Business Engagement Session: Sustainable Leadership in the Digital Age – Shaping the Future of Business

Summary

This panel discussion at the Internet Governance Forum focused on sustainable leadership in the digital age, exploring how leaders must adapt to navigate complex challenges including geopolitical shifts, technological disruption, climate change, and generational differences. The moderator, Rajendra Gupta, emphasized that modern leaders face unprecedented complexity, noting how technology updates now occur every three weeks rather than every three years, and announced his company’s innovative decision to include AI as a board member.

The distinguished panel of global leaders shared diverse perspectives on essential leadership qualities for the digital era. Rosemarie McClean, CEO of the UN Joint Pension Fund, emphasized the importance of humility, emotional intelligence, and empowering staff to contribute to decision-making, particularly highlighting how younger employees often possess advanced digital skills. She shared her organization’s successful implementation of blockchain technology for pensioner verification during COVID-19, demonstrating how crisis can drive innovation when leaders are willing to take calculated risks with emerging technologies.

Cheryl Miller from the US Council for International Business stressed the need for strategic vision, community engagement, and the humility to acknowledge knowledge gaps while building strong advisory teams. She discussed AI as a general-purpose technology comparable to electricity, emphasizing the importance of addressing foundational issues like connectivity and energy access before implementing advanced AI solutions.

Dr. Erica Moret from Microsoft highlighted sustainability as a fundamental business principle, describing leadership as empowerment with purpose and showcasing innovative projects like AI-enabled biodiversity monitoring in remote areas. Gabriella Marcelja emphasized flexibility, prioritization, and the power of human capital in driving innovation, noting that “ideas walk with the legs of people.” Dr. Jimson Olufuye brought an African perspective, emphasizing passion, vision, and the importance of public-private partnerships in bridging digital divides.

The discussion revealed consensus on several key themes: the critical importance of public-private collaboration, the need for leaders to embrace continuous learning, and the necessity of balancing technological advancement with human-centered approaches. Panelists agreed that no single organization can address complex global challenges alone, making multi-stakeholder partnerships essential. The conversation concluded with one-word leadership advice ranging from “humility” and “diversity” to “focus” and understanding “the value of time,” reinforcing that sustainable leadership in the digital age requires both technological savvy and fundamental human qualities.

Keypoints

## Major Discussion Points:

– **Defining Sustainable Leadership in the Digital Age**: Panelists explored how leadership must evolve to address multiple dimensions including geopolitical landscapes, technology disruption, governance changes (including AI as board members), global warming, and generational shifts, while balancing shareholder interests with long-term planetary and social goals.

– **Technology Implementation and Innovation**: Real-world examples of digital transformation were shared, particularly the UN pension fund’s successful blockchain implementation during COVID-19 for proof-of-life verification, demonstrating how crisis can drive innovation and how leaders must be willing to take calculated risks with emerging technologies.

– **Public-Private Collaboration and Multi-stakeholder Engagement**: Discussion emphasized that no single organization can tackle complex sustainability challenges alone, highlighting the critical importance of partnerships across sectors, with examples from Microsoft’s climate initiatives and various international cooperation efforts.

– **Leadership Qualities for Digital Transformation**: Key attributes identified included humility, emotional intelligence, flexibility, passion, the ability to delegate decision-making, willingness to learn continuously, and creating collaborative cultures that empower teams and embrace diverse perspectives across generations.

– **AI’s Role in Sustainable Development**: Examination of artificial intelligence as both an opportunity and challenge, requiring leaders to balance innovation with responsibility, address digital divides, manage energy consumption, and ensure inclusive access while leveraging AI for environmental and social good.

## Overall Purpose:

The discussion aimed to create a practical template for current leaders in both government and private sectors on how to prepare themselves, their organizations, and their teams to embrace sustainable leadership in the digital age, with a focus on actionable strategies for implementing technology-driven solutions while maintaining social and environmental responsibility.

## Overall Tone:

The discussion maintained a consistently collaborative and optimistic tone throughout. It began with academic framing but quickly became practical and solution-oriented as panelists shared real-world experiences. The atmosphere was respectful and inclusive, with speakers building on each other’s points rather than debating. The tone became increasingly inspirational toward the end, particularly during the audience Q&A session where participants expressed appreciation for the insights shared, culminating in motivational one-word takeaways that emphasized humility, diversity, and impactful action.

Speakers

**Speakers from the provided list:**

– **Rajendra Gupta** – Moderator/Chair, CEO of Digital Health Associates, has experience in innovation and leadership

– **Rosemarie McClean** – Chief Executive Officer of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, over three decades of experience

– **Erica Moret** – Former diplomat and Director of United Nations and International Relations at Microsoft, PhD from Oxford, graduate from France’s Ecole Nationale de l’Administration

– **Gabriella Marcelja** – CEO of SG Impact Ventures, over three decades of experience in academic diplomacy, worked across sectors

– **Jimson Olufuye** – Principal Consultant at Contemporary Consulting Limited (Abuja, Nigeria), former Chair of Information Technology Association of Nigeria, former President (2007-2011), founder of AFRICTA (Africa ICT Alliance)

– **Cheryl Miller** – Representative from U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB), member of the MAG at IGF, focuses on digital policy and AI, former employee at Verizon

– **Reyansh Gupta** – From Dynamic Coalition on Gaming for Purpose

– **Eliamani Isaya Laltaika** – Judge of the High Court of Tanzania

– **Armado Espinoza** – Private sector representative from Latin America

**Additional speakers:**

– **Roman** – IGF Secretariat member (mentioned briefly)

– **Dino** – Audience member (mentioned briefly by moderator)

# Sustainable Leadership in the Digital Age: Panel Discussion Report

## Executive Summary

This Internet Governance Forum panel discussion explored sustainable leadership in the digital age, bringing together global leaders from the United Nations, private sector, government, and civil society. Moderated by Rajendra Gupta, CEO of Digital Health Associates, the session examined how leaders must navigate multiple challenges including geopolitical shifts, technology disruption, governance changes, climate change, economic inequality, and evolving generational dynamics.

The moderator opened by highlighting the accelerating pace of change, noting how Microsoft updates that once took three years (1995-1998) now occur in three weeks. He also announced his company’s innovative decision to include artificial intelligence as a board member, illustrating the need for new approaches to organizational governance.

## Key Participants and Their Contributions

### Rosemarie McClean – UN Joint Staff Pension Fund

As CEO of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, McClean emphasized humility and continuous learning as essential leadership qualities. She shared a compelling case study of implementing blockchain technology during COVID-19 for proof-of-life verification when mail services were disrupted. The initiative achieved almost 60% adoption among pensioners, including centenarians, and won the Secretary General’s award for sustainability and innovation.

McClean highlighted the CARE strategy at the UN pension fund and stressed the importance of empowering staff, particularly recognizing that younger employees often possess advanced digital skills that benefit entire organizations.

### Cheryl Miller – US Council for International Business

Drawing from her experience at Verizon and as a MAG (Multistakeholder Advisory Group) member, Miller characterized artificial intelligence as a “general-purpose technology” comparable to electricity. She emphasized addressing infrastructure gaps before implementing advanced technologies, noting that AI deployment requires significant energy and connectivity investments.

Miller shared the story of the “One World Connected” project, which began as an idea sketched on a napkin, demonstrating how simple concepts can evolve into major initiatives. Her leadership philosophy stressed building strong advisory teams and “looking before you jump” in decision-making.

### Dr. Erica Moret – Microsoft

As former diplomat and Director of United Nations and International Relations at Microsoft, Moret focused on sustainability as a core business principle. She outlined Microsoft’s environmental commitments to become carbon negative, water positive, and achieve zero waste by 2030.

Moret highlighted innovative projects including AI-enabled biodiversity monitoring through Project Sparrow and Microsoft’s Airband initiative to bring digital connectivity to a quarter billion people. Her approach emphasized “empowerment with purpose” and balancing technological advancement with social and environmental impact.

### Gabriella Marcelja – SG Impact Ventures

As CEO with over three decades of experience in academic diplomacy, Marcelja emphasized human capital in organizational transformation, noting that “ideas walk with the legs of people.” She highlighted generational differences in communication styles, work ethics, and technology attitudes that require flexible leadership approaches.

