European Impact Summit 2020
The European Impact Summit 2020 was held in October 2020, bringing together more than 1,000 international C-level executives to create solutions for today’s pressing issues in Europe and beyond. Please stay tuned for details on upcoming EIS news.
About EIS20
EIS20 harnessed the collective power of YPO members from more than 450 chapters globally as well as key expert organizations, government leaders and institutions, including the United Nations and its agencies. Together, these forces created a world of positive impact around the most serious global issues Europe and the world are facing today.
The power of YPO
YPO, the global leadership community of more than 28,000 chief executives in 142 countries, plays a leading role in determining where businesses can be a force for good and how our leaders can collaboratively scale to great heights. YPO EIS20, is thrilled to partner with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations sister agencies to bring together those who want to make an impact.
CEO Insights from EIS
Deepak Chopra on Leadership and Spirituality
Paul Polman Urges Business Leaders: “Make Sure This is an Inclusive Recovery”
YPO EIS20 Speakers
David Beasley
As Executive Director of the World Food Programme, which earned the Nobel Peace Prize this year for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace, David Beasley continues his life’s work bridging political, religious and ethnic boundaries to champion economic development and education. At WFP, Mr. Beasley is putting to use four decades of leadership and communications skills to mobilise more financial support and public awareness for the global fight against hunger. Under Mr Beasley’s leadership, WFP has mobilised the resources required to respond to an expanding caseload of people who require food assistance due to the impact of conflict, displacement, climate shocks and socio-economic downturns. In 2020, the agency aims to reach around 100 million people. Mr Beasley is also driving greater focus and attention to WFP’s work beyond emergency food assistance, highlighting the fact that longer term development can bring peace and stability to troubled regions.
Clare Rewcastle Brown
Clare Rewcastle Brown is a British journalist and the founder of the website Sarawak Report, which has come to prominence for challenging corruption and its impacts on civil and indigenous rights as well as on the environment. Her investigations resulted in the exposure of the 1MDB Development Fund scandal, which revealed grand kleptocracy by the Malaysian Prime Minister; rocked the global financial community; shone light on the off-shore finance industry and embarrassed famous figures in Hollywood, Vegas and beyond. Fortune Magazine listed her in their World’s 50 Most Influential Figures 2016; she was named one of Britain’s Women of the Year 2016; In Australia she won the Bob Brown 2018 Environmentalist of the Year Award. She has been a keynote speaker at several journalism conferences as well as for Transparency International and the Oslo Freedom Forum and has received the International Press Institute’s Pioneer of Media Freedom Award and Queensland University’s Communication for Social Change Award. Malaysia issued a warrant for her arrest in 2015 and requested INTERPOL place her on the international Red Notice list, however INTERPOL rejected the request. In 2019 she founded the NGO Forest Southeast Asia dedicated to supporting reforestation in the region.
Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP
Chopra is the founder of the Chopra Foundation, a nonprofit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day whole-health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Dr. Chopra is a clinical professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of more than ninety books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His ninetieth book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. Time magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim served as the first female President of Mauritius from 2015-2018, making her the third woman to serve as Head of State of the country. Gurib-Fakim was Managing Director of the Centre International de Developpement Pharmaceutique (CIDP) Research and Innovation, and Professor at the University of Mauritius where she served successively as Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor and manager at the Mauritius Research Council. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Surrey (1983), and Ph.D. from the University of Exeter (1987). In June 2016, she was in the Forbes List for the 100 ‘Most Powerful women in the world’, 1st among Top 100 Women in Africa Forbes List 2017, 2019. Honored as one of Foreign Policy’s 2015 Global Thinkers and Honorary President of the International Engineering & Technology Institute (2020).
John Hennessy
Hennessy is the James F. and Mary Lynn Gibbons Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering, and the Shriram Family Director of Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars, the largest fully endowed graduate-level scholarship program in the world. He is Chairman of Alphabet and serves as a trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Formerly the tenth president of Stanford, he is also a computer scientist who co-founded MIPS Computer Systems and Atheros Communications. He and Dave Patterson were awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Prize for 2017.
