Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo
Born in Madras, India, the future CEO of PepsiCo grew up conservative and middle-class, studying physics, chemistry, and math. Her determination to study in the U.S. brought her to Yale University’s Graduate School of Management in 1978. Despite financial aid from Yale, Nooyi worked nights as a receptionist. She went in for interviews wearing a sari […]
Hamdi Ulukaya: The Turkish Immigrant Who Just Made Americans Richer
Hamdi Ulukaya is an immigrant from Turkey who came to the USA with nothing and within 10 years is running a Yogurt company worth billions. He just gave 10% of the company to his employees – worth 100,000’s of dollars for each employee. He also gave $700m to Syrian refugees. Ulukaya is the owner, founder, Chairman, […]
Zaha Mohammad Hadid: From Iraq to Redefining Global Cities
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid (31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004. Hadid was born in Baghdad, Iraq. Her father, Muhammad al-Hajj Husayn Hadid, was a wealthy industrialist from Mosul, Iraq. He co-founded the left-liberal al-Ahali group in Iraq in […]
Brides For Good Change The Rules of Marriage
A wedding dress e-tailer wants to eradicate child marriage by 2030 with a proposal that’s hard to turn down. Founded by Chantal Khoueiry, Brides do Good is a pioneering social enterprise that offers brides-to-be the opportunity to purchase the world’s most beautiful pre-loved and sample designer wedding gowns from designers including: Alexander McQueen, Oscar De La […]
Jerry Yang, Founder of Yahoo
Yang was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1968, and his father died two years later. He moved with the rest of his family to San Jose, California when he was eight years old. Upon arriving in America, Yang knew just one word of English: “shoe.” But in spite of these massive disadvantages, Yang excelled in […]
A Young Leader Takes a Step Away to Step up
I want to spend today doing things that prepare me to thrive tomorrow. With my decision to leave management consulting and New York, I’m keeping to my 2016 commitments: chasing opportunities that challenge and seeking environments that stretch me furthest. It’s tough. And it should be. Eleven days into my stay in Colombia has meant a foreign land, a different […]
Young American Sailors Call for Action on Marine Pollution
Leading offshore sailors Charlie Enright and Mark Towill are sounding the alarm about the danger posed by marine debris and pollution, after recent research from the Ocean Conservancy estimated a staggering eight million tons of plastic trash is entering the ocean every year. The duo spent much of last year in the most remote waters […]
Charlize Theron: From African Farm to Hollywood
Charlize Theron is a South African and American actress and film producer who has starred in several Hollywood films, such as The Devil’s Advocate, The Italian Job, Hancock and more recently, Mad Max: Fury Road. Theron was born in Benoni, in the then-Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda and Charles Theron. […]
Leadership as a Space, not an Individual
How many times have you heard this before after missing a deadline at work: “You need to show more leadership.” And if you get angry with a colleague: “You didn’t show any leadership spirit.” When a team doesn’t perform well, someone will say the supervisor doesn’t have leadership abilities. I have experienced this scenario for […]
From Duped Maids to Rice Farmers, Asian Women Lead the way in Businesses to aid Society
At all the peace talks Joji Felicitas Pantoja attended in the conflict-troubled Philippines island of Mindanao, coffee was served to put people at ease. But Pantoja soon realised talking about peace wasn’t enough in communities unable to address basic needs like food and health, sparking an idea to use coffee as a vehicle for change. Setting […]
