World's Top 30 Youth Leadership Professionals for 2022

The list is composed of 30 young gurus from 30 countries – from Ukraine to Pakistan – and half women and men. These young people are focused on making change happen for the greater good and were recommended by the United Nations and World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Shapers’ programs.

2022

Natalia Iskovych

Natalia is founder and director of SupportUkraineNOW, a crowdsourced information platform with live, hourly updates about the courageous efforts of the Ukrainian people, along with funding and resources available to them. Born out of the World Economic Forum, the Global Shapers Community is a network of inspiring young people under the age of 30 working together to address local, regional, and global challenges.

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2022

Linh Do

Linh is passionate about climate justice and social inequality. She is currently the Director, Wattle Fellowship, and Director, Partnerships, at Climate Catalyst. Linh is a board member at Climate Action Network Australia, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and a research committee member of the Centre for Policy Development. In the lead up to the Paris Climate negotiations, she served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Verb. Linh was most recently Australia and Pacific lead for The Climate Reality Project, Al Gore’s cliLinh is passionate about climate justice and social inequality. She is currently the Director, Wattle Fellowship, and Director, Partnerships, at Climate Catalyst. Linh is a board member at Climate Action Network Australia, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and a research committee member of the Centre for Policy Development. In the lead up to the Paris Climate negotiations, she served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Verb. Linh was most recently Australia and Pacific lead for The Climate Reality Project, Al Gore’s climate change leadership program, and worked with a wide array of individuals from high school students to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Reuters Foundation. She is a co-founder of the technology start-up OurSay, formerly led the community organizing program at the Australian Conservation Foundation and has worked with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on communicating policy.

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2022

Nupur Ruchika Kohli

Nupur is an award winning physician and Harvard Business School Exec MBA PLD Leadership and Strategy candidate. She received Most Inspiring Woman of the Netherlands award twice for leading gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Dutch Financial Times placed her in the list of top 50 young leaders of the Netherlands. Today she is supervisory board member for UNICEF Netherlands and member of the International Advisory Board of the Amsterdam Economic Board. Winner of the TEDx speaker award in Delft, Netherlands, she has given 6 TEDx Talks in Europe and Asia. She served on the board of the National Association of Salaried Doctors Netherlands, and is an appointed member of the European Health Parliament (EHP). The EHP is a partner in the Value in Healthcare project of the World Economic Forum’s Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare System Initiative. She is also core team member of ‘Shared Learnings Platform – The transformative role of women and girls in health’. She is author of the book “Chill! How to survive stress and improve personal and professional productivity. Symptoms and solutions to chronic pressure” with a foreword from two former Prime Ministers from Europe and Asia.

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2022

Zakia Samimi

Zakia is a Master Trainer for the International Labour Organization dedicated to empowering women and men with training and development in one of the world’s poorest nations. She is a leader in in the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community supporting the nation’s transition to independence, giving a voice to the underserved and the working people of Afghanistan.

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2022

Sikander Bizenjo

Passionate about inclusivity, sustainability & youth empowerment, Sikander is an economist and social entrepreneur – striving for a world that keeps people & planet at the heart of everything. A leader among the many youth programs at the World Economic Forum, he Co-founded Balochistan Youth Action Committee (BYAC), a globally recognised youth-driven movement working to uplift the rural & vulnerable communities in Balochistan province of Pakistan.

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2022

Facundo Cajén

Facundo currently runs Proponas, an online petition platform with almost 50k registered users. He also serves as a political advisor for Maricel Etchecoin, a congresswoman who is the former president of the Argentinian political party called Coalición Cívica-ARI. Facundo serves as an advisor at the Budget and Taxation Commission and the Public Works Commission but often finds himself fighting to push forward new bills related to transparency, corruption, and gender equality. Before joining the political spectrum, he ran several tech start-ups, including a successful online polling system that he founded to provide an objective alternative to his country’s major political polling companies. Both his bachelor’s and master’s theses revolve around cryptocurrencies regulation.

