About

Meet the EYL40 Class of 2025!

The EYL40 Class of 2025 brings together a diverse group of leaders shaping Europe’s future. Among them are afemale refugee turned AC Milan footballer andmedical doctor, a Michelin-starred chef, pioneering tech entrepreneurs revolutionising the energy sector, politicians from all levels of government and national parliaments, a barrister and bestselling author, a Saami rights activist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, an astronaut, and cultural icons using art and theatre to confront societal challenges.


Distinct leadership for a new era 

This cohort of leaders comes at a critical moment for Europe. From accelerating climate action to navigating the implications of artificial intelligence, tackling polarisation to redefining competitiveness in a green and digital economy, their work addresses the most pressing issues of our time. Together, these European Young Leaders’ (EYL40) passion, diversity of backgrounds and innovative thinking create the right formula for generating fresh ideas to build a more forward-thinking Europe. 

Our European leaders are scientists, artists, journalists, entrepreneurs and economists. They represent a new, embracive vision for Europe’s future – one where diversity strengthens leadership and drives progress. Their thinking is not bound by local and multilateral institutions, traditional political frameworks or bureaucracy. They provide alternative perspectives to EU decision-makers and challenge the status quo. Our Europe is larger than the EU’s physical borders. Our Europe stretches from the United Kingdom to the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova. 

EYL40 help take Europe out of Brussels. In their own countries, cities and communities, EYLs play an essential role in reconnecting people with and rebuilding trust in politics by engaging a wider community around key policy issues. They are facilitating citizens’ participation in a more inclusive, sustainable and forward-looking Europe. 

Looking ahead: a bold vision for Europe’s future 

The impactful work of the EYL40 Class of 2025 reflects our commitment to fostering dialogue, sparking action and bridging gaps between policy ambitions and practical outcomes. These leaders are not just reimagining Europe’s future – they are actively building it. 

Learn more about them, their projects and achievements, through profiles of the EYL40 2025 cohort. 


Tune in to the EYL40s on Friends of Europe’s podcasts

Policy Voices | Are we alone in the universe?

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Policy Voices | Are we alone in the universe?

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Policy Voices | AI & Democracy: Empowering informed citizens

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Policy Voices | AI & Democracy: Empowering informed citizens

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Policy Voices | A glaciologist and a greentech entrepreneur on a mission to fight climate change

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Policy Voices | A glaciologist and a greentech entrepreneur on a mission to fight climate change

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Policy Voices Podcast | Keeping the human in the loop: How to make a success story of AI in health

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Policy Voices Podcast | Keeping the human in the loop: How to make a success story of AI in health

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Continue to Meet the EYL

Meet the EYL40

Ana Antunes
Ana Antunes

Head of Scientific Events and Communication at MabDesign and 2015-2016 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Ana is microbiologist and currently works in the field of therapeutic antibody and immunotherapy at MabDesign. Prior to her current role, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut Pasteur and a visiting scientist at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. While completing her PhD in microbiology, Ana was awarded the Marie Cure Fellowship and the PhD Fellowship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Additionally, she has received various grants and nominations over the course of her academic career. Ana has lectured in vaccinology and pharmaceutical clinical development, been published in peer-reviewed journals and spoken at numerous international conferences. Ana is the Co-Founder and President the Association des Diplômés Portugais en France (AGRAFr), which brings together Portuguese expats and French nationals. She is also a member of Native Scientists, a non-profit organisation that connects children with science in their native languages, and Conto-Contigo, which provides Portuguese reading sessions for children.

Photo of Margarida Balseiro Lopes
Margarida Balseiro Lopes

Portugal’s Minister of Youth and Modernisation and 2025 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Margarida Balseiro Lopes took over in April 2024 as Portugal’s Minister of Youth and Modernisation. Then 34, she is the youngest woman ever to hold ministerial office. During her first months in the job, Balseiro Lopes hit headlines introducing tax breaks and loan guarantees to help young people enter the housing market; reaching out to diaspora youth; promoting digital inclusion; and engaging media stars in campaigns against domestic violence and online bullying. Balseiro Lopes served as Member of Parliament from 2015-2022.

Gustavo Carona
Gustavo Carona

Intensive care doctor and 2022 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Gustavo is a Portuguese doctor and anaesthesiologist, specialising in intensive care. Gustavo has been actively outspoken about COVID-19 and the pandemic to raise awareness around scientific information, vaccination and mental health. He has appeared on major news channels, such as CNN, Reuters and Público, while his Facebook and Instagram accounts reach audiences of 60k and 80k, respectively. An activist and self-described dreamer, he is passionate about humanitarian medicine. Over the last years, Gustavo has joined 13 humanitarian missions to war zones with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Following his first mission to Mozambique, he has travelled to various Central and Northern African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Burundi and South Sudan. In the greater Middle East, these humanitarian missions have brought him to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine. His latest book, “The World Needs to Know”, shares his experiences of several humanitarian missions to war-torn countries.

