European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Sarah is an Emmy award-winning journalist with a passion for explaining tough topics to young audiences. She films, edits, writes, produces and reports her own work. Sarah recently authored “A Kids Book About War” and now hosts the children’s news podcast, “Sarah Jones Breaks It Down”. Maintaining a large social media presence, she is among the most influential women on social media, specifically on conversations surrounding artificial intelligence, and has advised senior US and allied military and government officials on social technologies. Sarah has held fellowships at the International Women’s Media Foundation and International Reporting Project, where she reported on health and development in the Philippines. She has also previously worked for Al Jazeera America, CNN, Gulf News (Dubai) and ITN’s Channel 4 (UK). Most notably, she founded the international moment of silence to remember fall journalists, which reached over nine million people in its first year through in-person events held worldwide.

Janis is a Latvian author and literary critic. He is best known for his debut novel Jelgava’94, which explores the transition from the Soviet Union to a ‘new Europe’. His novel was a bestseller upon its release in 2013, and went on to win the European Union Prize for Literature, drawing attention to Latvian and Baltic literature. Evoking the youth of his country in the post-communist 1990s, the novel describes places of counter-culture, the sound of heavy metal, of saturated guitars and scary voices. Through his work he explores the role of subcultures, such as the heavy metal scene, in shaping Latvian national identity, how they interact with the dominant culture, and shape interactions between the new and older generations.

Lubomila Jordanova is the co-founder and CEO of Plan A, a software provider offering an end-to-end platform for decarbonisation and policy alignment for businesses. The company works with over a thousand organisations, including BMW, Chloé, the European Commission, APAX and BNP Paribas. Jordanova is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 3,500 businesses tackling climate change with technology, connected to over 500 advisors from venture capital, media and business. She previously worked in investment banking, venture capital and fintech across Asia and Europe. Jordanova has been recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice, Marshall Fund Fellow and Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs in Germany.

Sarah is the CEO and Founding Editor of emel, the premier Muslim Lifestyle brand. Through emel, she fundamentally formed the concept of Muslim Lifestyle, creating a seismic shift in the way Muslims were perceived and marketed to. She was a member of the Home Office Task Force on extremism after the July 2005 London bombings. Sarah was awarded an OBE in 2004 for services to inter-faith dialogue and the promotion of women’s rights. She was listed as one of the UK’s most powerful Muslims in the Muslim Power 100 by Carter Andersen, and one of the World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims by Georgetown University and the Jordanian Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.

Ahmad Joudeh is a ballet dancer and choreographer, who obtained Dutch nationality. He was trained as a dancer in Syria, where he was born as a stateless refugee. During the civil war, he gave free dance classes to war-orphans and young people with Down’s syndrome. As a response to the constant threats from extremists because of his dance activities, Joudeh had the words ‘dance or die’ tattooed on his body. Upon an invitation to join the Dutch National Ballet, he moved to the Netherlands to dance with the prestigious company. He is the Artistic Director of the Dance or Die Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to contribute to cultural and social causes through dance, and his personal adage has also inspired the titles of his memoir and an Emmy Award-winning documentary that chronicles his life. Joudeh has performed on stages worldwide, including at the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition to his dancing activities, he is a High Profile Supporter of the United Nations Refugee Agency, an International Friend of SOS Children’s Villages International and an Ambassador for Pride Amsterdam.

A winemaker from Portugal, Anna Jørgensen heads the Cortes de Cima wine estate in its mission to realise sustainable and organic production with minimal environmental impact. She champions low-till and no-till regenerative approaches, reduced watering practices and polyculture crops to increase the vineyard’s long-term resilience, especially as the Alentejo region faces heightened climate change challenges, such as water scarcity. In two years, Jørgensen led the winery to reduce its hectares of vineyard by half, making use of the land more wisely to produce fewer grapes, but of higher quality, while also introducing biodiverse animals and plants to land that is no longer used for production.

Toms is a Latvian entrepreneur in the fintech industry. He is the Founder and CEO of Sun Finance Group, a fintech company that operates a user-friendly online and mobile lending platform. One of the fastest growing companies in Europe, Sun Finance has expanded its operations beyond Latvia to Denmark, Poland, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Vietnam and Sweden and secured over €1.2bn in loans to clients who have been typically unable to access funding. He has also launched two additional successful businesses, supporting their growth in the start-up stage and development as international multi-million companies. Toms is also the Founder and Chairman of the Council at the Alternative Financial Services Association of Latvia, which connects fintech and other companies in order to promote responsible practices and cooperation in the sector.

Selina is an activist and writer, widely known for her work in promoting sustainable food consumption and the reduction of food waste. She founded Stop Wasting Food, Denmark’s largest non-profit consumer movement against food waste. Having authored over 190 articles on food waste and published a cookbook of leftover food recipes, Selina currently writes as a blogger at The Huffington Post. She is a member and partner of several international initiatives, including the UN Think.Eat.Save campaign, Champions 12.3, the UN SAVE FOOD initiative, the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste and the EU FUSIONS project. Selina also serves on the board of ONETHIRD, the Danish Government’s think tank on the prevention of food loss and waste. She has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for her advocacy work, most notably Reader’s Digest European of the Year in 2020, Dane of the Year in 2014 and the Nordic Council Nature and Environment Prize in 2013.

Abdalla is a serial entrepreneur and award-winning Fintech expert. He specialises in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the design of complex financial systems. Throughout his career, he founded a number of start-ups and companies specialising in deep learning, professional match-making and Fintech. Furthermore, Abdalla is an Alumni of Microsoft Ventures UK and worked on projects which were featured at the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos. He is also an academic at the University of Malta where he lectures and researches topics related to computational intelligence, financial engineering and financial data science. In addition to these roles, Abdalla advises governments on matters related to strategic development and the utilisation of technology, Fintech, and Blockchain/DLT technologies.

Kalliopi Kalaitzi is a medical doctor in a public hospital in Athens, specialising in physical medicine and rehabilitation with a focus on healthy aging and lifestyle medicine. Having previously worked in the field of aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery for over eight years, Kalliopi has also held a number of executive positions at the drug prevention centre, Serios, and experience working for a variety of NGOs which focus on youth health and drug abuse. She is also the youngest elected official to have served as a prefectural counsellor and as regional commissioner in Greeze. Kalliopi is the Co-Founder of the BrainGain Initiative, which aims to reverse brain drain in Greece. She currently serves as member of the board member of the Greek Cardiology Foundation and the president of an NGO, which focuses on prenatal, maternal and women’s health.

Nektarios is a Greek politician with a passion for good local governance. He currently serves as the President of the European Local Leaders, a committee of young European politicians that have been elected at the regional or local level. The initiative aims to promote creativity and share pioneering ideas among the new generation of locally elected officials throughout cities across Europe, with a focus on climate change, environmental protection, smart cities and new technologies. Nektarios is also the President of the Union of Young Local Councillors of Greece, which brings together newly elected regional and municipal councillors, governors, deputy mayors and mayors in Greece and organises events on the role of local governments in the development of smarter and greener cities. He is also the Municipal Councillor of the Pallini Municipality in Greece, prior to which he has served as a member of the Municipal Council.

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou is an entrepreneur and investor from Greece, who currently works at the intersection of technology, culture and new media. He is the Co-Founder of Velocity.Partners Venture Capital, a pre-seed and seed venture capital fund that currently maintains a portfolio of 22 companies with a presence in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific. As a General Partner, he assists tech companies with the development of disruptive products and services. The fund was born out of Kalavros-Gousiou’s other company, Found.ation, a start-up hub and educational platform that seeks to enable innovation through digital technologies, new business models and cultural shifts. He also founded TEDxAthens, one of the world’s first TEDx events. Kalavros-Gousiou previously worked for HackFwd, a Hamburg-based early-stage fund, where he led the pre-seed investment firm’s pipeline in Greece and south-east Europe.

Daria Kaleniuk is co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian non-governmental organisation, the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, an influential force behind Ukraine’s drive against graft. Founded in 2012, AntAC has played a key role in shaping the country’s powerful anti-corruption apparatus, including the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC). AntAC has also been instrumental in adopting legislation on open property registers and electronic asset declarations. Such measures have been hailed internationally, and AntAC is credited with saving the state billions. In response to Russia’s 2022 invasion, Kaleniuk co-founded the International Centre of Ukrainian Victory to promote her country’s interests abroad.

As of January 2021, Kaja Kallas is Estonia’s first female Prime Minister. A competition lawyer by profession, Kaja was elected Member of the Estonian Parliament and Chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs in 2011. After being elected to the European Parliament in 2014, she became a prominent proponent of innovation and frequently emphasised that regulations should not hinder the technological revolution. She authored five reports in the European Parliament, including of an own-initiative report on the Digital Single Market. Kaja left the European sphere in 2018 to become leader of Estonia’s Liberal Reform Party.

A Latvian politician, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica is a Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, the Latvian parliament, where she sits on the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Committee of European Affairs. She serves as a Head of the Latvian Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Previously, Kalniņa-Lukaševica held numerous posts at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as the parliamentary secretary, in which role she was responsible for ensuring cooperation between the ministry, the Latvian parliament and the European Parliament. She has also represented the Latvian government at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meetings of development and trade ministers. Kalniņa-Lukaševica started her professional career at Jurmala’s city council and then went on to work at the Strategic Analysis Commission of the President of Latvia, where she served as an advisor to the president.