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2022

Vanessa Thompson

Vanessa is an environmental economist, financial analyst and executive director of ESGRadio, one of the leading platforms driving global dialogue on innovation on environmental, social and governance issues. Her commitment to ESG business innovation extends more than a dozen years as an advisor to The Nature Conversancy, World Bank, United Nations Foundation, Joby Aviation (a leading electric airplane firm) and JLL Spark, the venture arm of one of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies. She founded and launched a ECode, the first coding service consulting organization at the University of California, Berkeley, focused on environmental impact. She holds a BS degree in Economics with highest distinction from U.C. Berkeley, and is completing her MBA focused on ESG Finance. She invested four years leading advocacy for a biofuel startup called OMEGA founded by NASA scientist, Dr. Jonathan Trent. She founded and managed OMEGA’s international research council. As a passionate speaker and business-evidence focused advocate working in both the public and private sectors, she is completing a book about environmental business practices that accelerate product and service innovation. www.ESGRadio.com

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2022

Fatima-Zahra Ma-el-ainin

Fatima-Zahra is a psychologist and poet whose work focuses on rethinking personal and collective narratives and examining how they shape and influence our realities and human systems. She’s currently serving as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Council at Orygen Global, the world’s leading research and knowledge translation organisation focusing on youth mental health, as well as an Advisor to the WEF’s Global Shapers Community, while simultaneously pursuing a MSc in Global Health at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. Her current goal is to build and sustain intergenerational, cross-disciplinary allyship to effectively address the accelerating global mental health crisis. Previously, she’s co-founded a mental health startup, served on the board of various organizations, and was invited to speak at the UK Parliament, the World Merit Summit, the Youth Kuala Lumpur Summit, and TEDx, among other platforms. In her free time, you’ll find her writing poetry, hosting conversations, and exploring various means of creative self-expression.

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2022

Benjamin Soemartopo

Ben is founder and CEO of Eureka, an AI platform for mobile operators. Previously, he was Managing Partner of McKinsey, Indonesia and Managing Director, Standard Chartered Private Equity, Indonesia. He has been an investor and board member to consumer (healthcare, retail, technology), agriculture and energy companies. He was a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Cofounder of Young Leaders for Indonesia foundation. He holds a Bachelor of Law and Political Economy (first class honours) from Murdoch University.

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2022

Monica A. Ramos Li

Monica is CEO and Cofounder of MUSA, an organization born out of the pandemic, which hit Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru with a combined 30 million loss in jobs in the second quarter of 2020 alone (IMF). Almost 45% of jobs in Latin America are in contact-intensives sectors with frontline workers where MUSA is making a huge difference in the quality of life. Monica is an industrial engineer by training and a Columbia Business School educated social entrepreneur passionate about creating solutions to real problems and empowering people to achieve a better quality of life through education and the development of circular business models.

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2022

Anna Riedl

Anna cares about clear thinking and epistemic responsibility, strategically managing the attention portfolio of humanity, and how to turn collective processes into non-zero-sum games. She conducts research on judgment and decision-making under unmeasurable uncertainty (= “rationality”, “intelligence”) at the intersection of psychology, economic theory, and artificial intelligence. In 2015 she founded a non-profit focused on “effective altruism”: Approaching impact with evidence, quantitive analysis, and strategy. As a member of the Global Shapers Community she was the Curator of the Vienna Hub in 2017 and Impact officer in 2020. In Vienna, she co-organized QuantifiedSelf Austria and was the executive director of the Giordano Bruno Foundation. She was a researcher at the Viennese “Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support”.

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2022

Fairooz Faizah Beether

Led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Project Everyone, the Goalkeepers Awards program identifies and highlights the stories of young activists and innovators who are progressing the Global Goals. This year, the Campaign Award winner is Fairooz Faizah Beether, founder of the Moner School. The school is one of the first youth-based mental health platforms in Bangladesh. We work to create awareness about mental health and connect youth with proper mental health services.