Marcelja advocated for moving away from traditional top-down leadership models toward more collaborative structures and offered to work on developing a “supply chain of knowledge management for future leaders.”

### Dr. Jimson Olufuye – Contemporary Consulting Limited

Based in Abuja, Nigeria, and former Chair of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria, Olufuye brought African perspectives to the discussion. He emphasized vision, passion, and focus in leadership while highlighting technology’s potential to address governance challenges, particularly corruption.

Olufuye discussed his work with AFRICTA (Africa ICT Alliance), expanding from 6 to 43 countries, and referenced the Global Digital Compact (GDC). He framed business and government as “partners in progress” and noted that “we all have the same DNA running within us,” providing a moral foundation for leadership responsibility.

## Key Themes and Insights

### Essential Leadership Qualities

All panelists emphasized humility as fundamental to modern leadership. McClean noted that leaders must acknowledge they “likely don’t have all the answers,” while Miller stressed building strong advisory teams to address knowledge gaps. Emotional intelligence and the ability to manage diverse, multigenerational teams also emerged as critical competencies.

### Technology Implementation and Digital Transformation

Real-world examples illustrated successful digital transformation approaches. McClean’s blockchain implementation demonstrated how crisis can drive innovation when leaders embrace calculated risks. Miller’s emphasis on infrastructure-first approaches and Moret’s examples of AI for environmental conservation showed how technology can serve broader purposes beyond immediate business objectives.

### Collaboration and Multi-Stakeholder Engagement

Panelists agreed on the critical importance of cross-sector collaboration. Olufuye’s framing of business and government as “partners in progress” and Marcelja’s observation that “no single organization can tackle all problems” reinforced the necessity of multi-stakeholder approaches to complex challenges.

### Environmental Sustainability

Environmental considerations were woven throughout the discussion, with Gupta noting that “every digital activity has a carbon footprint.” Moret’s detailed description of Microsoft’s environmental commitments provided concrete examples of embedding sustainability into core business operations, while Olufuye emphasized e-waste management and circular economy principles.

## Audience Engagement

The session included questions from audience members, including Reyansh Gupta asking about conflicts in AI adoption and Judge Eliamani Isaya Laltaika emphasizing the need for these insights to reach government officials more broadly.

Roman from the IGF Secretariat committed to making the session available on YouTube for wider dissemination.

## Closing Advice

Each panelist offered one-word leadership advice:

– Miller: “Look before you jump”

– McClean: “Be humble and be willing to listen”

– Marcelja: “Focus on impactful people”

– Moret: “Diversity”

– Olufuye: “Understand the value of time”

## Conclusion

The panel demonstrated that sustainable leadership in the digital age requires balancing technological innovation with human values, environmental responsibility with economic objectives, and global perspectives with local implementation. The discussion highlighted the need for leaders who can navigate complexity with humility, embrace collaboration across sectors, and maintain focus on long-term sustainability while managing immediate operational demands.

The panelists’ diverse experiences and perspectives reinforced that while contexts may vary, core leadership principles of humility, collaboration, and commitment to broader societal benefit transcend sectoral boundaries and represent essential requirements for effective leadership in our interconnected digital world.

Rajendra Gupta: And I think there are multiple dimensions to what a leader of today needs to look at. There is a geopolitical landscape, very, very important. Technology disruption. I will still quote between 1995 and 1998, I waited for Microsoft for the new version, three years to get Microsoft 95 to 98. Now it’s three weeks, you get an update. There’s a governance. In fact, I would be very happy to announce today in the company that I run, Digital Health Associates, we are changing the governance to a level where AI would be a board member. We are changing to that level, how technology is shaping AI, we would be having AI as a board member. Global warming, everything we do today has a carbon footprint. Every digital activity has a carbon footprint. And then as we advance, the GDP grows, the divide also grows. And I think last, what we were not waiting was Gen Beta. So we had all the combinations that the CEO of today has to be mindful of when they plan for their organizations. And I think earlier, we looked at the triple bottom line, which has eventually translated into the ESG, which is very important. And sustainable leadership is a very important topic. So on one side, you have to take care of your shareholders and investors. And the other side, you have to look at long term value, taking care of the financial goals, planetary goals, and you have to plan intergenerational, any action that we take today, should make sure we made a positive impact for the next generation. And when I got this document, for the session brief, it was mind boggling. I thought how will we cover so many topics in 60 minutes, but they gave me a wonderful panel of global leaders. I can bet you this is the most powerful panel in this convention hall. And I must introduce the people whom you’re going to listen to, their personalities. Ms. Rosemarie McClean, Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Administration and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. She has over three decades of experience. Dr. Erica Moret, former diplomat and Director of the United Nations and International Relations at Microsoft. And she has a PhD from Oxford and is a graduate from France, Ecole Nationale de l’Administration. Ms. abriella Marcelja, sorry if I mispronounced your name, CEO of the SG Impact Ventures. Again, she comes with over three decades of experience and academic diplomacy and worked across sectors. Dr. Jimson Olufoy, Principal Consultant, Contemporary Consulting, and again with over three decades of experience. So with this distinguished panel, what I thought was that I should ask each of my expert panelists what they think about this topic, the theme. And the end game of this session is to come out with a template for the current leaders, whether in government or in private, of how they should prepare themselves, their organizations, their teams to embrace the future we are going to create. So with this, I move to Ms. Rosemary McLean to put her opening remarks as this session. Over to you.

Rosemarie McClean: Thank you very much. I think this is a critically important topic because sustainable leadership in the digital age is going to require leaders to think differently. And I think what’s really important is that leaders look at it from the perspective of learning and growing. So they need to recognize that they likely don’t have all the answers and need to be humble enough to admit that and know that they need to do some learning to really be able to thrive in the digital age. And I also think emotional intelligence will also be really critical because at the end of the day, we still manage people and those people also have changing needs. They are expecting a collaborative culture where they can thrive and all levels in the organization want to be heard and they want a say in how their work is done and they want to play a role in making decisions. And in fact, some of those lower levels may have the most advanced perspective when it comes to digital aptitudes. So I think it’s going to be really important for leaders to think about how they can delegate decision-making down if you want to retain the top talent that is increasingly a challenge in a competitive market. So let me just spend a minute or two explaining the journey that we’ve been on at UNJSPF, the UN’s pension fund. Back in early 2000, when I first joined the fund, I saw a fund that had no strategy and no direction. And so together with the senior management team, we set about to establish an inspiring vision and an implementation path that would put greater emphasis on this digital component and review our processes and look for opportunities where we could digitize existing processes and focus on becoming much more sustainable and much more focused on being a paperless environment. And so that led to the conclusion that we needed to be more data-driven in terms of our decision-making, being very consistent with the global digital impact. And I can explain in greater detail later on some of the early achievements of that strategy. But I think just in summary, I think leaders need to recognize that they need to change, they need to learn, and they need to give their staff a greater voice in how work is done.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, Ms. Rosemary. And I missed mentioning Cheryl Miller, who is with us from the U.S. Council for International Business. Cheryl, how do you define leadership and sustainability in the digital age?

