Cape Town – Two South Africans top an impressive list of leaders that millennials around the world admire: former president Nelson Mandela at number one and Elon Musk at number three.
A survey of over 1 000 young people aged between 20 and 30 from around the globe finds that millennials admire leaders that offer technology and social change in the world.
Three of the world’s leading technology brains revealed their importance to millennial thinking, with Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX fame leading the pack that includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates (five) and Apple founder Steve Jobs (eight).
Other business leaders that millennials admired included Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson (seven), investor guru Warren Buffett (11) and social entrepreneur Mohammad Yunus (nine), who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and for their work to “create economic and social development from below”.
Mandela topped the list of political movers and shakers that included Mahatma Gandhi (four), US President Barack Obama (six) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 is one of the most geographically diverse surveys of millennials, with responses from 125 countries worldwide and 285 cities. The respondents are all members of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, a network of over 450 city-based hubs of young, civically engaged leaders aged between 20 and 30.
“The Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 reveals that millennials care about society in their reflections and also in their own career and economic choices. In addition to the diversity that we observe, the survey reminds us of those things that millennials value everywhere,” said Yemi Babington-Ashaye, Head of the Global Shapers Community, World Economic Forum.
The Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 is released on the eve of the Summit on the Global Agenda.
