Imani Duncan-Price Selected as a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum

Senator Imani Duncan-Price joins an illustrious group of 187 entrepreneurial luminaries across the private, public and social sectors who have been selected to become the 2015 Young Global Leaders (YGL) of the World Economic Forum. Each year, a group of influential professionals under the age of 40 are chosen from across the globe to participate in a community that actively helps to shape current world affairs. Duncan-Price is the only candidate selected from the Caribbean to represent the YGL this year, and she is extremely proud of this accomplishment.

"I am so excited to be a part of this group," she declared enthusiastically. "This is a great chance for me to further improve my leadership skills while meeting other like-minded people who want to help change the world. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am honoured to be a part of something that has the potential to create an incredible impact on the global agenda. I am looking forward to gaining as much as I can from this experience so that I can continue to contribute to Jamaica's development and growth in the best way possible."

Duncan-Price first rose to the national stage when she won the prestigious Miss Jamaica World Pageant in the year 1995. Her passion for business, social development and economics led her to pursue a bachelor of arts at Wesleyan University in economics, philosophy, government and history, followed by a masters in public administration in international development at Harvard University.

Accomplishments

She has collected a wealth of experience throughout her impeccable career. She has worked with the Boston-based OntheFrontier as a management consultant on competitiveness and growth in developing countries, including the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Rwanda; served on the board of directors of the Development Bank of Jamaica, formerly owned and operated the luxury adventure destination management company My Tropic Escape, co-founded the Caribbean Policy Research Institute and served as group marketing manager of the JMMB Group. She is currently an appointed member of the Government Senate, the group chief strategy officer of JMMB, board director of the Youth Upliftment Through Employment programme, vice-chairman of the Kingston YMCA and a director of the National Parenting Support Commission.

This year's selection of YGLs will engage with a community that has grown immensely since it was first established in 2005. The 2015 group of YGLs will include 23 individuals from East Asia, 17 from Greater China, 13 from Latin America (including Duncan-Price from the Caribbean), 39 from Europe, 15 from the Middle East and North Africa, 17 from Sub-Saharan Africa, 19 from South Asia and 44 from North America. These 187 honorees were chosen from a pool of more than 2,000 remarkable people who were evaluated by a committee chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

"The YGLs include the world's most pioneering, next-generation leaders who have developed in their journey to produce positive, tangible impacts in their countries, industries and societies," said John Dutton, director and head of the Young Global Leaders Community at the World Economic Forum. "The class of 2015, together with the community over the past 10 years, shows how the future of business and public leadership is becoming more gender-equal, more geographically diverse, more varied in its expertise and is challenging established ways to get things done."

notable YGL nominees

Other notable YGL nominees include David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom; Matteo Renzi, prime minister of Italy; Ashish J. Thakkar, founder and managing director, Mara Group, United Arab Emirates, and Naoko Yamazaki, astronaut and mission specialist on the crew of STS-131 Discovery, Japan.

Over the course of five years, Duncan-Price will partake in annual seminars and summits which will aid her development as a YGL and allow her to use her platform to help shape local, regional and global policies and change initiatives.

"I'm looking forward to the more intense learning and growing over the next five years - where you attend one or two seminars or learning opportunities, in each year, at some of the best schools around the world, as well as have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with other young leaders from various countries across the world at the regional and global YGL summits. This will certainly enable me to have an even better understanding of the latest global trends, identify opportunities for countries like Jamaica and share ideas for impact on the local and global level."