Cheryl Miller: Thank you so much. So I just wanted to introduce USCIB for those who might be less familiar with what we are and what we do. So we’re a business association. We have special standing with UNESCO and other agencies within the United Nations, and we really work closely with the United Nations to allow business to have conversations with governments about important issues like this. I’m also a member of the MAG here at the IGF, and so I’m really pleased to see that sustainability has taken on this track. I think it’s a really important topic. I want to give a caveat. I am not a sustainability expert per se. Digital policy is my focus, but our organization does have a number of really talented experts in the field. So if you guys have more in-depth follow-up questions on anything, I can connect you with them. For me, leadership, I think from the get-go, you have to first have a strategic vision. You have to have a plan. And I agree with what was said by my fellow panelists. I do think that learning and growing is part of it. I think leaders need to get closer to their communities as well, especially when you’re in a larger organization. So I was once an employee at Verizon, and one of the things that was very interesting is that they would actually have us go into the field at times, and that’s when you really understand the connection of what’s happening with your technology and its impact. You get a different feel for it than being a lawyer working on policy, you know, in a closed room. Sometimes just being out there is part of it. I think also leadership, as was mentioned, there’s a humbleness to it. There’s an understanding that you don’t have all the answers. I think being able to create a really strong team of advisors is really important, depending on wherever you are within the business, having people who can really give you that important feedback. And I think you need to take a step back and think about the bigger picture. And for our member companies, the bigger picture is we always want to make sure that digital transformation benefits all. And a lot of what we do through USCIB and a lot of what we focused on with respect to our work on the MAG is making sure that we can have those conversations. I love the fact that we’re talking about this here because I think the Internet Governance Forum is such an important place to be able to have this type of a dialogue. I work on AI, but AI touches everything now. It touches sustainability, it touches skills, it touches healthcare, etc. And being able to come together in a place and learn from other experts, just from civil society, the technical community, etc., is really important. And so I’m really glad. And during my time at my different posts at other companies, coming here at the IGF actually, I believe, really did help to influence some of the corporate responsibility decisions and programs and sustainability programs that we were able to move forward because we were able to have these conversations. And perhaps that’s a little part of leadership as well, being able to roll up your sleeves and have the tough conversations that need to be had.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you, Sheryl. I like the way you put it and you made it very clear. And that also is a demonstration of a leadership ability that I do not have answers, all answers on sustainability. I’m not an expert. I think being frank and honest is one of the best qualities leaders can accept. And that’s where, you know, they can get the views from others because hardest thing today is leaders would not accept their weakness and the organizations become weak. With this, we move to our next panelist, Dr. Erica Moret. Dr. Erika, you have been a diplomat and you are in the corporate world.

Erica Moret: Sorry, apologies. I can’t hear very well with the echo. First of all, thank you very much for the kind invitation to join you today and to discuss what is an incredibly important topic. And I also welcome the efforts that IGF are making this year to highlight sustainability as a key issue and really look forward to seeing this being driven forward in future meetings. In my presentation today, I’ll try and reflect on leadership I’ve engaged in over the years in pretty much every sector and all different types of organizations, from running large teams in government, to establishing a dynamic female-led NGO in its early stages, to running large virtual teams that span different geographies, different sectors, different academic disciplines. And I’ll also try and reflect on my time in one of the biggest companies of the world, in Microsoft. So, I would first like to start by saying that sustainability in the digital age for us means building technology-enabled growth that’s inclusive, representative, and enduring. Microsoft views sustainability as a fundamental principle embedded in every aspect of business. This goes beyond just environmental initiatives, of which we have many. It’s about long-term thinking in all dimensions, environmental, social, economic, and so on. And in the context of rapid digital transformation, sustainability means ensuring that our progress, like scaling cloud data centers or AI systems, meets present needs without compromising future generations. Like our efforts to include a human rights focus in all levels of our work and across the company, we also support efforts to do the same when it comes to sustainability, across all the different activities that we do, and we work with our peers in encouraging and supporting the same types of efforts. Practically, it involves ambitious climate action, such as our own 2030 commitments to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste, and empowering others with technology to do the same. I’d also like to touch on the fact that leadership in the digital age is about empowerment and purpose. Microsoft defines its mission as empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, and in practical terms, this means a leader’s role today is to create a future that benefits everyone in leveraging digital technology to amplify human potential while holding a deep sense of responsibility. And I’d like to also highlight here that while technology, of course, can drive prosperity and economic growth, it can only do so if it’s guided by clear values and sustainability, human rights, and other legal considerations need to remain at the core here. I’d also say that inspiring collaboration across different sectors, across different geographical boundaries, also helps to create clarity and trust in an age that’s certainly overflowing with information and change. And I’d like to just finish here with one example of our work in data-driven solutions to some of the SDG efforts that we are engaging with in support of the United Nations and other actors around the world. And I’ll take a step back here and give an example of when I first started working. I was working in the field of biodiversity conservation, and we were trying to track jaguar conservation using an extremely rudimentary system of a kind of camera trap in a forest, and we didn’t have that much luck. But when thinking about leadership in that particular project in the subtropical north of Argentina, what was key was community engagement, community-driven innovation, and also building trust and inclusivity. And I think that is a key lesson that we really should keep in mind today. And when I look at what Microsoft is now doing in terms of AI data-driven tools in support of biodiversity, we have a newly announced project called Project Sparrow, for example, created by our AI for Good Lab, which is a solar-paneled AI-enabled device that can operate autonomously in remote areas to collect environmental data. It uses cameras and acoustic sensors to monitor wildlife and ecosystems relevant to SDG 15, life on land, process the data with AI, and then transmit insights via low-earth orbit satellites in close collaboration with universities and with local communities. And so this means in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, in remote areas, we’re able to contribute to the conservation of the Amazon rainforest through real-time tracking of biodiversity and habitat health, which can feed into global SDG trackers. So that’s just one really nice example I wanted to share with you today of the kinds of things that we could be doing through data and innovation in support of the SDGs and sustainability. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, Erica, and for the point that you made for the empowering work that you’re doing in terms of, and the purpose that you talked about as a corporation, and the mentioning about converging the work towards SDGs. I may now move to Ms. Gabriela for defining how do you see leadership and sustainability in the digital age?

Gabriella Marcelja: Yes, thank you very much, first of all, for the invitation to this panel. It’s a real pleasure to be here. I would say that leadership and sustainability are heavily interlinked, simply because these two concepts go along with flexibility of leaders, heavy prioritization of tasks, being able to reshift and refocus when needed, even if it has some internal reforms, let’s put it that way, need to be done. And it’s also about knowledge management. So what I’m seeing today is that picking the right team, picking the right human capital, is what will either move your vision and your product to the stars, or it’s very easy to fail and just be stagnant. So I was actually lucky enough to have worked in diplomacy, then I transitioned into the private sector, and I’m still working with universities, so the concept also of academic diplomacy and the concept of sustainable leadership among all these sectors is actually the same, I would say. It, of course, changes, the methods change, but there was a professor who was always participating in our criminal law conferences, and he was always saying one phrase that I will never forget, but he was saying that the ideas walk with the legs of the people. And this is really how everything is being done, at least among our projects and organizations, because people themselves are and can be catalysts of innovation, catalysts of change, and so the creativity, the spread of thoughts need to come from the right people that are sitting next to you, basically. So the digital leadership that we’re talking about today is really like how do we harness technology to not just, of course, go towards business growth and profit, which, of course, for any organization is important for obvious sustainability, accounting sustainability, let’s put it that way, but it actually also needs to drive meaningful change, systemic change, right? So the sustainability itself isn’t just about reducing the tech footprint, and it’s actually a dual challenge that we have today, because we do need to minimize the negative impact of digital tools in a way, so we have actually a lot of predatory content, if you allow me these words, online today, so well, basically, we do need also to leverage to achieve these environmental, social, and economic goals at the same time. So I would also say that just like for individual leaders, of course, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but building this robust network and really prioritizing also the well-being of everyone in the organization is very important to just have like this organizational readiness that is able to integrate sustainability into your governance structure, and as such, of course, today the role of AI and technology is extremely important, because what we see is that they are simply game changers, so we do help our organizations, our colleagues basically to analyze, as also previous panelists, colleagues said, we do need to analyze the vast amount of data, so that we can basically then work with risks and efficiencies. So I would just conclude here by really saying that we do need to start designing also tracking platforms in a way, it can be SDG tracking or simply to just understand the inclusivity, the accessibility, how to measure in a way the impact of our organizations, and so this would be a few initial thoughts about this. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, Gabriela. You made this important point about flexibility, prioritization, you know, and being a catalyst for innovation and change, which is very critical for us to look at sustainable leadership, and you also mentioned about purpose and profitability going together to maximize the impact. This brings me to Dr. Jimson on his views on sustainable leadership in the digital age.