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2022

Caela Tanjangco

Michaela is an entrepreneurship ecosystem connector. She helps create thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems by acting as a catalyst for high impact entrepreneurs by providing them access to mentorship from key business leaders, talent and capital. She currently leads the Women Entrepreneurship Initiatives, Entrepreneur Selection and Growth, and Market Expansion for Endeavor Philippines. To date the entrepreneurs she support in the Philippines alone created 2200+ jobs and PHP6.3B in additional revenue. Prior to joining Endeavor, Caela was a management consultant with Accenture focused on leveraging business and technology solutions for the non-profit sector by working with Accenture Development Partnerships (A development sector consulting arm) and Corporate Citizenship. She also previously co-founded a healthcare social enterprise called Harambee Vision, which empowered out of school youth to create and sell low cost prescription glasses for those in need.

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2022

Adam Amoussou

Adam is a Beninese entrepreneur, ranked Forbes Africa U30 and winner of the AABLA award (All Africa Business Leaders Awards). He is the founder of AMOSCONSULT GROUP, a multinational company specialized in import / export logistics based in Cotonou with warehouses in Abidjan, Accra and Lomé. He also co-founded MAHOUNA Co., a South African company based in the township TEMBISA (Johannesburg), which provides e-sanitary solutions, household waste collection and recycling to the municipality of EKURHULENI. The two Companies combined – with Beninese, Togolese, Ghanaian, and Ivorian employees – reflect the excellence of Pan-Africanism. Adam co-founded THE AYELE ORGANIZATION which fights for equal opportunities (especially for disadvantaged young girls).

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2022

Kamila Camilo

Kamila is a member of the Global Shapers Community and Curator of the São Paulo Hub and member of Davos Lab Taskforce. Her passion is representing the unheard voices of black people and is Director of operations at Impact Beyond, a consultancy specialized in development of impact business. For the last 4 years she worked at the São Paulo City Hall as the Community Manager of FabLab Livre SP program, overseeing content and programs that impacted 100k people per year through activities in 12 FabLabs. On the rise of the COVID pandemic she mobilized 35 tons of non-perishable food in donations that supported 467 families for 4 months.

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2022

Saif Malhem

Saif is Founding Co-Chair of the AI Future Lab, a WEF Global Shaper and Top 30 Under 30 in Canada. He’s a Mission-driven engineer with experience in private, nonprofit and start-up environments. His passion lies in clean technology, energy and the digitalization of industrial markets, where he focused on marketing and sales, nurturing corporate culture and fostering innovation ecosystems in three languages, (English, Arabic, French).

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2022

Mohamed Tomalieh

Mohamed Tomalieh is Assistant Vice President at Public Investment Fund, which has contributed to the establishment of numerous Saudi Arabian companies, supporting innovation, diversification and non-oil sector development in the Kingdom. Mohamed was a leader of WEF Global Shapers’ Jeddah Hub, with a commitment to reinventing local communities and scaling impact to global partnerships to lay the groundwork for a better future.

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2022

Alejandro René Daly Rivero

Alejandro is the Director of El Derecho a No Obedecer, a platform that supports citizen advocacy processes to achieve greater impact in Colombia. Currently, he is working to promote the integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Latin America, impacting more than 200,000 people. In addition, he is Co-Founder and Director of the Xenophobia Barometer, the first platform in Latin America to analyze the narratives around migrants and refugees in social media with the objective of positively transforming them. In the 2021 Global Forum on Migration and Development, Alejandro was awarded first place of the Youth Leadership and Innovation Award. The Xenophobia Barometer serves Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Chile and is expanding to Central America. Alejandro is also a UNICEF Consultant focused on air pollution and youth participation in Latin America and co-authored the Toolkit “Air Pollution: It’s time to act”. He is also a founding member of the National Citizen Network for Clean Air in Colombia, and a Global Shaper from the World Economic Forum.

