Top CEOs join panel to discuss global youth initiative

Top executives from major companies around the world, including Uber, Chobani, Hyperloop and Acumen came together this week to discuss the role of global youth in the future of the economy.

The panel, which was hosted by the Misk Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic foundation established in 2011 by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman, at Bloomberg’s Global Business Forum in New York, was designed to figure out ways to empower young people to become more active players in the way the world does business.

The event drew top CEOs, including Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, Chobani’s Hamdi Ulukaya, Acumen’s Jacqueline Novogratz, Endeavor’s Linda Rottenberg and Hyperloop co-founder Josh Giegel.

Ulukaya urged young people not to “become like us” but to “stay who they are,” while touting his yogurt company as similar to the United Nations with 30 percent of its workforce refugees and immigrants.

Rottenberg added that the biggest risk for today’s youth is “not taking any risk at all.” She spoke about the need to marry technology with real-life problems, such as farmers using mobile phones to gain access to real markets, and the importance of localizing global innovations.

The Misk Foundation announced earlier this week that it has signed a new agreement to become a pioneering partner for the United Nation’s global youth group.