Quotes and Comments

“As we look to the future, there is a pressing requirement for leaders who understand the challenge of creating a more sustainable world, and are capable of rising to it. Across the world, from Mexico to China, from India to Brazil, and from Europe to Africa, LEAD is working with young people of achievement in business, government, NGOs, media and academia to help create the successor generation which the planet needs.”

Lord Holme, Chairman, LEAD International

“LEAD’s innovative training programme enabled me to be an excellent negotiator, effective communicator, an articulated policy maker, and an efficient fundraiser…the high quality interactions with other LEAD Fellows have greatly influenced my approach to life.”

Deepak Apte, LEAD Fellow, India

“LEAD is an amazingly vibrant, enthusiastic and inspiring global network of people dedicated to sustainable development. To be a member of the LEAD family is a sign of dedication to what matters most – a better world for our children.”

Kristalina Georgieva, Director and Resident Representative of the World Bank in Russia

“Leadership in sustainable development, preparing young people to take on the complex task of learning to live sustainably on this planet, should be the cornerstone of what our generation can do to help the next generation meet these challenges.

LEAD has been at the forefront of that mission since its inception, providing a sense of direction and hope in the face of continuing ecological decline and worsening social injustice.”

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future, and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

“The LEAD experience generated a sense that I am capable of making change. Now I am expected to steer the company to becoming a role model in our industry”

Qasim Yunus, Engro chemicals, LEAD Fellow, Pakistan

“LEAD allowed me to step outside my ‘box’ and explore problems with professionals from other disciplines in ways no other experience has matched”

Lorena Martinez Gonzalez, Biologist Xochitla Foundation, LEAD Fellow, Mexico

“The LEAD network is an incredible talent bank of leaders from all over the world who know and care about sustainable development, and will bring those skills to government, NGOs and the private sector.”

Jonathan Lash, President The World Resources Institute Washington D.C.

“We constitute a virtual but real family of leaders that exists and will permanently support each other. How could one feel alone on the way to sustainable development when one knows that at least 1600 people around the world are there to give you their trust, support, advice and friendship. We graduate from LEAD as lifetime ambassadors of a new world without poverty, a world of justice, equity and peace.”

Awa Faly Ba, 2004 LEAD Fellow, Senegal

“Knowing that a new generation of leaders from the developing world and emerging markets are promoting sustainable development, helped by LEAD, gives me real hope for the future.”

Björn Stigson, President World Business Council for Sustainable Development

“After LEAD, I dared to accept the role ‘Minister of the Environment’ because I felt much more confident about an integral approach to environmental problems – and – crucially, capable to construct and to and solutions with other colleagues.”

Amparo Martinez-Arroyo, LEAD Fellow, Mexico