Wawira Njiru

Wawira Njiru is a social innovator reimagining how the world invests in the next generation.

As the founder and CEO of Food4Education, a not-for-profit social enterprise accelerating Africa's school feeding economy, she is helping redefine how governments, philanthropists, and institutions invest in one of the world's most important assets: children.

Through Wawira's leadership, F4E brings together the reach of government, the discipline of business, and clarity of mission to deliver school feeding as economic infrastructure: an engine for jobs, farmer livelihoods, local markets, and human capital that determines the future.

What began in 2012 as a passion project feeding 25 children has grown to more than 200 million meals served and counting, with more than 6,000 people employed across Kenya. Today, Food4Education's blueprint is being adapted by governments across Africa, grounded in local realities, owned by communities, and sustained through public investment.

A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and TED Global speaker, Wawira has been honored widely for her work, from the Skoll Award to the Audacious Project. She is driven by one conviction: that investing in the next generation is one of the smartest choices any society can make.

Gisèle Pelicot

Gisèle Pelicot has become an international symbol of courage and dignity in the fight against sexual violence. She came to global attention during a landmark criminal trial in 2024 involving her ex-husband and dozens of co-defendants who were found guilty of raping and sexually abusing her over a ten-year period while she was repeatedly drugged without her knowledge.

Choosing to waive her legal right to anonymity, Pelicot insisted that the trial be public, arguing that shame should belong to perpetrators, not victims. Her determination and composure transformed her into a powerful advocate for survivors and sparked worldwide conversations about consent, rape culture, and survivors’ rights.

The case contributed to a national debate on sexual violence in France, helping drive changes to the legal definition of rape. Pelicot has since received numerous honours, including the Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award, France's Légion d'honneur, and Spain's Encomienda of the Order of Civil Merit. She was also named one of TIME's Women of the Year and included in the BBC 100 Women list, The Independent's and the Financial Times' lists of the world's most influential women.

Her memoir, A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides, was published around the world in February 2026 and became an instant New York Times and international bestseller. The New Yorker and The Economist have already selected it as one of its Best Books of 2026.

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Indigenous rights, and environmental protection. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. In April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award. She also received the SAG Life Achievement Award in February 2025.

She lent her voice to ‘Grandmama’ in DreamWorks’ animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Before that, Fonda starred in Focus Features’ Book Club 2, Paramount Pictures' 80 for Brady, and Paul Weitz for Roadside Attraction's Moving On. Other notable credits include Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s longest-running original series, for which she received an Emmy nomination. She also released Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism.

Fonda continues to fight for democratic justice via her relaunch of The Committee for the First Amendment, rallying figures of all fields to stand up for our first amendment rights. Fonda also leads the charge on raising awareness and action for the climate emergency via the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry. Her latest book, What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action, details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Fonda also fiercely raises awareness and funds for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP), focused on the well-being and success of Georgia youth.

The Honourable Mia Amor
Mottley, SC, MP.

The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, S.C., M.P., is Barbados’ eighth Prime Minister, Political Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), and Member of Parliament for Saint Michael North East. She has responsibility for Economic Affairs and Development and for National Security.

Born on 1 October 1965, Prime Minister Mottley first assumed office on 25 May 2018, becoming the first woman to lead the country. She was appointed for a third term on 12 February 2026, after leading the BLP to a third consecutive clean sweep of all 30 parliamentary seats. She has represented the constituency for eight consecutive terms since 1994.

An Attorney-at-Law and Senior Counsel called to the Bar in England, Wales and Barbados, she became Barbados’ youngest Queen’s Counsel and its first female Attorney General. She also led Barbados’ transition to a Parliamentary Republic in 2021.

Internationally, Prime Minister Mottley is a leading voice for small island developing states, climate justice, debt sustainability and reform of the international financial architecture. The retreat she convened in Bridgetown in July 2022 gave rise to the Bridgetown Initiative, advancing more responsive, affordable and equitable development and climate finance for vulnerable countries.

As CARICOM’s Lead Head of Government for the Single Market and Economy, including Monetary Union, she champions regional integration. She chairs the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance and the Barbados Presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and Vulnerable Twenty.

She was named UNEP Champion of the Earth for Policy Leadership and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, and received the WHO Director-General’s Award for Global Health, the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity and the TIME Earth Award. Her leadership remains grounded in service to Barbados, Caribbean unity and a fairer, more resilient global order.

Lynsey Addario

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist who has been covering conflict, humanitarian crises, and women’s issues across the Middle East and Africa on assignment for The Atlantic, The New York Times, and National Geographic for more than two decades. Since September 11, 2001, Addario has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Darfur, South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Syria, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Twice kidnapped, she has risked her life to document the stark realities of war. Traveling to the most dangerous and remote corners of the world, Addario creates visual testimony through her photographs—not only of war and injustice, but also of humanity, dignity, and resilience.

In 2015, American Photo magazine named Addario one of the five most influential photographers of the previous 25 years, saying she changed the way we see the world’s conflicts.

A MacArthur Fellow, Addario was a contributor to two Pulitzer Prizes for Overseas Reporting with The New York Times team—for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009 and the war in Ukraine in 2023. She was a Pulitzer finalist for Feature Photography in 2025 and a finalist in Breaking News Photography from Ukraine in 2023. She has received numerous honors, including the President’s Award from the Overseas Press Club and two Emmy nominations, and was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.

Addario is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir It’s What I Do, published in 2015, which chronicles her personal and professional life as a photojournalist coming of age in the post-9/11 world. In 2018, she released her first solo collection of photography, Of Love and War. Her life and work are the subject of the feature documentary Love+War.