Jimson Olufuye: Thank you very much, my dear Dr. Gupta, and good evening or afternoon, everybody. It’s a pleasure to be here. My name is Jimson Oluku. I’m the principal consultant of Contemporary Consulting Limited based in Abuja, Nigeria. We’re into data centers, systems integration. Software, and Research. And of course, we’re very much interested in advocacy and mobilizing leadership. In that regard, I also used to be the Chair of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria, Abuja Tapta. Then I moved to the President for all of Nigeria, 2007 to 2011. And while in that capacity, I traveled, I connected Nigeria to WITSA, that is the World ICT Alliance. And that was when I saw there was a big hole in Africa with regard to private sector participation. And I look at it, wow, this is going to demand a lot of work and leadership. So I took it up, and by 2012, I summoned some of my colleagues across Africa from six African countries, and we formed what is today AFRICTA, that is Africa ICT Alliance, which is a concerned private sector-led ICT alliance of ICT associations, companies, individual professionals across Africa. From those six countries, in 2012, we now have 43 countries in Africa, exchanging best practices and fulfilling a vision, which is to fulfill the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa. Really, we are here under the auspices of WITSA, that is the World Information Society. Now, it has its aim, as you know, for a people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented prosperity for all using ICTs. And that needs leadership. For that vision to be achieved, it needs serious leadership. And so, in this digital age, we need leaders with vision, leaders with focus, leaders with passion, leaders that are able to lead, they’re able to aspire, and able to motivate others, mobilize resources, so that we can achieve common goal. As we know, information societies are a common goal where there is prosperity for all, sustainable development goal is there, as I mentioned by my colleague with the GDC, Global Digital Compact, bridging the digital divide. So, this underscores the importance of leadership. So, leadership is everything, really, not only in Africa, around the world. The quality of leadership will determine the course of direction, whether there will be peace or war. We want more peace, so we need kind of leaders that have compassion, leaders that are not just for themselves alone, but also with all the society. They are concerned about all, because we all have the same DNA running within us. There’s nothing we can do about it, the same DNA. So, we must care about everyone. And the leader himself needs to be conscious of his own health, okay, because we’re talking about sustainable leadership. We need a good leader to remain alive for as long as possible. So, you take care of your health, you do your check, but I came here with my blood pressure machine, with my heart measurement machine, you know, so I check regularly to know that I’m still okay. I check the food I eat for sustainability, because I believe my family and the company, they need me to remain sound. Then a leader must be able to communicate, must be able to communicate with your colleagues, communicate with the people. I recall during one of our sessions in WGET, that is World Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, and business were accused that they wanted to take over the work of government. So, the business leader, they have to be able to explain that, no, we are a partner in progress. Government, you want a better living standard for the people, and so we in the private sector, we are there to help you fulfill your objective, and they are really pleased about that. Nobody challenged us in the business area anymore that we wanted to take over the work of government. So, we’re a partner in progress. So, a leader must be able to explain, must be able to, we’re interested in at least making some profits, there’s no doubt about that. We all need to manage the resources so that we have some gains, but we must have interest of others at heart. That’s why corporate social responsibility is important. So, a business leader must also be interested in corporate social responsibility. This is one of the discussions I had with the civil society too, during my WSIS activities, because they said we business are not interested in human rights. No, we’re interested in human rights, and the ICC underscored that fact too, because we signed the Charter. So, we’re interested in human rights, we’re interested in the welfare of those who work with us, and I align with what my colleagues have said before, that we are empathic, there’s emotional intelligence. So, we also need to ensure we build capacity and breed new successors going forward. So, this is what I would just say for now. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, and I think you bring out this very important leadership quality called passion. If you have no passion, no qualification, no position, get you to be a leader that the world needs. This brings me to the next round of questions, and I remember a few years back, I reached to Mr. Dino, who’s sitting here, because blockchain is an emerging technology, and I couldn’t find a leader who had implemented blockchain, and today we have the opportunity of Rosemary McLean with us, the CEO of the fund and the ASG. How did you go about future-proofing your organization? Was something, you know, was not yet practiced at scale? What kind of future thinking you had as a leader, you know, to make sure that you implemented blockchain? And you have made lives easier for so many pensioners across the world, you know, at scale, that has not been taught. I know typically, and don’t mind my saying this, that as we look at multilateral bodies, they’re more bureaucratic than our governments. How did you make it happen? We want to share the story of your leadership to get blockchain implemented across the UN staff joint pension fund.

Rosemarie McClean: Thank you. Sometimes crisis is the mother of invention. So the circumstances were such that in 2020, I mentioned that we had just developed this strategy we call the CARE strategy, and we were very excited about this new vision and a new path forward. And then in March of 2020, you’ll all recall that COVID hit. And this had a significant impact on our pensioner populations because one of the requirements of the fund is that all pensioners, and we have at the time about 80,000 of them, they all require to submit a proof of life once a year. And this process was paper based. So you can imagine the amount of work this created for us every year. But COVID made it particularly complicated because mail service globally was disrupted. And so pensioners couldn’t meet this requirement. And so our chief information officer, here today, he came to me and said, well, you know, we have been having discussions with UNICC about the possibility of a blockchain solution. It’s in very early stages. But, you know, we should maybe take a look at this. And I got very excited about it and asked him what it would take to make it a reality. So it required some additional resources, additional funding, and I felt like it was a very good investment given the circumstances. There were a lot of critics, though. A lot of people thought you will never be able to get the pensioner population to support a blockchain solution that was based on facial recognition on a phone. But we proved all those critics wrong. So fast forward to today, almost 60% of our pensioners worldwide take advantage of this technology to meet that annual requirement. And it also has resulted, obviously, in a significant reduction in paper. So it has advanced our strategy to be a paperless organization. And ultimately, it won the Secretary General’s award for sustainability and innovation. So I think sometimes organizations have to be willing to take some risk and to be willing to make decisions with imperfect information, because that was definitely the environment at the time. But I also think it was really important for me to get out of the way. So to give the IT team the resources they needed and allow them to partner with UNICC to develop the solution that we’re today extremely proud of. And I think it’s one of the few apps in the UN community that is based on blockchain. And based on feedback from our stakeholders, the pensioners themselves, we made several changes and improved it along the way. We still have the paper, if that’s the preference for pensioners. But I think I’ve been pleasantly surprised that even 100-year-old pensioners have used the Digital Certificate of Entitlement to meet their proof of life requirement. So I think it’s really caused us to think more seriously about how digital solutions can be part of our offering to both our active plan participants as well as as our retirees, whether that’s in the form of electronic pension applications, et cetera, all, again, consistent with our strategy of being more paperless, more digital, and really making things easier for our plan participants and retirees.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much. And I really appreciate, we should have a round of applause for this team, you know, because this was something that is emerging, and they made it promising technology. And now what we are doing is always inviting them to share with the world so that we can be more secure, because internet, without blockchain, I guess, will have the issues that we are grappling with. Hats off to you. And as she said, that when there is a chaos, leaders emerge. So you emerged as a leader. This brings me to a very interesting topic, that while technology is primarily developed by private sector, and it could be adopted by public or private, Dr. Erica Moret, I want to ask you, how do you see private-sector collaboration as integral to a leadership to sustain in the coming times? Can you repeat the question? Yeah, it’s still going. So the private-public collaboration for sustainable leadership, what’s your view on that? Yeah, thank you. So sorry, the audio is kind of strange, so I can’t hear what other people are saying very well.

Erica Moret: So for us, and for me personally, public-private cooperation is incredibly important. And I think particularly in the current era where we’re facing so many geopolitical risks, so many challenges facing the international system and multilateralism and so on, the ability to continue working together across borders, across sectors, really never has been more vital. And so maybe I’ll give a few examples of some of the things we’ve been doing in this area, and I’ll keep it very brief. But if I could talk a little bit, the work that we’ve done on climate action, this has involved us working really closely with academia, with civil society, with governments and so on. Microsoft’s sustainable leadership, you know, and I’m trying to tie this into our climate progress metrics. The company has contracted 34 gigawatts of carbon-free energy, solar, wind, and so on, across 24 countries, which is about an 18-fold increase in clean energy procurement since 2020. The pursuit of renewables means a large portion of our operations are powered now by green energy, directly reducing scope to emissions, which are electricity-related emissions. In addition, Microsoft has agreements for nearly 30 million metric tons of carbon removal via projects like reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, and direct air capture. And these contracts spread over the coming years will neutralize a significant share of emissions as we work towards our carbon-negative coal by 2030. And I think an important point here is that we’ve also sought to cut our own scope one and two emissions by 30% from the 2020 baseline through energy efficiency, fleet electrification, building management improvements, and so on. And while scope three, which are value chain emissions, remain challenging, and here I think it’s very important, our public-private partnerships as well, the company has rolled out a supplier emissions reduction program, including requiring key suppliers to shift to renewable power to bend that curve. So I think that’s an example of how we’ve been seeking to have measurable climate outcomes in a very challenging field that we all know about, and I think there’s also some really good examples among our peers of some exemplary work that’s been done in recent times as well. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, Erika. And now I move to Sheryl. Sheryl, you have been working on AI and also in the private sector collaboration as well. AI has created a FOMO in the minds of people, you know, that you cannot miss out. How do you see AI and the theme that we are discussing? And also I want you to touch on the same topic of private-public collaboration.

