Saudis join this year’s class of WEF’s Young Global Leaders

One hundred of the world’s most promising artists, business leaders, public servants, social entrepreneurs and technologists under the age of 40 have been invited to join the World Economic Forum’s community of Young Global Leaders. The aim is to enable them to shape an inclusive and sustainable future for the world.

The list includes Arab names such as Razan Al Mubarak, Secretary General of the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi; Rayan Fayez, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Banque Saudi Fransi, Sarah Sahimi, the first woman to chair Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, and Chief Executive Officer of NCB Capital, and Mustafa Suleyman co-founder of DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab and many more. Along with their fellow members of the YGL class of 2018 these will join a community and a five-year program that will challenge them to think beyond their scope of expertise and make a stronger impact as leaders.

They have been nominated because of their creativity and innovation; their ability to build bridges across cultures and between business, government and civil society; and their pioneering work in arts and culture, business, design, energy, health, public policy, sustainability and technology.

The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a multistakeholder community of leaders from all walks of life, from every region of the world. Current members head governments and Fortune 500 companies, hold Nobel Prizes and Academy Awards, and have become UN Goodwill Ambassadors and Social Entrepreneurs.

Over half of the YGL Class of 2018 are women, and the majority of the cohort are from emerging economies. Together, they represent the very best potential of their generation and are advancing new models of sustainable social innovation. The full list can be downloaded at http://wef.ch/ygl18.

“We’re challenging these 100 women and men to do more and be more. They’ll join a community of enterprising, socially minded leaders working as a force for good, and highlight the potential for innovation to correct the shortcomings in our economies and societies,” said John Dutton, Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum.