 Maël Azokly
Maël holds a Master of Laws from the University of Geneva and is currently working as a Legal Analyst at LEXR in Zürich.
He has led several initiatives on youth empowerment, the fourth industrial revolution, the future of work, and digital self-determination. His efforts led him to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community back in 2019.
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 Taha Bawa — Co-Founder & CEO
Taha is the co-founder and CEO of social enterprise Goodwall, which he started to inspire and encourage the next generation to achieve more, maximize their potential, and impact society positively. He has raised more than $20M USD in multiple rounds of funding from leading education and technology investors, while having grown a 60-person strong team across 8 countries, the client base to 4 continents, and the Goodwall member network to over 1.6M young people in 150+ countries.
Taha has also co-founded and created several other start-ups. Taha has been featured on several coveted lists, including Forbes’ 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs (2018) and Entrepreneur’s 15; Entrepreneurs Under 30 to Watch Out For (2020).
He has given notable keynote speeches on levelling the playing field at TEDx, Google, MIT, the United Nations and the Commission of International Schools. He has been invited as a contributor to the Global Leadership Council meetings of Generation Unlimited, a leading consortium focused on supporting youth earning and learning development hosted by UNICEF. He presented his views alongside such members as the CEO of Unilever, the Chairman of PWC, the Executive Directors of UNICEF, and various other private and public sector leaders. He regularly features on panels and has given a series of thought leadership features in prominent titles such as NPR’s entrepreneurial podcast "How I Built This" with Guy Raz, Techcrunch and the Adecco Group Podcast by Monocle.
Aside from his entrepreneurial pursuits, Taha also dedicates his time to volunteering as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, an Innosuisse start-up lecturer and as part of the Young Presidents Organization, to inspire people from various socio-economic backgrounds on their path to success.
He was born in Switzerland but grew up in 4 countries by the age of 11. He has worked out of the US, Europe, Asia and most recently Africa. He was educated in Economics at the University of Lausanne and obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Oxford.
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 Luke Cavanaugh
Luke is a recent first-class graduate of the University of Cambridge and is currently based in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar, a Master’s in Global Affairs and leadership development programme with a 4% acceptance rate. Alongside founding his own consulting firm at university, he has taken executive positions at several think tanks, including leading a team of 60 at the Student Think Tank for Europe-Asia Relations (STEAR). Elsewhere, Luke has experience working in business and the public sector, and is currently attempting to synergise the two in his work at the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and as one of eight young people on the ITU’s Global Visionaries Board.
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 Albesë Demjaha
Associate at KPMG Norway
PhD Candidate at University College London (UCL)
Albesa Demjaha is currently in the final stage of her PhD in Computer Science at University College London (UCL), which is fully funded by UK’s National Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence – The Alan Turing Institute. Albesa also holds an MSc in Information Security from UCL and her thesis explored the necessity for – and the creation of – new cryptographic metaphors. Her doctoral work mainly focuses on information security culture in organizations, though her thesis is interdisciplinary; it focuses on the behavioural and cultural aspects of security, based on findings from behavioural economics. Albesa has published several papers within her research field.
Albesa is specialized in human factors of information security and works with awareness and education, behaviour change, security policy and culture, behavioural economics as well as information security management. Albesa has continuously worked alongside her doctoral studies and has gained diverse work experience. She was a teaching assistant both at UCL and The University of Oxford for the module ‘People and Security’ for several years, and in 2020 she was a visiting lecturer at UCL, teaching ‘Information Security Management’. In 2021, she joined KPMG Norway as an Associate in Cyber and Security, in the Management and Risk branch, where she works in diverse projects within the area of cyber security.
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 Eugénie Fontugne
A food aficionado and passionate volunteer, Eugénie is a multilingual professional with extensive knowledge in the food industry. After stints around the world to work on luxury goods and chocolate, she is now back home in Geneva to make everyone's life sweeter one candy at a time.
As the current curator of the Global Shapers Geneva hub and as a board member of The Baobab Home in Tanzania, Eugénie aims at having a positive impact by giving visibility to unsung heroes and by supporting grassroots organization with her unfettered enthusiasm.
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Elisa Haxhillazi
Elisa is a young student from Albania. Her major is Computer Engineering at Epoka University. She works towards expanding her skills and contributing to the digital inclusive technologies.
She joined Generation Connect in November 2020 and was the Drafter for the Digital Inclusion team during the creation of Youth Declaration. In March 2021, she was a speaker in the Regional Forum for Sustainable Development (RFSD) for the UNECE Region, sharing her and the youth's experience in her region during the first year of Covid-19. Elisa has also participated in other events such as Hackathons and YOUthDIG.
Her hobbies are travelling, exploring new cultures and trying new cuisines.
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 H.E. Valeriya Ionan — Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
In charge of digital literacy national program, development and growth of SME, new digital professions, online children protection and eurointegration.
Valeria and her team have launched Diia.Digital Education as a national project. It consists of two components. The first one is an online component. It’s the national platform for digital education https://osvita.diia.gov.ua. The educational process is presented in the form of educational serials. More than 700 000 Ukrainians have already started to get digital skills on the platform.
The second one is an offline component represented by digital education hubs all over Ukraine. There are places where every citizen could come to and get free access to the online platform. Valeria’s team has already built a network of more than 6000 such digital education hubs.
Also, Valeriya’s team have launched «Diia.Business» as a national project, aimed at helping entrepreneurs. It consists of two components too.
An online component is represented by a national platform for entrepreneurs https://business.diia.gov.ua. There are free online consultations for entrepreneurs on different aspects (taxes, sales, marketing, HR), free online courses for entrepreneurs, columns from the market leaders, and a lot of other useful services.
An offline component is represented by entrepreneurship support centres all over Ukraine. Nowadays, there are 5 centres in different cities such as Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkassy, Odessa & special centre for students in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Before working in the Ukrainian government, Valeriya had been an entrepreneur. She launched Quadrate 28 specializing on teams on outsource for SME, that has 250+ clients worldwide. Also, she launched MC Today, a first online-magazine for entrepreneurs.
She’ve got certificates from MBA program at Edinburgh Business School Eastern Europe in Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Negotiations.
Valeria speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English and Spanish. Learning Chinese.
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 Alex Krook
Alex is the Digital Content & Communications Manager of Youth Business International, working closely with YBI's partners and members to convey the impact of their work supporting young entrepreneurs through story gathering, digital campaigns and online communications.
She has worked across communications within the charity and creative sectors with a particular focus on digital storytelling, and is currently completing an MSc in Digital Anthropology.
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 H.E. Nele Leosk
Nele Leosk is the Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Estonia. She is responsible for the development and coordination of digital diplomacy.
Over the past twenty years, she has promoted and advised political and public sector leaders in digital governance and digital economy in central, regional, and national governments in more than forty countries in Central and Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. Nele has experienced the life of international and inter-governmental organisations such as the UNDP, UNU-eGOV, OECD as well as academia.
Nele holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (EUI), Italy, and a former Fulbright-Schuman grantee at the National Centre for Digital Government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at the Governance Lab at New York University, USA.
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Maria Pia Napoletano
Maria Pia is a youth worker and start-up consultant. She coordinates the EU network of Young European Ambassadors, of the EUNEIGHBOURSeast project.
In 2016 she discovered Erasmus+ projects, and since then she has been passionate about the concepts of lifelong learning and non-formal education. She participated in Youth Exchanges, Training Courses and National Agency Seminars (Italy and Germany), using the skills she acquired to improve the activities she carries out in the local community and to organise workshops in high schools and universities with non-formal education techniques. She has volunteered in several local organisations.
In 2017 she participated in the World Forum for Democracy of the CoE as part of the Youth Programme, and in 2018 she was selected as Youth Delegate for Italy in the 35th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe.
In 2018 she also participated in the "Europe Mobile" project in Germany, creating a programme of non-formal education activities and taking it to high schools in the state of Brandenburg, together with 15 other young people from different EU countries. In 2019, she organised the TEDxUninaFedericoII.
She’s graduated in Business Administration with Honours, and passionate about literature and women empowerment.
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 Marko Paloski
Marko is a System/Network Engineer in Netcetera and Computer Science student at Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering – Skopje, North Macedonia. Active in the Internet Governance world with specific topic in: Cybersecurity, Privacy, Education and Youth involvement.
Marko started his involvement in Internet Governance in 2018 as student on SEEDIG Youth School, same year was Internet Society Youth@IGF Fellow, become part of the national IGF MKD as member and presenter, where next year joined the SEEDIG Youth School organizers and SEEDIG Editorial team, in 2019 as Youth IGF fellow and SEEDIG Ambassador, in 2020 as part of the ICANN69 NextGen program and as part of the ITU Generation Connect Europe Envoy group, in 2021 as EuroSSIG Fellow and selected as ICANN73 fellow (2022).
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 Jaroslaw Ponder — Head of the International Telecommunication Union Office for Europe
Jaroslaw K. Ponder, is the Head of the Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), representing ITU in Europe and directing actions, projects, initiatives and experts groups targeting 46 countries of the Europe Region. His portfolio includes Regional Initiatives for Europe, designed by the European Member States and focusing on the ICT Infrastructure, Digitization, Digital Inclusion, Accessibility, Innovation and Cybersecurity.
During his professional career, Mr. Ponder has held official positions in the public sector and has been a leading contributor to legislative projects, which influenced public policy. Since 2004, he has been working for ITU holding diverse positions in the General Secretariat, Telecommunication Development Bureau, and Regional Presence, addressing the complexity of information society development and digital transformation at national, regional, international level, including United Nations level.