Alexandre Farto
Alexandre Farto

Artist, Galeria Vera Cortês and 2018 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Alexandre, known under the tag name ‘Vhils’, is a Portuguese street artist, best known for his urban murals, his use of urban settings – walls, doors, debris – as ‘canvasses’ or materials for his art, as well as the destructive processes by which he constructs art. Alexandre studied in London, and gained prominence when his work was showcased at the Cans Festival in London. As well as technically and visually innovative, Alexandre’s art has a social function as it attempts to cast a spotlight on situations of social injustice, and to create a dialogue around these. His work has since continued to gain recognition, with his work appearing in cities worldwide and he has been featured alongside street artists of the likes of Banksy.

Cristina Fonseca
Cristina Fonseca

Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners and 2018 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Cristina is a software engineer and tech entrepreneur, who co-founded one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing companies, Talkdesk, a platform that allows anyone to quickly create a call centre online. Following this success, she became a venture partner at Indico Capital Partners, the first Portuguese private venture capital fund investing in early-stage, tech-focused start-ups. Her organisation focuses on sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, fintech, and cybersecurity. Previously, Cristina worked as a researcher at INESC-ID, a Portuguese non-profit institution conducting advanced research in electronics, energy, telecommunications and information technologies.

Anna-Jorgensen
Anna Jørgensen

General Manager of Cortes de Cima and 2024 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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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.

Ricardo Baptista Leite
Ricardo Baptista Leite

CEO of HEALTH.AI, the Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health (formally known as I-DAIR), President of ‘UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health’ and 2015-2016 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Prior to assuming his current role as CEO of HEALTH.AI (formally known as I-DAIR), an organisation that seeks to enable and improve access to inclusive, impactful and responsible research into digital health and artificial intelligence (AI), Ricardo Baptista Leite served as a member of the Portuguese national parliament’s health committee. He also founded the UNITE global network of parliamentarians, present in over 100 countries and active in tackling infectious diseases. Leite was a practising physician for seven years and has also held an infectious diseases residency at the WHO. He was a medical volunteer during the COVID-19 pandemic and at the Lviv Regional Hospital in Ukraine in the summer of 2022. He has an active role on several scientific and advisory boards of health, including as Chair of the Global Health Policy Lab, a collaborative between the University Medicine Berlin and Harvard University, and Chair of the Centre for Global Health at NOVA University in Portugal.

Photo of Sandro Mendonça
Sandro Mendonça

Professor at the Iscte Business School – University Institute of Lisbon, advisor for digital and connectivity at the Brazilian telecom regulator (Anatel), advisor at the Portuguese Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) and 2015-2016 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Throughout an extensive and wide-ranging career in international organisations and institutions, Sandro Mendonça’s work has focused predominantly on the economics of innovation and industrial strategies. Mendonça is a Fellow of The German Marshall Fund of the United States and was a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London. In addition to serving as a board member of the Portuguese Communications Regulator (ANACOM), Mendonça was a science officer at the official Ibero-American Programme for Science and Technology (CYTED).  He has published in major international journals and has taught doctoral programmes in mainland China, namely Guanzhou and Chengdu. Sandro’s research has been used by various international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Commission and the US Senate. Mendonça was named a European Young Leader (EYL40) in 2015.  

João Wengorovius Meneses
João Wengorovius Meneses

Secretary General, BSCD Portugal and 2012 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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João is the Secretary General of the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Portugal (BCSD Portugal), a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Global Network. Prior to assuming his current role, João held several roles in the public, private and non profit sectors. He served as Secretary of State for Youth and Sports in the Portuguese Government, had several roles in the Portuguese startup ecosystem (as head of Startup Discoveries, a venture capital fund, head of the REACTOR – Innovation Hub, and head of the Mouraria Creative Hub). He also served as director of GABIP Mouraria, a mission unit reporting to the mayor of Lisbon that led the rehabilitation of Mouraria – in the past a deprived area in the center of Lisbon, but also its most traditional and multicultural quarter. Finally, he’s the founder of HUB 2050, a consulting firm acting in the field of innovation for sustainability, and author of two books about management and innovation.»

Adolfo Mesquita Nunes
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes

Partner, Gama Glória and 2013 European Young Leader (EYL40)

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Adolfo was the Portuguese Secretary of State of Tourism till 2015. Prior to this he was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament’s Committees on Ethics, Communication and Citizenship; Budget, Finance and Public Administration; and Monitoring Measures of the Financial Assistance Programme to Portugal. He has extensive experience in the legal sector, having served as a lawyer, consultant and advisor to various public institutions and private firms. In 2004 he was Head of Cabinet for the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning. He holds a Master’s degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Lisbon where he defended his thesis on The Urgency in Public Procurement Litigation.

Miguel Pina Martins
Miguel Pina Martins

CEO and Founder Science4You and 2019 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Show more information on Miguel Pina Martins

Miguel is responsible for founding the toy company Science4You, which develops, produces and sells scientific toys that have won several awards due to their scientific merit, in addition to their innovation and usefulness in the teaching environment. Miguel founded the company in 2008 at the age of 22 when he was still a student. Since then, he has collected several individual awards (as well as collaborative ones) like the Entrepreneur of the year award from the European commission in 2010 or the Business Internalisation Award in 2013, granted by the British Government. In 2015, Science4you was awarded by the Portuguese President with the Order Entrepreneurial Merit’s medal.

