European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Sami Hourani is medical doctor and serial social entrepreneur. He is the founding director of the well-known educational platform For9a.com. Dr. Hourani is also the founder and the executive director of the regional organization Leaders of Tomorrow and the innovative social initiatives; Diwanieh, Mo7aka and the new and creative qualitative research methodology FADFED. He is a fellow at Ashoka, largest hub for social innovators world wide. He received King Abdullah II Demoqrati award in 2014 and EUROMED youth award in 2013. He was also elected as the Jordanian Role Model of 2011 and received the Jordanian title “Knight of Change” in 2008.

Tomáš Ignác is the Vice President of the European Council of Young Farmers – the voice of Europe’s next generation of farmers towards the European institutions. He also runs a 50-ha organic fruit and wine family farm in southern Moravia and cooperates with agricultural and environmental institutions as part of his farm business. The motivation to farm in this less favoured region is a holistic approach to (re-)build the countryside. Previously, Tomáš actively engaged in the NGO Antikomplex, working on the German Czech reconciliation. In addition, he led the LGBT Christian community called Logos for four years. His ambition is to advocate for a sustainable agricultural policy and a strong bond of the European nations and between rural areas and cities.

Anne-Marie co-founded and became the CEO of Stemettes in 2013. Through this social enterprise, she aims to inspire and promote the involvement of the next generation of women into scientific, technologic, engineering, and mathematics centred subjects (STEM) and careers. Within three years, Stemettes has attracted over 7000 girls across the UK, Ireland and Europe to their events. A child prodigy, Anne-Marie’s passion and success in the STEM scene started at an early age, with passing two GCSEs at the age of ten, and being the youngest girl ever to pass A-Level Computing. In recognition of her influence and achievements, Anne-Marie was awarded an MBE in 2017.

Karel is a Czech anti-corruption activist, mathematician and social-reformer, who is using his skills to rethink how democracy functions. Following a series of corruption scandals in 2013 that threatened to bring down the Czech government, Karel engaged in a number of initiatives aimed at improving governmental accountability through citizen action and electoral reform. One of these is Democracy 2.1 (D21), primarily based on the possibility to vote against a candidate. This concept is currently used by the cities of Prague and New York, and was also tested by the UK National Health Service (NHS).

Tea Jarc is a grassroots youth activist from Slovenia, who campaigns for social justice and actively engages in various social movements. Previously, she served as president of the ETUC Youth Committee, leading the organisation in its mission to amplify the voice of the European youth workforce. Jarc was also the president of Sindikat Mladi plus, a Slovenian youth trade union that represents working and unemployed young people and students, including high school students, and seeks to protect their social and labour rights. A freelance educator, trainer and facilitator, she also hosts a podcast, which covers labour issues and explores labour policy alternatives that prioritise the well-being of citizens and the environment.

A values-driven leader, working at the crossroads of advocacy, foreign policy and social change, Derek has spent the last decade working at Global Zero, the international movement for nuclear disarmament. Prior to his role as CEO, Derek served as Global Zero’s chief of staff and program director. His work has helped position the organisation as a trusted intermediary and a highly credible source of policy analysis, thought leadership and advocacy. Committed to breaking down gender and racial barriers in the nuclear policy and advocacy field, Derek co-founded Beyond the Bomb, a US-based grassroots advocacy organisation focused on organising young people, women and people of colour against nuclear weapons. He is also a member of the Munich Young Leaders, a group of rising experts in foreign and security policy, and a Nuclear Innovation Fellow with N Square Collaborative. Derek has previously worked to promote interfaith dialogue and cooperation at the Parliament of the World’s Religions and access to human rights and rule of law at JUSTICE.

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.

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.

Stefánia is a human rights activist, whose work focuses on illiberal democracies. A lawyer by training, she has particular expertise on the reproductive rights of people with disabilities and is a passionate defender of the rights of vulnerable groups. She currently serves as the Executive Director at HCLU, the leading human rights organisation in Hungary that aims to increase awareness of fundamental human rights and empower Hungarians to enforce these rights when they are abused, especially by those in positions of public power. Stefánia previously served as the HCLU’s head of patients’ rights program, in which role she led the organisation’s effort to stop restrictions on reproductive rights and the criminalisation of homelessness, as well as foster the rights of persons with disabilities. She currently co-chairs the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations and sits on the advisory board of School of Public Life, a community-based research and training centre.

