April 16, 2026 · Carlo Chen-Delantar has been named to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) Class of 2026, making him out of over 20 Filipinos in history to be given the prestigious recognition.
He joins a global community whose alumni include Amal Clooney, human rights lawyer and barrister; Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize in Economics laureate and MIT Professor; Lewis Pugh, Olympian and UN Patron of the Oceans; Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google; and Jack Ma, Co-Founder of Alibaba Group, among many others.
Chen-Delantar is the only Filipino in Young Global Leaders, Class of 2026. He follows a pattern of Filipino inductees with a track record of designing and implementing sustainable projects. Last year, Ann Dumaliang, Managing Trustee of Masungi Georeserve, was the only Filipino inducted in Young Global Leaders, Class of 2025.
The Young Global Leaders community, established by the World Economic Forum in 2004, selects fewer than 120 leaders under 40 each year from thousands of nominees worldwide.
The Class of 2026 comprises 118 leaders from 55 countries. Among Chen-Delantar’s co-inductees are Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir of Iceland, Tomas Okmanas of Lithuania, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nord Security, Dominican-American Olympic gold medallist Thea LaFond to Jennifer Zhang of Singapore, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WIZ.AI, and Ghanaian-American Professor Sally Nuamah of Northwestern University.
The cohort’s ambition and diversity reflects the Forum’s recognition that the defining challenges of this moment demand leaders who think and work across boundaries. Chen-Delantar’s inclusion places the Philippines in that conversation.
At the helm of sustainability and economic growth
Chen-Delantar is Partner and Head of Sustainability at Gobi Partners, a venture capital firm managing US$1.7 billion across 20 funds with over 400 portfolio companies. Since 2021, he has directly overseen the deployment of over US$200 million in capital across 17 Asian markets. He is the first from the venture capital sector with a dedicated sustainability mandate to join the Young Global Leaders community.
Chen-Delantar’s background is in working with communities on the ground. As Founding Country Director and now Chairperson of Waves for Water Philippines, he helped extend clean water access to over two million Filipinos in communities, earning both the Presidential Development Award and the Presidential Bayanihan Award.
Internationally, he has represented the Philippines at WEF convenings including the Annual Meeting in Davos and the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honoree, an Ellen MacArthur Foundation alumnus, and served as co-chair of the WEF Global Shapers Climate Action Steering Committee from 2018 to 2021.
Chen-Delantar has spent his career building the case that sustainability and economic growth are not competing forces. Back in 2018, he pioneered Circulo, the Philippines’ first circular economyCircular Design & EconomyCircular EconomyAn economic system designed so materials stay in use — repaired, reused, remanufactured, recycled — instead of flowing from extraction to disposal.Read more in the Glossary → initiative, funded by the British Council through the Circular Futures Lab with Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Circulo now operates under Sustina, where Chen-Delantar sits on the board.