João Rodrigo Pinho de Almeida
João Rodrigo Pinho de Almeida

Member, National Parliament of Portugal and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Show more information on João Rodrigo Pinho de Almeida

Joao is involved in the Parliamentary Committees of Budget, Finance and Public administration. Previously, Joao served as Secretary of State of Internal Administration of the Portuguese government. Joao currently represents the CDS-PP political party as spokesperson in the Parliament, having previously served as Secretary General and President of the People’s Part Youth division, of which he is still the Honorary President. Locally, he was member of the municipal assembly of Sao Joao da Madeira. With a sound legal background, Joao was a consultant at PROLEGAL – Moser & Lobo d’Avila and an attorney at Alves Mendes, Jardim Goncalves & Associates. He is also passionate about sports, being the Director and Chairman of the Board of the “os Belenenses” professional football team and sports club.

Photo of Tiago Sá
Tiago Sá

Co-Founder and CEO of Wisecrop and 2023 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Show more information on Tiago Sá

An engineer and social entrepreneur from Portugal, Tiago Sá is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wisecrop, a web-based operating system on a mission to support the productivity, sustainability and efficiency of farm management through the use of technology. Wisecrop provides farmers and other agricultural professionals with integrated, real-time data related to the weather, irrigation, soil nutrition and fertilisation, crop health, as well as field and labour operations and costs, in order to maximise field profitability and reduce the negative environmental impacts of agricultural practices. Recognising the challenges of digitalising a sector that is traditionally slow to adopt change, Sá combines environmental and business incentives to unlock disruptive tech solutions, while also ensuring that Wisecrop features a simple and user-friendly interface. Since its inception over seven years ago, Sá has overseen the company’s growth to assist over 60k hectares of more than 250 different varieties of crops, with plans to push for the modernisation of the agri-food industry across Europe.

Marcelino Sambe
Marcelino Sambé

Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet in London and 2020-2021 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Show more information on Marcelino Sambé

Marcelino, from Portugal, is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London. Born in the outskirts of Lisbon, Marcelino discovered from an early age a talent and passion for dance, and was accepted to the National Conservatory of Lisbon, before joining The Royal Ballet Upper School. He rapidly made a name for himself in the ballet world, garnering rave reviews from critics for his portrayals in Don Quixote and Les Patineurs. Sambé’s dance awards include a silver medal at the Moscow International ballet competition, first prize at the Youth American Grand Prix and a gold medal at the USA International ballet competition.

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Selection process

 

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS/NOMINATIONS FOR THE EYL CLASS OF 2026 – IS NOW OPEN

 

The European Young Leaders (EYL40) programme is a unique, inventive, and multi-stakeholder programme that aims to promote a European identity by engaging the continent’s most promising talents in initiatives that will shape Europe’s future. 

The European Young Leaders represent a new generation of European leaders from all over the continent and various backgrounds, including politics, business, civil society, academia, arts, science, and the media. 

The programme acts as a forum for those who have already established themselves at the forefront of their professions to meet, discuss and collaborate with their counterparts from other fields of expertise. Previous candidates include government ministers, CEOs, Michelin-starred chefs, international film directors and high-profile journalists. 

Since the launch of the programme, we have gradually taken steps to ensure the diversity and exceptional quality of its selection process. We have made sure that its comprehensive and competitive nature ensures the identification and selection of remarkable individuals. 

We aim to select 40+ European Young Leaders of diverse backgrounds to enable a broad exchange of ideas, creating the basis for a new generation of engaged European leaders. 

SELECTION CRITERIA 

  • Candidates must be between 30 and 40 years of age (born on or after 1 January 1986). 
  • Candidates must be a national of an EU member state, Moldova, the UK, Ukraine or of one of the 6 Balkan states currently on the path towards EU integration (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). 
  • Candidates should have established themselves at the highest levels of their chosen profession or be on track to do so. 
  • Candidates must be committed to serve society at large through noteworthy contributions and have demonstrated a record of significant achievements and outstanding professional experience. 
  • Candidates are also evaluated based on their ability to contribute to the enrichment of the programme as a whole. 
  • Candidates are required to be fluent in English as it is the working language of the programme. 
  • Candidates must commit to participating in at least one of the two EYL seminars during the programme year, usually scheduled for March and September. 

Please click HERE for the Selection Guidelines 2026 that will give you an idea of the process and will provide you with link to nomination/application form.  

Please note that the deadline for the nominations/applications is Monday, May 5, 2025.

Should you have any questions or need any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at eyl40@friendsofeurope.org. 

We look forward to receiving your applications and nominations. 

* References to Kosovo here are used without prejudice to positions on status and are in line with UN Security Council resolution 1244/99 and the International Court of Justice Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

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