Simons & Swaniker Honoured by World Economic Forum

Two high-flying and global award-winning Ghanaians, Bright Simons and Fred Swaniker, have been honoured with the title of “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum - the world’s most prestigious organisation - which organises the famous Davos conference every year.

*In an announcement embargoed till 6th March 2012*, Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said – “This honour is bestowed by the World Economic Forum each year to recognize the most distinguished young leaders nominated below the age of 40 from around the world.”

It also said: “The Selection Committee, chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, chose [the Young Global Leaders] after carefully screening the profiles of thousands of young leaders from every region of the world and from a myriad of disciplines and sectors. [Their] nomination is in recognition of [their] record of professional accomplishments, [their] commitment to society and [their] potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through [their] inspiring leadership.”

The list of Young Global Leaders ( http://www.weforum.org/community/forum-young-global-leaders#) includes such globally famous personalities as: Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Ken Ofori-Atta, co-founder of DataBank, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook; Larry Page, co-founder of Google; and Anousheh Ansari, the first female private astronaut or space tourist.

Bright Simons is the President of the Mpedigree Network – www.mpedigree.net– and Frank Swaniker is the co-Founder of the African Leadership Academy - www.africanleadershipacademy.org – in Ghana and South Africa respectively. They also have other high profile roles and positions. Swaniker is a co-founder of the prestigious Africa Leadership Network and Simons is a well-known researcher at IMANI Center for Policy & Education, an award-winning policy analysis center.

It may be recalled that Bright Simons won several awards last year for his invention of a mobile-phone platform for detecting fake medicines and Fred Swaniker was recently named by Forbes.com amongst the 10 youngest “power men” in Africa.

Both gentlemen have also been honoured as TED Fellows - an honorary award program of TED (www.ted.com/fellows ). The TED Fellows program is “designed to bring together young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage.”

The two gentlemen are being honoured by the world economic forum alongside 12 other Africans.

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