A Polish writer, speaker and activist, Leszek is the Editor-in-Chief of Liberté!, a journal which he founded over a decade ago to promote freedom, share ideas and counter populism. He is the co-creator of Freedom Games, an interdisciplinary event that gathers 4,000 attendees and 350 speakers to discuss the key challenges Western societies must face in the 21st century. Leszek is also the Founder and CEO of Bookme, an app which makes reading internet-friendly. He currently serves on the Council of European Forum for New Ideas and recently completed a policy fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, where his work focused on how the narrative of change could counter the rise of populism in EU member states, overcome the European identity crisis and strengthen transnational governance.

Sandor is the Co-Founder and CEO of K-Monitor, a non-profit public funds watchdog based in Budapest. The NGO was founded to improve the current levels of transparency and the rule of law in Hungary. Civic participation and technology driven solutions are among the organizations key instruments. Beside K-Monitor’s tech focus, the organization is also active in anti-corruption advocacy and research. Sandor was contributing to the European Commission’s Anti-corruption Report as the Local Research Country Correspondent for Hungary. One of the recent projects K-Monitor has been working on is redflags.eu, a program that uses algorithmic indicators to analyze risky public procurements.

Born in Israel to an Italian mother and Libyan father, Liel Maghen has spent years exploring his identity, which has led him to his active involvement in peace building activities in the Middle East. After co-directing the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information (IPCRI), a partnership-building NGO and think tank, he co-founded Elham – the Day After, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian artists to sow seeds of hope in a shared future. Maghen also acts as a consultant on programmes across the Middle East promoting community building, intercultural dialogue and non-violent communication. In 2022, he was awarded the IIE Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East. He is currently making his first feature-length documentary to inspire hope in the war-torn region.

Arancha is a Spanish social innovator on a mission to maximise the impact of social projects. With 13 years of experience in the field of humanitarian aid, Arancha is tackling poverty through innovation and reshaping the world of philanthropy. She founded It-willbe.org to maximise aid and funds by leveraging data to understand the dimensions and significance of problems faced by vulnerable people. Its largest project, the People’s Protection App, promotes the right to identity by accurately identifying homeless minors through biometrical recognition and data processing software, making “invisible” people visible. Arancha is also the Co-Founder and CEO of The Common Good Chain, the first blockchain-backed platform to measure and report social impact across entire value chains, providing the social sector with the traceability and transparency it needs to transform society. In recognition of her work, she has received the European Commission’s EU Prize for Women Innovators and the Princess of Girona Social Award.

A human rights lawyer and defender, Oleksandra Matviichuk is the first-ever Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She was awarded the esteemed prize for her work with the Center for Civil Liberties on democratic reform campaigns in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organisation has been documenting war crimes committed by Russian troops since the initial invasion of Crimea, but also develops legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, and implements international solidarity programmes. Matviichuk coordinated the Euromaidan SOS civic initiative to provide legal assistance following the government’s crackdown on Euromaiden protesters, which has since monitored political persecution in the illegally occupied regions of Crimea and Donbas. Matviichuk has led similar campaigns, including #LetMyPeopleGo and #SaveOlegSentsov, to fight for the release of political prisoners detained by Russian authorities. Having authored reports for several United Nations bodies, the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE and the International Criminal Court, she received the Democracy Defender Award and is the country’s first female candidate to be nominated to the UN Committee against Torture.

Bertalan is The Medical Futurist and Director of The Medical Futurist Institute analyzing how science fiction technologies can become reality in medicine and healthcare. As a geek physician with a PhD in genomics, he is also an Amazon Top 100 author and a Private Professor at Semmelweis Medical School in Budapest. With 500+ presentations including courses at Harvard, Stanford and Yale Universities, Singularity University’s Futuremed course at NASA Ames campus and organizations including the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies, he is one of the top voices globally on healthcare technology. Bertalan was featured by dozens of top publications, including CNN, the World Health Organization, National Geographic, Forbes, TIME magazine, BBC, and the New York Times. He publishes his analyses regularly on medicalfuturist.com.