The World Economic Forum Names Mindmaze Founder Tej Tadi a Young Global Leader

The Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) is a unique, multistakeholder community of more than 900 exceptional young leaders.

The community is made up of leaders from all walks of life, from every region of the world and every stakeholder group in society. Nominated under 40, these young leaders are proposed through a qualified nomination process and assessed according to rigorous selection criteria that creates a diverse and truly representative body, while accepting only the very best leaders who have already demonstrated their commitment to serving society at large.

Set up as an independent, not-for-profit founda­tion under the Swiss government, the Forum of Young Global Leaders is an integral part of the World Economic Forum and part of the larger New Champions community. Throughout their six year tenure, YGLs are fully involved in the Forum’s meetings, initiatives and research and interact with the Forum’s wider multistakeholder community.

This year’s class of Young Global Leaders come from 66 countries and equally represent the public and private sector. Out of 187 YGLs honoured, half are women.

One Swiss entrepreneur was selected for the YGL this year: Tej Tadi. Tej Tadi, a neuroscientist, founded MindMaze in 2011 to develop technologies that help patients recover from brain injuries. In 2013 the EPFL spin-off successfully launched devices, which use virtual reality, brain imaging and gaming technologies to retrain the brain in stroke victims. Two weeks ago MindMaze caused a stir with the introduction of the industry's first thought-powered virtual reality (VR), augmented reality and motion capture game system

Tej Tadi is not the only interesting Swiss person on the list of the YGL. Stéphanie P. Lacour was also selected. She holds the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Neuroprosthetic Technology at the School of Engineering at EPFL. Her research focuses on the materials, technology and integration of soft bioelectronic interfaces including artificial skin, ultra-compliant neural electrodes for in vitro platforms as well as in vivo implants. The mission: to engineer and implement novel materials and technologies overcoming the “hard to soft” mechanical mismatch between man-made devices and biological tissues in order to provide improved biocompatibility and enhanced functionality of these hybrid interfaces.