Paul Polman
Polman is Chair and Co-founder of IMAGINE, a new organization which mobilizes business leaders around tackling climate change and global inequality. Polman is Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, The B Team, Saïd Business School and Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact. A leading proponent that business should be a force for good, he has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade”. As CEO of Unilever (2009-2019), he demonstrated that a long-term, multi-stakeholder model goes hand-in-hand with excellent financial performance. Paul was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel which developed the Sustainable Development Goals, and as an active SDG Advocate he continues to work with global organizations and across industry to push the 2030 development agenda.
Bobby Sager
Bobby Sager is an American photographer, writer, activist, and entrepreneur. He was a driving force behind the spectacular growth of Gordon Brothers Group, a global financial services business with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. One of Gordon Brothers’ acquisitions was Polaroid. Bobby served as the Chairman of the Board during its incredible resurgence.
Bobby was a founding Chairman for the YPO Peace Action Network and the moderator of the American Arab Action Forum. Bobby was also the first ever recipient of the YPO Global Humanitarian Award and YPO’s most prestigious Hickok Award for distinguished service.
In 2000, Bobby, along with his wife, Elaine, and kids, Tess and Shane, founded the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow. They have established their own special brand of hands-on, eyeball-to-eyeball philanthropy by actually living in the communities they are trying to help. Initiatives include fostering entrepreneurship in Rwanda with microlending banks and a groundbreaking program that teaches Western science to Tibetan monks and nuns in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Bobby’s philanthropy served as the inspiration for the NBC 8-part primetime television drama The Philanthropist.
Bobby is the author of “Power of the Invisible Sun” (Chronicle Books, 2009), a book about the power of hope, thankfulness and his unique approach to making a difference. In his new book, “Invisible Sun” (Rizzoli, 2019) Bobby has refined his ideas and added new images from places that were okay a decade ago but now most certainly are not. But the underlying theme remains the same: the power of hope and gratitude as seen through the eyes of some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Sting
Sting is an English musician, singer, songwriter, actor. He was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for rock band the Police, and launched a solo career in 1985. As a musician, he has received 17 Grammy Awards. Sting is also a philanthropist in causes from environmentalism to human rights.
Eric Yuan
Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 to deliver happiness and bring teams together in a frictionless video environment. Zoom’s video-first unified communications platform continues to dramatically transform the way leading global enterprises communicate. Under Yuan’s leadership, Zoom was one of the highest-performing tech IPOs of 2019. Prior to founding Zoom, Yuan was corporate vice president of engineering at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco’s collaboration software development. Yuan was one of the founding engineers and vice president of engineering at Webex. Yuan has been named one of the Most Powerful People in Enterprise Tech by Business Insider. In 2018, he was named the #1 CEO of a large U.S. company by Glassdoor and EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California (software category). In 2019, he was added to the Bloomberg 50 as a leader who changed the game in global business.
VIDEO
2020 European Impact Summit
Meet the EIS20 Advisory board
Oleg Volkosh, Event champion
Oleg Volkosh is President of Mediaplus Group Russia, the largest independent and innovative media agency in Europe with its headquarters in Munich and offices in the biggest countries in the world. In 2012, Volkosh joined YPO. In 2018 he joined the YPO Europe Board and Executive Committee and became the first YPO Impact Officer in Europe.
Sivaaji De Zoysa, Event champion
Sivaaji De Zoysa, CEO of Gaia Investments Pvt. Ltd., comes from two highly respected and established families responsible for pioneering various industries, professions and sectors in the country as well as being involved in many philanthropic activities. In a personal capacity, Sivaaji set up an NGO in 2005 soon after the tsunami ravaged in Sri Lanka, the Education Rehabilitation Monitor (TERM) helped the government raise almost $400 million for the affected education system. He continues to devote much of his time in philanthropic activities.
Frits Bussemaker
Chairman, Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age (I4ADA)
Andy Chen
President – IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society
Stephen Ibaraki
Chair, REDDS Capital; Chair, Advisory Board
Chaesub Lee
Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
Ana Maria Meshkurti
ITU-T Events Management
Neil Sahota
Chief Innovator Officer, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Reinhard Scholl
Deputy to the Director of the ITU
Gerassimos Spyridakis
EIS Chair of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships