SAUDI ARABIA

Asrar Damdam Asrar Damdam is a scientist and entrepreneur who pursued her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering with her research focusing on the Internet of Food. Asrar was awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science Middle East Young Talents” Award in 2020 and was named to Forbes 30 under 30 list of innovators for 2021. She is the founder and CEO of Uvera, a Silicon Valley cleantech startup that focuses on tackling the global challenge of reducing food waste to half by 2030.

UNITED STATES / ITALY

Patent-holding engineer/MBA, professor, and venture capitalist, Gold is a serial entrepreneur and innovator with a unique systems perspective. She began research in sustainable materials and energy back in 2008 and her doctoral work was in AI-enabled complex decision support systems with integrated robotics and geospatial elements was designed for managing wildfires and later expanded to global resource allocation in government applications. Her two most recent adventures are BlackRock and 4Earth, where she has focused on changing macroeconomic incentives to align capitalist structures with the UN SDGs so all businesses are incentivized to build a better world.

 

UKRAINE

Yuliya Hvozdovych is the Founder of two NGOs, “Parents in Action” and “Community Time,” and serves the Council of Europe in Ukraine as expert on the project “Strengthening civil participation in democratic decision making in Ukraine.” She is the regional representative for the Ukrainian Women Democracy Network. Yuliya is a native of Lviv, Ukraine and served as a deputy on the Lviv city council for 5 years. Yuliya has a postgraduate degree from the institute of Regional Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and is a PhD candidate in economic sciences. Yuliya is a mother to three children.

THE NETHERLANDS 

Dr. Nupur Kohli is a healthcare leader, medical doctor, author, innovative speaker, supervisory board member of UNICEF in the Netherlands and member International Advisory of the Amsterdam Economic Board in the Netherlands. She is also current Leader of Global Shapers, World Economic Forum, in Amsterdam. A former strategy healthcare management advisor, she is a medical advisor in the healthcare insurance sector in the Netherlands.

CANADA

Dr. Karima Ladhani is a human-centered, impact oriented social innovator. She is the Founder & CEO of Barakat Bundle, a non-profit that creates lifesaving bundles for mothers and newborns in need in South Asia, and Giving Cradle, a social enterprise that sells safe-sleep bamboo cradles to families that give back in North America. She has over a decade of experience in private and public sector innovation, business development, and project management; most recently serving as Director of Programs at the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. While beginning her career in finance with degrees in math and business from the University of Waterloo (Canada), she went on to complete her MPH and PhD from Harvard University and earn entrepreneurship awards from Harvard Business School, Aspen Ideas Festival, LinkedIn For Good, WeWork and more.

Bonnie is Microsoft’s first Head of Environmental Justice, Employee Engagement, and Ecosystems. She embeds environmental justice at the heart of the company’s sustainability commitments and empowers every employee to contribute to them. She also leads Microsoft’s effort to protect more land than it uses by 2025. Previously, she was a founding member of AI for Earth, where she awarded over 850 grants in 110 countries and helped build the first Planetary Computer. Bonnie started her career as a conservation biologist, from helping initiate Wildlife Conservation Society’s marine program in Myanmar to discovering a new sea slug species in the Caribbean. She received a B.A. in biology from Harvard University and was an inaugural Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. Bonnie has been recognized as an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, National Geographic Explorer, The Trust for Public Land’s Next Gen Councilor, and served on Seattle’s Urban Forestry Commission.

Linda Mabhena-Olagunju is the Founder and CEO of DLO Energy Resources Group (Pty) Ltd a 100% black female owned energy company which owns and operates one of Africa’s largest wind farms. Over and above power generation, DLO recently acquired Conco Energy Solutions a subsidiary of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed Consolidated Infrastructure Group. The acquisition created South Africa’s first majority black female owned EPC and O&M companies in the power sector. She is also a seasoned board executive and a trusted advisor she surrently serves as a an advisor to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy for the Republic of South Africa. She also a board member fo the University of Oxford’s Internation Adisory Board and Senior Advisor in Concordia. She is also a member of YPO. She is 1 of 2 South Africans listed on the top 30 of the prestigious Choiseul 100 Africa Economic Leaders For Tomorrow.