Thomas Roulet named Co-Chair of World Economic Forum leadership panel

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has named Thomas Roulet, Professor of Organisational Sociology and Leadership at Cambridge Judge Business School and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, as Co-Chair of the Global Future Council on Leadership, which will inform new leadership approaches including how a new generation of leaders is selected and developed.

The new Global Futures Council on Leadership includes members from political, business and public spheres, including Jean Daniel LaRock, President and CEO at Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship; Irina Lachowski, board member at educational leadership organisation RenovaBR; Raju Narisetti, Leader, Global Publishing at McKinsey; and Judy Sikuza, CEO at the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, among others.

Broader Global Future Councils initiative looks at issues ranging from AI to good governance

The Global Future Council on Leadership is part of a broader Global Future Councils initiative at the WEF, whose work will continue through December 2026. Other Councils focus on areas such as artificial general intelligence, cybersecurity, data equity, government technology and good governance. Simon Learmount, Associate Professor in Corporate Governance at Cambridge Judge, and like Thomas a member of the Organisational Theory and Information Systems subject group at the Business School, is a member of the Global Future Council on Climate and Nature Governance. The full Global Future Councils convenes once a year in the United Arab Emirates for the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils to contribute to network-wide outputs and the wider Forum agenda.

“Trust in leadership has eroded over the last decade,” says Thomas. “This situation requires new ways to think about how we develop leaders and encourage them to act, whether they are political, business or third sector leaders.

“The World Economic Forum has a long history of developing responsible leaders in particular through its Forum of Young Global Leaders. This Global Future Council is uniquely placed to curate insights from experienced and innovative leaders, and translate those insights into concrete actions. We will be presenting early findings at the annual meeting of the WEF’s Global Future Councils in Davos in January 2026.”

Today’s leaders face complex web of challenges

The World Economic Forum said of the new Global Future Council on Leadership:

“Global leadership faces a crisis, and research demonstrates that distrust of leadership is prevalent in the majority of global society, identifying failing leadership and declining institutional trust as endemic trends in socio-political crises worldwide. As today’s leaders face a complex web of interconnected challenges, understanding the role of effective leadership in improving the state of the world has never been more important. 

“How can we nurture and deploy effective leadership to rebuild trust, decrease polarisation, and address global challenges in an increasingly complex world?”