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2022

Aishwariya Machani

Aishwarya is Convenor of the UN Foundation Next Generation Fellows – a group of young people committed to putting the priorities of young people and future generations at the top of the international political agenda. In this role, she led a consultative process involving hundreds of young people from across the world to shape the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Our Common Agenda’. She co-authored ‘Our Future Agenda’ – a supporting vision and plan showcasing the opinions and ideas of people under 30, who make up half the world’s population. Her weekly column in World Politics Review focuses on intergenerational justice and youth perspectives on global issues. She was President of the Pink Week society at the University of Cambridge, where she devotes time to projects aimed at improving young people’s access to education.

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2022

Silvia Anna Ainio

Silvia is a Policy Officer at the European Commission, where she focuses on innovative financing instruments for climate action. Passionate about SDGs strategies and a strong climate change activist, she seeks to bring together public institutions and donors with innovative entrepreneurs, in order to foster innovation and economic development. Previously, she worked in the private sector as well as for various international organizations such as the Green Climate Fund in South Korea and the OECD in France.

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2022

Jackson Rowland

Jackson is the Director of Ākina Invest, the impact investment arm of Ākina whose mission is to transform the economy by investing in New Zealand so that businesses deliver positive impact that can scale. As a member of the Global Shapers Community, he is part of a team committed to initiating projects to improve Auckland. As an Obama Leader, he’s working with, and learning from, other values driven leaders. And as a volunteer, he’s a fanatical supporter of various organizations like Make a Wish.

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2022

Dipankar Trehan

Dipankar is an education-sector focused Strategy Consultant with EY-Parthenon to create business and social impact. Working with leaders in global education, across geographies & education segments, Dipankar, has consulted on projects in skilling, upskilling & reskilling, digital transformation and digital literacy, and e-learning for K-12, higher education and lifelong learning. Previously, Dipankar led Strategy, Workshop Design & Development, and Projects at Mindler – one of the World’s Most Advanced Career Guidance Platforms. Mindler is revolutionizing the way career decisions are made in India, South Asia and the Middle East. He leads the curriculum design (blending experiential learning & technology-led exposure) for Saral Gyan, a not for profit working for education of children at risk. He previously led Project Discover (dealing with life-skill development, general, self, & career oriented awareness for children at risk), with the Delhi chapter of Make A Difference (MAD), and served as the Curator of the New Delhi Hub.

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2022

Mohamed Okash

With a passion for disrupting and resetting the world, Okash formed the base of his profession for public policy and international development at the intersection of local and global communities, Social innovation, impact, and cross-sector partnerships.He is a researcher, consultant, and ecosystem builder. Currently, he leads the Innovations SIMAD iLab in Mogadishu, where he focuses on designing social innovation programs, mentoring young people to build successful and sustainable social enterprises, and help MSMEs to maximize their full potential. He is a Young and Emerging Leadership Project fellow of the LéO Africa Institute, a Global Shaper, and Climate Reality Leader.

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2022

Hala Saqf Alkheit

Hala is Project Manager at C-Genic and a Recruiter at WEF Global Shapers Haifa Hub where she is focused on helping people adapt to a fast-paced work environment, learning and sharing the knowledge of management styles, identifying trends and market needs, researching and implementing marketing campaigns. C-Genic is a full service, script to screen, media production company specialized in producing quality programming, Branding and creative consultancy, TV commercials, viral videos for web, corporate communication, training and informational videos, non-profit fundraising shorts and music videos. As lovers of cinematic storytelling with expertise in entertainment media. we also develop and produce feature length, world-changing documentary projects.