Cheryl Miller: Thank you. AI is interesting because I think you need to look forward and you need to look backwards with it, and I’ll explain what I mean in a second. But in looking forward, you know, you think of all of the parade of horribles, right? You want to make sure that you protect privacy. You want to make sure that you don’t create an additional digital divide since we haven’t even closed the first digital divide. You want to think about maybe even managing the lifestyle of digital devices, and you want to—I think you want to promote the responsible use and consumption of digital services generally. AI is what some refer to as a general-purpose technology. It’s like electricity in that with electricity I can plug in a lamp, I can plug in a toaster. With AI, I can plug in advancements to healthcare, I can plug in advancements in other areas. And so when I say you have to look backward, we have to remember that there are some areas of this world where they don’t have energy, and it takes massive amounts of energy to power AI. And so that’s something that we need to think about, how we manage that and how we prepare for that. In addition, there are places that don’t have connectivity still. And so connectivity is a really big issue. When I was at Verizon, I started thinking about this, and I thought, what can we possibly do? I was here at the IGF, and I took a napkin and wrote down this idea on a napkin, and I went to a professor named Professor Yu at the University of Pennsylvania who was here at the conference, and I said, I want you to read this idea. And he said, how can we possibly do it? It was an idea for a project called One World Connected. And so after a couple other exchanges of this napkin, we wound up launching this program, and what it did was it conducted really specific research on what all the gaps are. So it was an honest assessment, and many companies joined this. You know, Meadow had helped to fund it. It was Verizon, it was Microsoft, the ITU at one point, ICANN. We just all came together and realized, like, this connectivity thing is a big piece, and it’s a big first step with respect to AI. And so I think we all need to continue to think outside of the box when it comes to what can happen. I think some good work is already being done. I know the OECD recently, they launched their Hiroshima principles reporting framework. Many companies have started to submit to the program, and it’s been interesting, you know, through research, just seeing what’s coming out of it, and there’s a lot that folks are learning with respect to transparency, with respect to other aspects of it. And so I think if we continue to collaborate, continue to think outside the box, we’ll slowly start to get some answers, and then we can better prepare ourselves for what the future really will look like. And I do think that making sure that we do this the right way is important. No one can do it alone. I know that public-private partnerships, specifically for AI, are going to be really, really important. And so I was very pleased to see a lot of the different conversations around AI this week throughout the IGF as well.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you so much, Sheryl, and you made this important point about looking forward, working backwards, and this reporting frameworks and the impact. This brings me back to our colleague, Gabriela. Gabriela, how do you look at innovation? You talked about innovation, you know, and innovation requires a cultural change. As a leader, when you’re thinking of sustainable leadership, what kind of culture does a leadership have to drive innovation?

Gabriella Marcelja: Well, that’s actually a big question, because it’s very subjective, so there is not one winning formula that you can say. But as you mentioned before the panel started, the outcome of this session should be to create a sort of a template for business leaders to drive change, to understand how to be a sustainable leader. What I’m seeing is that working with many continents, if I may say like this, the culture changes based on who you speak to. So, the cultural background actually, the language, at least in my experience, is really something of a core value that we need to understand when we speak to someone and to really organize the workflow. But what I actually want to perhaps give here as an idea, let’s put it that way, is that there are actually very concrete generational differences today. We are shifting into this digital age where the communication style changed, the work ethics and values changed, the attitude towards technology changed, and so the leadership style needs to be able to be flexible enough to understand that if a person prefers an in-person meeting or a digital method or whether there are younger generations right now that value work-life balance and flexibility while the older generations still value loyalty, longer hours in the office. So this is actually a very basic human nature issue, if you will, but you do see that it affects the way on how you lead your team and how people like to be organized in a way. So, I would just say here that the traditional top-down leadership styles should have some sort of inclusiveness and collaborative approach. It’s all about inspiring, connecting, leave the room for creation, and definitely what I’m seeing, the power of community and network building is something that is extremely valuable today. When we value the right people, when we value the alliances we can make, I really think there is no formula that can win because that’s already a winning setup. The mindset is the right one. So, I would just say also and touch upon the private-public partnership, simply because there is not one single organization that can tackle all the problems, especially if you want to have a sustainable, drive-driven organization, you do need to have the public sector involved in your operations to let them know what you do, to ask how can I help. Because sometimes, again in this setting I’m speaking from a private sector perspective, sometimes, I personally, I don’t need government support for my work. I’m happy to work together. And so, this is a different approach when you actually build a valuable connection, a valuable and impactful connection where you see this is what I can do and the other side what can provide. And this is how actually in terms of communication will lead to a very, I would say, successful path when you do have platforms like this panel, platforms like the IGF, where you can actually just put some ideas out and really try to understand, okay, what happens after this panel? So, where do we go from here? And this is a little bit of, I think, the right way on how to cooperate. So, really putting everyone on the same table, asking the same questions as you’re doing now, because everyone has a different perspective, but everyone has one puzzle of the tool that you need in order to drive the change that we all want to see.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you, Gabriela, and I think you made this very interesting point that no single organization or a person can have all answers. At the same time, the power of community cannot be underestimated. I think that’s the crux of innovation. Well, I say that as a master’s innovation formally, and I realize that you touched the right point. This brings me to Dr. Jemson. You know, we have talked about the power of collaboration. You spoke about passion, you know, the focus now. Given your experience, what’s the role of circular economy in sustainable leadership?

Jimson Olufuye: Okay, you know, because of the audio. Thank you. Well, circular economy, economy wearing, sustainable economy in short. Well, I want to emphasize something which is connected to that, and that is, first and foremost, to knowing business generally. The business people are not just the companies, also non-for-profit organizations, also in business. Even governments are in business, because they are not there to fail. As long as you want to succeed, as long as you want to boost productivity, whatever you do to boost productivity, increase resource base for the benefits of people’s business. And so, there is a need for, yes, that collaboration, then the multi-stakeholder engagement, the need for all to understand that we need to continue to do things sustainably, because we don’t have unlimited resource base. So, we need to ensure that something that we’re using can still be reused, you know, elsewhere. And this brings me to optimization. There’s an activity that is very important within the African context, especially in Nigeria, talking about digitalization. Digitalization to bring in more efficiency, okay, to tackle a major issue, you know, of leadership across Africa with corruption. So, digitalization, we are involved in this, and we push it a lot to do things more efficiently, to ensure that citizens get the benefits of, say, democracy and boost their GDP and per capita, and so on and so forth. And so, we make the case that, indeed, we need to work together. That’s what we push a lot in Africa, across Africa. Many times, some of my colleagues say, well, I don’t have anything to do with business, sorry, with the government. I don’t want to. We try to make a case, no, we need to be interested, because there’s huge budgets, you know, involved in all these things, and many goes to waste. There are a number of things that can be done via the circular economy know-how, that we can really make, use resources much better, or reduce waste. And finally, this brings me to the issue of e-waste. It’s a major area, wherein we need to bring all the leaders together, especially my part of the world, so that we can see what we can do sustainably in this regard. We can see minerals, high metals, and resources are being wasted, along with human resources. So, we need to come on the same table to discuss these issues, so that we can sustain the society. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you. I think, rightly so, as we are in the digital era, e-waste is going to be a big thing. More than that, I think recycle, reuse is something that’s a part of the circular economy, that we all have to look at sustainable leadership. You know, with so many global leaders on this panel, it will be wrong to deprive the participants in this room of an opportunity to ask their questions. So, I open the floor to questions. Yeah, please come to the mic. Yes, the mic is on there. You can ask. You’re going first? Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, anyone who walks first gets the question to ask.

Reyansh Gupta: Yes, so, hi, I’m Reyansh Gupta. Can you hear me fine? Yes. All right. So, I’m Reyansh Gupta. I’m from the Dynamic Coalition on Gaming for Purpose, and my question is regarding conflicts between leaders. So, an example I would like to take is a company that I’ve seen. With AI adoption, we’re facing a conflict. Some leaders think we should implement it, some are against it. So, how do we handle that in a leadership context, and, you know, how do we tackle that problem in an organization?

