the global public interest. We are united by the belief that today’s pressing problems present an opportunity to build a better future across sectors and boundaries.

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Meet our members

Miguel Medina

Minister of Investment, Office of the President of Honduras, Honduras

Miguel is a young public leader that is currently the Minister Investment and the Executive Secretary of the National Investment Council. Before joining the Government of Honduras, Miguel worked as a General Manager for the second largest gas retail company in Honduras and Guatemala. He was also the Director of Corporate projects for Grupo Montecristo, a Honduran family owned conglomerate with investment in renewable energy. Miguel has a MBA from Georgetown University; and a bachelor of Arts in Business Leadership from the University of Dallas.

Natashya Gutierrez

President, Rappler.com, Philippines

Experienced multimedia journalist with a demonstrated history of working in the online media industry. Skilled in digital reporting, breaking news, editing, management, investigative journalism, and content strategy.

As a leader and editor, Natashya built two newsrooms in Asia-Pacific: the Indonesia bureau of multi-award winning newsroom Rappler, and the Asia-Pacific digital news operations for Vice News. Under her watch, the Vice APAC team won several awards for their reporting on human rights in the region.

As a journalist and correspondent, she is trained in text, video, and social media. Natashya is particularly knowledgeable on Southeast Asia, and has lived and worked in Manila, Jakarta, Singapore and Sydney in the last decade. Her work is largely focused on covering women's rights, politics, democracies and disinformation.

Joy Buolamwini

Founder and Executive Director, Algorithmic Justice League, USA

Bestselling author of Unmasking AI, Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, an AI researcher, and an artist. She advises world leaders on preventing AI harms. Her MIT research on facial recognition technologies transformed the field of AI auditing. As the Poet of Code, she creates art to illuminate the societal impact of AI. Her writing and work have been featured in publications including TIME Magazine, New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone. Dr. Joy is the protagonist of the Emmy-Nominated documentary, Coded Bias. She is a Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, and recipient of the Technological Innovation Award from Martin Luther King Jr. Center. Dr. Joy earned her Ph.D. from MIT and was awarded an honorary degree from Knox College .

Lucy Cooper

Head, Customer Innovation, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific and Japan, Microsoft, United Kingdom

Lucy leads customer innovation across EMEA & APJ for Microsoft. This involves working with Microsoft's biggest customers to curated, pioneer and accelerate value cross their digital transformations. Lucy is an experienced facilitator of C-suites and Boards and an expert in the growth playbook corporate's need to undertake. Additionally, she writes often, is a seasoned panelist, speaker and moderator, including leading stages at TEDx, Cannes Lions and other notable events. Lucy is a mentor and advisor to female founders and organisations on a wide-range of topics from generational diversity in leadership to business building and governance.

Wei Li

Global Chief Investment Strategist, BlackRock, United Kingdom

Wei Li, Managing Director, is Global Chief Investment Strategist for BlackRock. She leads the Investment Strategy team within the BlackRock Investment Institute (BII), responsible for developing thought leadership on tactical asset allocation and delivering actionable views across asset classes.

Priyanka Bakaya

Commercialization Adviser, US Department of Energy, USA

Priyanka Bakaya is a climate technology commercialization advisor who has been recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 List, the Fortune 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch List, Conscious Company's Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs List, is a Cartier Women's Initiative Award Laureate, and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She is a graduate of MIT Sloan and Stanford University with Honors and has completed Executive Education at Harvard's Kennedy School and Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Bakaya currently serves as an advisor on Technology to Market Commercialization to the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). She began her career in finance and venture capital, and currently serves on the Impact Committee of the Circular Innovation Fund. She brings extensive experience as a climate tech entrepeneur and coaches founders on the topics of entrepreneurship and sustainability through MIT Bootcamps. She has been invited as a keynote speaker and panelist at dozens of global conferences across six continents; presenting at events such as Fortune Brainstorm Green, Sustainable Brands, Global Entrepreneurship Summit, TEDx, and more.

Vinati Mutreja

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Vinati Organics Limited, India

Vinati Mutreja is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of specialty chemical company Vinati Organics, where she has overseen an increase in revenue and market capitalization. She has been innovative in selecting chemical processes and products that are environmentally attractive. The jury of The Economic Times Family Business Awards chose Mutreja as the Outstanding Woman Business Leader for 2018. She was also named as part of Forbes India W-Power Trailblazers 2019 and The Economic Times Women Ahead 2019 list.

Sophia Hamblin Wang

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, MCi Carbon, Australia

Sophia Hamblin Wang is Co-Founder and COO of MCi Carbon, a technology platform that transforms CO2 into building materials and products for advanced manufacturing. MCi Carbon recently announced more than US$10M investment from RHI Magnesita, Mizuho Bank and Itochu Corporation, alongside a $14.6M Australian Government Grant to build a Demonstration Plant. Currently in construction, the 'Myrtle' MCi Carbon Plant will lock away more than 1,000t of CO2 p/a into low carbon embodied materials.

Sophia is one of few female executives in the emerging carbon capture and utilization (CCU) industry and was recently awarded Best Clean Energy Startup at the NZTC COP26 Pitch Battle in Glasgow 2021. She was awarded The Australian National University Young Alumna of the Year 2023.

Ms Hamblin Wang is also a Co-Founding Director of the advocacy group CO2 Value Australia. A strong circular economy and diversity advocate, Hamblin Wang has been featured at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020, World Economic Forum Pioneers of Change Summit 2020 and UN Youth Climate Summit, TEDx, The New York Times and TIME Magazine.

Vasudha Vats

Vice-President, Pfizer, USA

Vasudha Vats has grown several multi-billion dollar businesses in pharma and currently manages one of the highest selling small molecule medicines in the world. Her mission is to not only help patients by delivering high-quality medical therapies, but also to improve care delivery across the entire patient experience. As a leader in healthcare, she has forged and led partnerships across the industry to deliver better outcomes for patients, including patient advocacy groups like the American Diabetes Association, technology (Fitbit), pharmacy (CVS and Walgreens), and government (National Institutes of Health). She is an advocate of supporting emerging thinkers to fuel future societal improvement, actively mentoring emerging biotechnology firms with the New York City Entrepreneurship Lab and having helped to co-found the Chandini Foundation, a charity designed to provide underprivileged youths in developing nations with mentoring support to become ethical, impactful and entrepreneurially minded leaders.