Asia Society Announces 2010-11 Fellows Class of Asia 21 Young Leaders
Asia Society Announces 2010-11 Fellows Class of Asia 21 Young Leaders
19 Fellows selected representing 16 countries
New York, January 27, 2010 – The Asia Society today announced the names of its 2010-2011 Class of Asia Society Asia 21 Fellows, a total of 19 next generation leaders from 16 countries in the Asia Pacific region. The Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative, established by the Asia Society with support from Founding International Sponsor Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the pre-eminent leadership development program in the Asia-Pacific region for emerging leaders under the age of 40.
Representing a broad range of sectors, the Fellows will come together three times during their Fellowship year to address topics relating to environmental degradation, economic development, poverty eradication, universal education, conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS and public health crises, human rights, and other issues. They will meet twice at the Asia 21 Young Leaders Forum, and once at the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit, set to be held in late 2010. The first meeting of the 2010-2011 Class will be held in Florida from February 28 to March 3, 2010 where they will participate in a series of meetings designed to generate creative, shared approaches to leadership and problem solving and develop collaborative public service projects.
The Class includes an Iranian journalist and filmmaker whose detention after last year’s Iranian elections led to a major international campaign for his release, one of the leading environmental lawyers in China, and an astronaut trainer. “The Asia Society Asia 21 Fellows are among the most outstanding young leaders in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Asia Society Executive Vice President Jamie Metzl. “The Asia Society has selected them so they can educate and inspire each other to be better leaders and work with each other and the five hundred other members of the Asia 21 community to help build a stronger, better, and more secure Asia-Pacific community.”
The 21 young leaders chosen for this year’s class of Asia 21 Fellows are:
Iva Aminuddin (Singapore)
Maziar Bahari (Iran)
Satchit Balsari (India)
John Ciorciari (USA)
Michael Fenzel (USA)
Bhavani Fonseka (Sri Lanka)
Shinichiro Fukushige (Japan)
Jaime Enrique Gonzalez (Philippines)
Mike Joo (South Korea)
Lifan Li (China)
Batchimeg Migeddorj (Mongolia)
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (Pakistan)
Nilofar Sakhi (Afghanistan)
Durreen Shahnaz (Bangladesh)
Sabrina Singh (USA)
Lia Sunarjo (Indonesia)
Ruth Yeoh (Malaysia)
Jingjing Zhang (China)
Min Zin (Myanmar)
Brief bios of each Fellow are in the attached .pdf file. For more information about Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative including details about previous conferences and Fellows, please visit www.AsiaSociety.org/Asia21