Meet The Leader

Top leaders from renowned organizations share transformative advice that reshaped their careers. They discuss the importance of letting go and building trust within teams for collaborative growth. Empathy emerges as a key element in leadership, promoting strong relationships and creativity. The conversation highlights the power of authenticity and self-awareness, encouraging leaders to align decisions with their core values. These insights offer a roadmap for overcoming challenges and enhancing leadership effectiveness.

Humans have learned to survive in space. But as Tejpaul Bhatia reminded Meet the Leader, it’s time to learn how to live, work and thrive. One step towards that goal is Axiom Station, the first commercial space station. With the International Space Station due to be decommissioned, he explains how Axiom Station will build on decades of lessons learned for a future-ready station factoring in principles of ergonomic and industrial design, a station planned to adapt to new technologies and needs. And while it employs its share of former astronauts and rocket scientists, this unique company also designs space suits - like the one for the upcoming Artemis moon mission set for 2026. This means it also counts sewers and costumers from places like Cirque du Soleil on its team – people who understand performance fabrics and who have the skill sets to hand sew parts of uniforms that can’t be tackled with a machine. He’ll share how this incredibly diverse group works together and how learning how to tap such a range of capabilities is a window into the unique pioneering collaborations that will drive the space economy. To learn more:  Axiom Space: https://www.axiomspace.com/ Report:  Space: The $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Global Economic Growth: https://www.weforum.org/publications/space-the-1-8-trillion-opportunity-for-global-economic-growth/ Related podcasts:  This former astronaut shares what’s key to building strong, effective teams: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/soichi-noguchi-astronaut-build-effective-teams/ From space to the ocean's depths - how a space CEO and explorer approaches risk: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/dylan-taylor-voyager-space-risk-leadership/

Ulrika Biesèrt, Global People and Culture Manager at Ingka Group (IKEA's parent company), shares her extensive experience from over 27 years at IKEA, emphasizing her journey through various roles. She discusses the strategic initiatives that led to near gender balance in leadership, the importance of accountability in promoting gender equity, and the need to address unconscious bias. Biesèrt also highlights the value of financial independence and self-advocacy for women, drawing on the wisdom her mother imparted to her early in her career.

Unsafe, costly transit contributes to everything from wealth and equity gaps to pollution. But as cities grapple with growing populations, shifting needs, technological advancement and the energy transition, we’re approaching a moment of reinvention that could lead to positive change if planned correctly. Benjamin de la Peña, the CEO of the Shared-Use Mobility Center breaks down the incentives and strategies that could drive more climate-ready, equitable, safe and affordable transportation. He also discusses the importance of systems thinking and planning that factors in the generations to come -- thinking that can help any leader make big change happen. 

Daphne Koller is an AI pioneer, MacArthur fellow, member of the National Academy of sciences and the founder and CEO of drug discovery and development company insitro. She’ll talk about how attitudes surrounding AI have evolved in her multi-decade career and what's ahead - including how technology is reshaping drug discovery, paving the way for more targeted treatments for the patients who can benefit most. But maximizing AI-powered innovation will depend on better investments in data aggregation, quality and collection and navigating hype cycles that can distract from real impact.  This academic-turned-entrepreneur will also share how founding insitro (and a previous company, Coursera) helped her expand her leadership and management skills, all while driving home the importance of shaping a company culture. At insitro, this focus building a culture that works for unique needs led to a special ‘helix’ inspired-structure that helps discovery biologists, automation engineers and others in the company's cross-functional teams keep communication flowing, problem solve, and prevent the siloes that can hold true innovation back.  Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/daphne-koller-insitro-AI-soft-skills Insitro: https://www.insitro.com/ Top Ten Technologies of 2024: https://www.weforum.org/publications/top-10-emerging-technologies-2024/

Gaps in the design of everything from AI to pharmaceuticals lead to everything from safety risk to poor health outcomes. Nigina Muntean, the chief of innovation at the United Nations Population Fund, is looking to fix this, making research and design more inclusive for everyone. Her agency launched the Equity 2030 Alliance last year bringing together leaders in tech and pharma and other sectors to share best practices. Its experts in academia, government and business come together to help advocate for new standards in equitable investment, and to champion more gender-inclusive approaches to tech and design. The group is coming upon its first year anniversary which it celebrated during this year's UN General Assembly Week in New York City. Nigina is also a former physician and a public health expert who understands how investments in research and design impact the lives of everyday people, especially those with the least resources. She shares her first-hand perspectives on what’s needed tackle bias in design and what any leader should keep in mind. More about this episode:  2030 Equity Alliance: https://www.unfpa.org/equity-2030-alliance 2024 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/ 2024 Sustainable Development Impact Meetings: https://www.weforum.org/events/sustainable-development-impact-meetings-2024/ Related podcasts: Cyber has a skills gap. How approaches to tech, hiring – and retaining women - can help: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/petra-jenner-splunk-cyber-skills-gap/ Build a culture of innovation: HPE's CTO shares what must be in place: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/fidelma-russo-innovation-cto/      

After the pandemic, Tiya Gordon realized the next global crisis would be climate based. To that end, she’s co-founded It’s Electric, a curbside solution that takes power from buildings, sidestepping the currently time-consuming permitting and installation process that slows the growth of charging stations in cities around the world. She shares how her design background has helped her be clear-eyed on objectives, identify fresh approaches and break down stubborn barriers, all to speed the change needed for the energy transition.  To learn more: Guest: https://www.itselectric.us/Report: Scaling Investment in EV Charging: A Policy Roadmap for Cities Related podcasts: An energy company is building the world's largest airplane. Here's why: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/mark-lundstrom-radia-climate-change/ 7 top innovators share strategies that drive cutting edge solutions: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/top-innovator-strategies-tactics/

Jeremy Allaire is the co-founder and CEO of Circle, a global financial technology firm that operates one of the largest dollar digital currency payment systems in the world -- USDC. Stablecoin is already seeing billions of digital dollars in economic activity and he talks about what we can expect next, including emerging applications for humanitarian aid. He’ll talk about Circle’s special partnership with the refugee agency UNHCR, and how new approaches for social impact could be more and more important as political strife and climate change drive up the numbers of unbanked around the world.  Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/jeremy-allaire-circle-stablecoin-unhcr More about this episode: Circle: https://www.circle.com/en/usdc

Ty Wiggins coaches leaders during the hardest moment in their careers – the shift from mere mortal to CEO. He drives the CEO and executive transition practice at consultancy Russell Reynolds and has had a backstage pass to what works (and what doesn’t) in the top role. He’s put what he’s leaned into a new book, The New CEO, and in this wide-ranging interview, he shares tactical advice that can help any leader adjust, from what to do in the first 100 days, how to get more honest feedback from your team, common pitfalls to avoid, the traits effective leaders must develop and how leaders can adjust to a new reality where your words have outsized impact and few people tell you “no.” Related links:  The New CEO: https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/microsite/the-new-ceo

Fidelma Russo is the Chief Technology Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise running of team of 5,500 innovators driving everything from hybrid cloud technologies to solutions for the future. She brings 30 years of experience as a technologist to the role and shares the tactical strategies that leaders can deploy to support innovation, from tangible ways to invest in experimentation to methods that promote next-level research while breaking down siloes and driving cross-team collaboration.   Related episodes:  This simple question helped Amazon teams get future ready: AWS AI and data chief: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/ai-jobs-aws-amazon-swami-sivasubramanian/ This simple framework can drive disruptive innovation: Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/qualcomm-cristiano-amon-innovation/ 7 top innovators share strategies that drive cutting edge solutions: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/top-innovator-strategies-tactics/