Rajendra Gupta: So, any of my fellow experts can take this question.

Cheryl Miller: That’s a really good question, because I’ve been in those situations. You know, a lot of it has to do with communication and figuring out where the difference exists. I like to call it consensus building, where you take whatever the problem is, kind of talk around it, and see where you land. I think as leaders, too, you need to be flexible in that, you know, some days your idea, sometimes, you know, you change your heart and your mind in order to move an organization forward, and I think you have to keep at the core what’s best for the organization, what’s best for the path forward. And I think through those kind of carefully curated conversations, in my experience, we’ve always been able to get to a yes, whether one way or another. But, you know, there are times when my idea was not the idea that was moved forward, and there were times when my idea did move forward, and I had to be flexible enough, and I had to kind of understand that it’s bigger than you. You know, it’s not about you, it’s not about your ego, it’s really about the organization.

Rajendra Gupta: Anyone else would like to take and respond?

Jimson Olufuye: Yes, indeed, it’s a very good question. I recall during the working group on enhanced cooperation, which was deadlocked at a point, and I came up with an idea that actually the CSTD could be home for enhanced cooperation, and we have 99% agree, and one did not. So, there was so much persuasion that did not agree, but today the country, in that relevance, the country in particular now supports those ideas. So, the idea is we need to be patient, you know, when there are issues, bring in the data, and if I even commission a research or study, and that is the approach we also use in our company. Thank you.

Rajendra Gupta: Okay, I think very important point, Reansh, if you got your answers. Communication is important. Organization is bigger than individual, and at the end of back your communication with data. Moving to the next question, sir.

Eliamani Isaya Laltaika: Thank you very much. My name is Eliamani Laltaika. I’m a judge of the High Court of Tanzania, and I don’t really have any question. I want to share my appreciation. This has been far, far the best panel I’ve attended so far, and the leadership lessons I’ve learned are comparable to a whole semester course on leadership from biodiversity conservation to taking care of oneself as a leader to rolling the sleeves to do what some people think it cannot be done. You know, a big clap to this panel. Thank you. Thank you very much. God bless you. I thought this should have been attended by the members of Parliament that were around here and some of us from government. So just as a footnote, although I said I didn’t really plan for a question, I would like to hear what are strategies that your companies have to kind of share these brilliant ideas much more widely to reach the four corners of our world. It’s very comforting to know that there are brilliant leaders around us who can guide us on how to do what we have been thinking is impossible. Thank you so much.

Rajendra Gupta: Anyone has a comment?

Gabriella Marcelja: I mean just from my small bubble, what I can say is that we are always happy to collaborate, we’re always happy to share, we’re always happy to co-create something. We actually have a lot of international communities around, connected to Impact, connected to MedTech, connected to many different actually technical expertise and we just need to connect. That’s really my only takeaway. I wish there was any other solution but it’s just really to come to each other, to see where the pinpoints of each organization is and to really try to find the time to make this work. So prioritization and time because I think all of us are coming from a pretty busy schedule and so we’re really trying to prioritize very hard on where the energy is going to go but wherever at least in my organization and the communities that I represent and that I can connect you with are definitely more than happy to share the knowledge and again the knowledge management I would say today is crucial. So I’m more than happy to work on a supply chain of knowledge management for future leaders.

Rosemarie McClean: First of all thank you so much for your very kind words, that’s nice to hear. I think for us we really tried to get out and tell our story to the broader UN community as well as to member states because I think there’s just a lot of doubt and mystery around blockchain and we’ve really tried to say hey you know we came up with this solution, you can too and in fact the UNID that has just recently been introduced to the UN community is based on the same blockchain foundation because when they looked to develop that capability they thought oh my gosh we got to start from scratch and then we were able to come forward and say no in fact why don’t you take a look at what we’ve done and we’ve saved them years of development time. So I think you’ve raised a very good point that we need to share our best practices and our stories and our failures too to see how we can learn from each other and I think out of that we’ll all be successful but thank you very much.

Rajendra Gupta: I’ll just add you know that I have a MAG member on my side from the IGF, I have Roman sitting here from the Secretariat and they will make sure that it goes out. It’s all going to be on YouTube but I take your point and really appreciate your comments, very generous though I must say thank you. Next question please.

Armado Espinoza: Yes my name is Amado Espinoza, private sector Latin America. Well I also want to join the comment from my fellow here in terms of the willing to share your best experiences and also to ask you a little bit more about how to emphasize this new model of building businesses. I mean nowadays we talk about SMBs and we talk about innovation and disruptions and so on but as far as AI is right here transforming society and at this forum we are talking about a human-centered model of using the technology. How do you foresee this transformation? I mean pension model it’s going to be perhaps a little bit different right now or maybe Microsoft is looking for a new kind of technological partners in order to disrupt more industries. Do you have your own personal vision about which message can we deliver to our society in terms of how do they prepare for these new business models? Thanks.

Erica Moret: Thank you very much and also thank you to the earlier speaker. It’s so good to hear your perspectives and thank you for the kind words as well and again I would like to emphasize I think IGF is such a wonderful forum to interact and others around the world. We have the AI for Good summit coming up in two weeks in Geneva and I think there’s various others really inclusive or hopefully ever more inclusive platforms where we can keep this conversation going. On the good point, muchisimas gracias por el comentario. I just had to reply a tiny bit in Spanish there. I think that a really key thing here is you can’t just bring out AI in places where the infrastructure is lacking and where there isn’t electricity, where there isn’t enough energy to fuel the data centers and so on. So, I think we really need to be thinking holistically about digital connectivity, about skills, about education and also about awareness as to how you might want to use these tools as a general purpose technology in your own individual context because it’s going to be different for every country, for every community, for every individual and it’s really important that these people and communities have a voice and have a representation I think as the tool develops. One thing that we’re doing is called an airband initiative in order to support this kind of objective with the target of bringing digital connectivity and everything that that entails to a quarter of a billion people by the end of this year and we’re on track to meet that aim and there’s a very strong focus in global majority countries, particularly in Africa, and a big focus on women and girls as well. I think I really have to emphasize here as well that there’s a big gender issue still in AI development, in AI deployment and use and we see women by far poorly represented across pretty much every country in the world when it comes to AI use and I think that’s something we really need to be focusing on as well and that starts with inspiration, inspiring role models, the media has a big role to play here, universities encouraging STEM uptake among girls and across schools and so on. Thank you again.

Rajendra Gupta: Thank you, we are out of time, so sorry sir about that, we can’t take your question. So I would give my panelists one word that you would say for sustainable leadership as a takeaway message, not one sentence because we are out of time. Anyone can start. One word, one line, not beyond that, one line as a parting message. You are the leader, we’re all looking forward to brace up for it. That’s good, I would top that. I guess I would say look before you jump. I’d say be humble and be willing to listen. Focus on impactful people. I was going to say humility and listening, so instead I would like to say diversity and we need to use our positions and our positions of privilege to insist on diversity, a meaningful not only seat at the table in these matters but a meaningful voice in the table for those most marginalized groups around the world. Thank you and I would say understand the value of time. Thank you so much, a big round of applause for my fellow panelists. Thank you so much for the IGF Secretariat for making it happen. Thank you. Thank you.