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2022

Mohammad Alfarra

Mohammed works as the Freelance Program Officer at Mercy Corps/ Gaza Sky Geeks where he focuses on online freelancing education and mentorship activities, increasing revenue generation for Gazan online freelancers and outsourcing talent. He develops ongoing and new freelancing training, technical training, and English training. He supports the strategic revisions to freelancing programming including designing new initiatives. In addition to serving as content and marketing manager of the online freelance academy. Mohammed is a Certified in Project Management for Development Professionals (PMD Pro). He is an AMENDS fellow, which is a student initiative at Stanford University that brings together the most promising youth change agents from across the Middle East, North Africa, and the United States to learn from each other, connect with global leaders and resources, and share ideas and experiences with the world.

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2022

Kusai Fteita

Kusai is Co-Founder at V4Growth, a Contributor at World Economic Forum and General Manager at Alatheer Technologies. A self-described ‘curious’ social entrepreneur, he is interested in building and shaping communities through Innovation and Technology. Kusai started working at young age in a tech company which inspired him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. With 10+ years of experience across Africa, his work includes shaping strategies and private sector development programs. He is currently a General Manager at Alatheer Technologies, a multi-service company for SMBs and enterprises. Kusai is also managing local and international initiatives in technology and innovation, education and employment, Innovation and trade policy reforms.

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2022

Rumaitha Al Busaidi

Rumaitha is an Omani climate change activist, women’s rights activist, radio presenter, marine scientist, entrepreneur and footballer. She is regarded as the first female football analyst in the Arab World and also became the youngest Omani woman to cross the South Pole. She received her Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. Rumaitha holds MSc degrees in the fields of Environmental Science and Aquaculture. She was also named as Millennium Fellow for 2019 by the Atlantic Council. She served as vice chairperson of food manufacturing for Omani National Program for Enhancing Economic Diversification. She had also served as an adviser to the Government of Oman. She also serves as director of Projects and Environmental Affairs and Fisheries Development in Oman. Rumaitha founded WomeX, a platform to teach negotiation skills for Arab women in order to groom emerging female entrepreneurs in the Arab region.

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2022

Hue La

Hue La is the Managing Director of Van Dat Co., Ltd, a kitchenware & tableware consumer goods company in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hue currently serves as the Community Champion of the Mainland Southeast Asia region at the Global Shapers Community (GSC) and actively supports the Hubs in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. During her time with the GSC, Hue served as the Curator, Vice Curator and Project Lead of the HCMC Hub, contributing to recruit diverse members, improve Hub’s engagement and initiate Hub projects. She is the Project Lead of the “YÊN Project” in HCMC – the first nationwide Vietnam cross-Hubs project advocating mental health for youths in Vietnam. Hue is the Vice President of the NextGen Business Leaders Club in Vietnam and a member of HAWEE (HCMC Association for Women Executives and Entrepreneurs). Hue graduated with a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

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2022

Krist Bakiu

Krist Bakiu works as Assistant Lecturer at “Luarasi” University, in the field of Marketing; and as External Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Economy, University of Tirana, in the fields of Management, Corporate Governance; and Managerial Planning and Control Systems. He holds a BA in Business Administration and an MSc in Public Administration from the University of Tirana. Krist has been a member of Global Shapers Tirana Hub, since January 2019, and has held the position of Outreach PR Coordinator. He has served as Curator of Global Shapers Tirana Hub for the term 2020-2021, and is currently serving as an Outgoing Curator. He is involved in several NGO projects in Albania, mainly in the field of Education. He is currently involved in the Global Shapers Tirana Hub projects “SoftSkilling”, “Shaper Academy” and “Shaper PodLearning”, in both planning and implementing. Also, he has been involved in “Youth4Dignity” project.

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2022

Atoka Jo

Atoka is Founder of Himeji Jogakuin Liberal Arts Summer Program, Former News Anchor at NewsPicks, a distinguished Schwarzman Scholar, a member of the WEF Global Shapers, a G7 Youth Japan Delegate and One Young World Ambassador. She holds a Masters of Global Affairs from Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Social Research and Public Policy from New York University Abu Dhabi. Skilled in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Spanish.

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