For several years, Mr. Ponder has managed ITU’s work in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, establishing the annual WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, and others. In his current role, Mr. Ponder has established several formal coordination mechanisms facilitating the work of UN agencies in advancing digital transformation at the national and regional level.
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 Valentina Sabucco
Valentina is the Co-Founder and Member of the Interim Steering Committee of the UNESCO Global Youth Community (GYC), a project she has co-helped set up and develop since 2019 when she participated as a Youth Representative to the 11th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris. Alongside this, Valentina works as a Consultant and Cultural Protection Lead at Trident Manor Limited, where she provides consultancy services and conduct corporate research for national and international institutions operating in the cultural heritage sector. She is also a qualified trainer and on behalf of Trident Manor develops and delivers training programmes supporting professionals across different sectors protecting their assets from possible threats, and risks. Valentina is also the Event Coordinator of the International Art and Antiquities Security Forum.
She holds a degree in Classics from the Università Cattolica of Milan (110/110), and graduated as a Master of Practice (Distinction) from Newcastle University in Heritage Studies. For two years, she has worked as part of the Secretariat of Blue Shield International specialising in regulations and UNESCO Conventions on the protection of cultural property, and as a Secretariat for UK Blue Shield (where she is now an Observer). She has volunteered for cultural sites and institutions such as Durham World Heritage Site, World Heritage UK, Maniscalco Heritage at Risk Documentation Centre.
Valentina is a member of ASIS International, ICOMOS Italy and ESACH (European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage). Her interests cover: policies, regulations and conventions on cultural property protection, risk management and security practices, capacity building of staff, community engagement.
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 Sabin Sărmaș
Mr. Sărmaș has developed his professional career in public and private organizations, always linked to the digital sector and the governance of the information and knowledge society. He is currently serving as a member of the Romanian Parliament while acting as Chairman of the IT&C Commission within the Chamber of Deputies.
Mr. Sabin Sărmaș has been nominated Designated President to Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 of The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by the Government of Romania.
Prior to these engagements, he was President of the National Authority for Digitalization between 2019 – 2021, being responsible for the coordination and implementation of national policies, strategies, and projects in the field of information technology, communications, and digitalization of public services.
His cross-sector activities were also linked to the private sector as a software engineer and business developer within various companies located in the city of Cluj-Napoca. Therefore, Mr. Sărmaș has acknowledged and tackled the challenges of the sector from a multi-stakeholder perspective, becoming known as the transformational and visionary expert.
Mr. Sabin Sărmaș graduated from the Telecommunications Faculty within the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca as a Diplomate Engineer, followed by academic fellowships at Vrije University of Brussels and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (as PhD).
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 Viktoriia Savitska — Digital Skills Expert, International Communications Union (ITU)
Working in private, public and non-profit sectors, Viktoriia gained a diverse experience in digital skills, project management, research and reporting, data collection and communications. She joined ITU in 2021 and coordinates Digital Skills Assessment projects in Albania, North Macedonia and Ukraine.
She has worked on human rights issues in Permanent Mission of Ukraine and Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations Office in Geneva. She has also spent a year working with Tanzanian NGO developing a healthcare facility project.
Viktoriia holds two bachelor degrees in Law and International relations, and an MBA in Management of International Organizations, Geneva University.
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 Jurgis Vilkas
Jurgis is a Chief specialist of the Resources and Services Division at The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT). For the past three years, Jurgis has been working in electronic communications regulation. He started as a chief specialist in the Complaints division and then moved to his current position in the Resources and Services Division.
Jurgis has a BA degree in Public policy and MA in Project management.
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 Bojana Visekruna
Bojana Visekruna serves as Advisor for Creative Industries, Tourism and Science at the Office of the Prime Minister, Republic of Serbia. She is responsible for running major development projects in the tourism and creative sector, such as the revitalization and development of the 7000 years old Neolithic archaeological site Belo brdo in Belgrade.
Bojarna also worked on establishing the Science Fund of Serbia, a competitive-based system of research financing in Serbia. Currently, she is working on the reform of the Talent Fund of Serbia.
Bojana is a PhD candidate in Ethics at the University Belgrade. She is passionate about acquiring new knowledge, and driven by a belief in the ability and willingness of people to change.
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 Mirwais Wafa
Mirwais Wafa is chairman and member of Interim Steering Community of UNESCO Global Youth Community. He is currently a Master Student in Political Science at Bamberg University, Germany. He holds a B.A degree in Political Science and Sociology form Würzburg University, Germany.
He is co-founder of Youth Forum of German National Commission for UNESCO, and he was youth delegate of Germany for the 11. UNESCO Youth Forum.
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