Agreement points

Humility and willingness to learn are essential leadership qualities

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Cheryl Miller

Arguments

Leaders need humility, emotional intelligence, and willingness to learn and adapt

Leadership requires strategic vision, community engagement, and ability to have tough conversations

Summary

Both speakers emphasize that effective leaders must acknowledge they don’t have all the answers and must be humble enough to learn from others, including their teams and communities

Topics

Human rights | Development

Collaboration and partnerships are essential for addressing complex challenges

Speakers

– Erica Moret
– Gabriella Marcelja
– Jimson Olufuye

Arguments

Public-private cooperation is vital for addressing geopolitical risks and international challenges

No single organization can tackle all problems – valuable connections require mutual understanding

Business and government are partners in progress, not competitors for control

Summary

All three speakers agree that complex global challenges require collaborative approaches across sectors, with each organization contributing their unique strengths and capabilities

Topics

Development | Economic

Technology implementation must consider infrastructure gaps and inclusion

Speakers

– Cheryl Miller
– Erica Moret

Arguments

AI is a general-purpose technology requiring massive energy and connectivity infrastructure

AI implementation must consider infrastructure gaps and energy requirements in underserved areas

Summary

Both speakers emphasize that successful technology deployment, particularly AI, requires addressing fundamental infrastructure needs like connectivity and energy before implementation

Topics

Infrastructure | Development

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial for modern leadership

Speakers

– Gabriella Marcelja
– Rosemarie McClean

Arguments

Leadership involves flexibility, prioritization, and being a catalyst for innovation and change

Leaders must delegate decision-making and give staff greater voice in how work is done

Summary

Both speakers agree that leaders must be flexible in their approaches, able to adapt to changing circumstances, and willing to empower their teams rather than maintaining rigid hierarchical control

Topics

Economic | Development

Knowledge sharing and learning from others is vital for leadership development

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Gabriella Marcelja
– Eliamani Isaya Laltaika

Arguments

Organizations should share best practices and failures to help others learn and succeed

International collaboration and knowledge management are crucial for future leaders

Leadership lessons from diverse experiences are extremely valuable and should be widely shared

Summary

All three speakers emphasize the importance of sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned to help develop better leaders and avoid reinventing solutions

Topics

Development | Sociocultural

Similar viewpoints

All three speakers share the view that leadership conflicts should be resolved through patient communication, data-driven persuasion, and putting organizational interests above personal preferences

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Cheryl Miller
– Jimson Olufuye

Arguments

Conflicts require communication, consensus building, and keeping organizational interests above personal ego

Patience and data-backed research can help persuade disagreeing parties over time

Leaders must be willing to take risks and make decisions with imperfect information

Topics

Economic | Development

Both speakers emphasize the critical importance of inclusion and diversity in leadership and technology, particularly addressing gender gaps and moving away from hierarchical structures

Speakers

– Erica Moret
– Gabriella Marcelja

Arguments

Gender representation in AI development and deployment remains a significant challenge

Traditional top-down leadership must become more inclusive and collaborative

Topics

Human rights | Development

Both speakers view leadership as requiring clear vision and purpose, with focus on creating inclusive, long-term positive impact rather than short-term gains

Speakers

– Jimson Olufuye
– Erica Moret

Arguments

Leaders need vision, passion, focus, and ability to mobilize resources for common goals

Sustainable leadership means building technology-enabled growth that is inclusive and enduring

Topics

Development | Economic

Unexpected consensus

Personal health management as a leadership responsibility

Speakers

– Jimson Olufuye

Arguments

Leaders must take care of their own health for sustainability and organizational benefit

Explanation

This was an unexpected and unique perspective that no other speaker addressed – the idea that sustainable leadership requires leaders to actively manage their own physical health as a responsibility to their organizations and families

Topics

Human rights | Development

AI as board member in governance structures

Speakers

– Rajendra Gupta

Arguments

Every digital activity has a carbon footprint that must be considered

Explanation

The moderator’s announcement about making AI a board member in his company represents an unexpected and innovative approach to technology governance that wasn’t directly addressed by other panelists

Topics

Development | Legal and regulatory

Blockchain implementation success in traditionally bureaucratic organizations

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean

Arguments

Crisis can drive innovation – COVID led to successful blockchain implementation for pensioner services

Explanation

The successful implementation of blockchain technology in a UN organization, traditionally seen as bureaucratic, with 60% adoption rate among pensioners including 100-year-olds, was an unexpected success story that demonstrated how crisis can drive innovation in unlikely contexts

Topics

Development | Infrastructure

Overall assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrated remarkable consensus on core leadership principles including humility, collaboration, flexibility, and the importance of knowledge sharing. There was strong agreement on the need for public-private partnerships and inclusive approaches to technology implementation.

Consensus level

High level of consensus with complementary perspectives rather than conflicting viewpoints. The speakers reinforced each other’s arguments and built upon shared themes, suggesting a mature understanding of sustainable leadership challenges. This strong consensus indicates that despite different sectoral backgrounds, there are universal principles for effective leadership in the digital age that transcend organizational boundaries.

Different viewpoints

Approach to decision-making under uncertainty

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Cheryl Miller

Arguments

Leaders must be willing to take risks and make decisions with imperfect information

Looking before jumping and careful consideration are important for decision-making

Summary

McClean advocates for taking calculated risks and making decisions with incomplete information, citing her successful blockchain implementation during COVID. Miller emphasizes more cautious evaluation and thorough consideration before making major decisions.

Topics

Economic | Development

Unexpected differences

Risk tolerance in leadership decision-making

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Cheryl Miller

Arguments

Leaders must be willing to take risks and make decisions with imperfect information

Looking before jumping and careful consideration are important for decision-making

Explanation

This disagreement is unexpected because both speakers come from large organizational backgrounds where one might expect similar risk management approaches. McClean’s willingness to embrace uncertainty contrasts with Miller’s more cautious stance, despite both being experienced leaders in complex environments.

Topics

Economic | Development

Overall assessment

Summary

The panel showed remarkable consensus on core principles of sustainable leadership, with only minor disagreements on implementation approaches rather than fundamental concepts

Disagreement level

Very low level of disagreement. The speakers largely reinforced each other’s points about humility, collaboration, innovation, and sustainability. The few differences were more about emphasis and approach rather than fundamental disagreements, suggesting strong alignment in the field on sustainable leadership principles. This high level of consensus may indicate either genuine agreement among practitioners or potential groupthink that could benefit from more diverse perspectives.

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

All three speakers share the view that leadership conflicts should be resolved through patient communication, data-driven persuasion, and putting organizational interests above personal preferences

Speakers

– Rosemarie McClean
– Cheryl Miller
– Jimson Olufuye

Arguments

Conflicts require communication, consensus building, and keeping organizational interests above personal ego

Patience and data-backed research can help persuade disagreeing parties over time

Leaders must be willing to take risks and make decisions with imperfect information

Topics

Economic | Development

Both speakers emphasize the critical importance of inclusion and diversity in leadership and technology, particularly addressing gender gaps and moving away from hierarchical structures

Speakers

– Erica Moret
– Gabriella Marcelja

Arguments

Gender representation in AI development and deployment remains a significant challenge

Traditional top-down leadership must become more inclusive and collaborative

Topics

Human rights | Development

Both speakers view leadership as requiring clear vision and purpose, with focus on creating inclusive, long-term positive impact rather than short-term gains

Speakers

– Jimson Olufuye
– Erica Moret

Arguments

Leaders need vision, passion, focus, and ability to mobilize resources for common goals

Sustainable leadership means building technology-enabled growth that is inclusive and enduring

Topics

Development | Economic

Key takeaways

Sustainable leadership in the digital age requires humility, emotional intelligence, continuous learning, and willingness to adapt to rapid technological changes

Leaders must balance shareholder interests with long-term planetary and intergenerational impact, moving beyond traditional triple bottom line to comprehensive ESG considerations

Crisis can be a catalyst for innovation – COVID-19 drove successful blockchain implementation for UN pension services, proving that organizations can adapt quickly when necessary

Public-private partnerships are essential for addressing complex global challenges, with business and government as partners in progress rather than competitors

AI is a general-purpose technology requiring massive infrastructure investments, and implementation must consider energy requirements and connectivity gaps in underserved areas

Traditional top-down leadership models must evolve to be more inclusive and collaborative, accommodating generational differences in work preferences and communication styles

Environmental sustainability must be embedded in all business operations, with every digital activity having a measurable carbon footprint

Knowledge sharing and best practices exchange are crucial for scaling successful innovations across organizations and sectors

Diversity and meaningful representation of marginalized groups must be prioritized in leadership positions and decision-making processes

Leaders must take care of their personal health and well-being to ensure sustainable leadership over time

Resolutions and action items

IGF Secretariat committed to making the session content available on YouTube for broader dissemination

Panelists expressed willingness to collaborate and share knowledge through their respective organizations and networks

Gabriella Marcelja offered to work on developing a ‘supply chain of knowledge management for future leaders’

Microsoft’s airband initiative targets bringing digital connectivity to a quarter of a billion people by end of year

UN pension fund’s blockchain solution was made available to other UN agencies, saving years of development time for UNID implementation

Unresolved issues

How to create a concrete template for current leaders to prepare themselves and their organizations for future challenges (the stated end game of the session)

Specific strategies for addressing the gender gap in AI development and deployment globally

Practical solutions for managing e-waste and implementing circular economy principles at scale

How to bridge the digital divide while simultaneously implementing energy-intensive AI technologies

Concrete mechanisms for scaling successful innovations from individual organizations to global implementation

Specific approaches for managing intergenerational workplace differences in leadership styles and expectations

Suggested compromises

Maintaining both paper-based and digital options for services to accommodate different user preferences and capabilities (as demonstrated by UN pension fund’s blockchain implementation)

Balancing organizational interests above individual ego when resolving leadership conflicts through consensus building

Combining traditional leadership approaches with new collaborative models rather than completely abandoning established practices

Using patience and data-backed research to gradually persuade disagreeing parties rather than forcing immediate consensus

We are changing the governance to a level where AI would be a board member. We are changing to that level, how technology is shaping AI, we would be having AI as a board member.

Speaker

Rajendra Gupta

Reason

This is a radical reimagining of corporate governance that challenges traditional human-centric board structures. It represents a paradigm shift in how organizations might integrate AI not just as a tool, but as a decision-making entity with governance authority.

Impact

This comment set an innovative tone for the entire discussion, establishing that the panel would explore cutting-edge approaches to leadership rather than conventional wisdom. It primed participants to think beyond incremental changes to transformational organizational structures.

Sometimes crisis is the mother of invention… COVID made it particularly complicated because mail service globally was disrupted… our chief information officer came to me and said, well, you know, we have been having discussions with UNICC about the possibility of a blockchain solution.

Speaker

Rosemarie McClean

Reason

This comment is insightful because it demonstrates how crisis can accelerate innovation adoption and how leaders must make decisions with imperfect information. It shows practical leadership in action rather than theoretical concepts.

Impact

This shifted the discussion from abstract leadership principles to concrete examples of crisis-driven innovation. It provided a real-world case study that other panelists and audience members could relate to, making the concept of ‘future-proofing’ tangible and actionable.

I think leaders need to recognize that they likely don’t have all the answers and need to be humble enough to admit that and know that they need to do some learning to really be able to thrive in the digital age.

Speaker

Rosemarie McClean

Reason

This challenges the traditional leadership paradigm where leaders are expected to have all the answers. It reframes leadership from knowing everything to being willing to learn everything, which is particularly relevant in rapidly evolving digital landscapes.

Impact

This comment established humility as a core theme that resonated throughout the discussion. Multiple subsequent speakers referenced this concept, with Cheryl Miller explicitly stating ‘there’s a humbleness to it’ and others emphasizing the importance of admitting limitations.

The ideas walk with the legs of the people… people themselves are and can be catalysts of innovation, catalysts of change, and so the creativity, the spread of thoughts need to come from the right people that are sitting next to you.

Speaker

Gabriella Marcelja

Reason

This poetic metaphor reframes leadership from top-down command to enabling and empowering others. It emphasizes that ideas without people to execute them are worthless, shifting focus to human capital and team building.

Impact

This comment deepened the discussion about collaborative leadership and influenced the conversation toward the importance of team selection and empowerment. It connected the abstract concept of innovation to the very human element of having the right people in the right positions.

You have to first have a strategic vision… but you also need to look at it from the perspective of learning and growing… I think being able to create a really strong team of advisors is really important… having people who can really give you that important feedback.

Speaker

Cheryl Miller

Reason

This comment synthesizes multiple leadership dimensions – vision, continuous learning, and advisory networks – while emphasizing the importance of feedback loops. It presents leadership as a multifaceted discipline requiring both strategic thinking and operational humility.

Impact

This helped structure the discussion around key leadership competencies and reinforced the theme of collaborative leadership. It provided a framework that other speakers could build upon when discussing their own leadership experiences.

AI is what some refer to as a general-purpose technology. It’s like electricity in that with electricity I can plug in a lamp, I can plug in a toaster. With AI, I can plug in advancements to healthcare, I can plug in advancements in other areas.

Speaker

Cheryl Miller

Reason

This analogy brilliantly simplifies the transformative potential of AI by comparing it to electricity – a technology so fundamental we can barely imagine life without it. It helps audiences understand AI’s pervasive impact across all sectors.

Impact

This analogy shifted the discussion from viewing AI as a specific tool to understanding it as foundational infrastructure. It influenced how other speakers framed AI’s role in sustainability and organizational transformation, treating it as an enabling technology rather than a standalone solution.

There are actually very concrete generational differences today… the communication style changed, the work ethics and values changed, the attitude towards technology changed, and so the leadership style needs to be able to be flexible enough to understand that.

Speaker

Gabriella Marcelja

Reason

This observation addresses a critical but often overlooked aspect of modern leadership – managing across generational divides in the digital age. It highlights how technological change isn’t just about tools but about fundamental shifts in workplace culture and expectations.

Impact

This comment introduced the complexity of generational management into the sustainability discussion, showing how sustainable leadership must account for evolving workforce dynamics. It added a human resources dimension that other speakers hadn’t fully explored.

We all have the same DNA running within us. There’s nothing we can do about it, the same DNA. So, we must care about everyone.

Speaker

Jimson Olufuye

Reason

This profound statement connects leadership responsibility to fundamental human unity. It provides a moral foundation for sustainable leadership that transcends business metrics or technological capabilities.

Impact

This comment elevated the discussion from tactical leadership approaches to the ethical foundations of leadership. It reinforced the sustainability theme by connecting it to intergenerational and global responsibility, influencing how other speakers framed their closing remarks around diversity and inclusion.

Overall assessment

These key comments collectively transformed what could have been a conventional leadership discussion into a nuanced exploration of 21st-century organizational challenges. The comments established several recurring themes: humility and continuous learning, crisis-driven innovation, human-centric technology deployment, and ethical responsibility. The discussion evolved from theoretical frameworks to practical case studies (like the blockchain implementation) to moral imperatives (like caring for all people). The most impactful comments challenged traditional leadership paradigms – from Gupta’s AI board member concept to McClean’s emphasis on leader humility to Marcelja’s focus on generational differences. These insights created a cascading effect where each speaker built upon previous themes while adding their own perspective, resulting in a comprehensive template for sustainable leadership that balances technological innovation with human values and environmental responsibility.

How can organizations effectively measure and track the impact of their sustainability initiatives, particularly regarding inclusivity and accessibility?

Speaker

Gabriella Marcelja

Explanation

She mentioned the need to design tracking platforms for SDG tracking and measuring organizational impact, but didn’t elaborate on specific methodologies or frameworks

What are the specific strategies companies can use to share brilliant leadership ideas and best practices more widely to reach global audiences?

Speaker

Eliamani Isaya Laltaika

Explanation

As a judge, he emphasized the need for these leadership insights to reach government officials and be shared more broadly, asking panelists about their strategies for wider dissemination

How should organizations prepare for new AI-driven business models and what message should be delivered to society about these transformations?

Speaker

Armado Espinoza

Explanation

He asked about the transformation of business models like pension systems and how Microsoft approaches technological partnerships, seeking guidance on preparing society for AI-driven changes

What are the detailed methodologies for implementing blockchain solutions in traditionally bureaucratic organizations?

Speaker

Rajendra Gupta

Explanation

While Rosemarie shared her blockchain implementation story, the specific step-by-step process and change management strategies for overcoming bureaucratic resistance weren’t fully detailed

How can leaders effectively resolve conflicts when there are disagreements about technology adoption, particularly AI implementation?

Speaker

Reyansh Gupta

Explanation

He asked about handling leadership conflicts when some leaders support AI adoption while others oppose it, seeking practical conflict resolution strategies

What are the specific frameworks and metrics for measuring carbon footprint reduction in digital activities?

Speaker

Rajendra Gupta

Explanation

He mentioned that every digital activity has a carbon footprint, but specific measurement methodologies and reduction strategies weren’t elaborated upon

How can organizations effectively address the gender gap in AI development, deployment, and usage?

Speaker

Erica Moret

Explanation

She highlighted that women are poorly represented in AI across most countries but only briefly mentioned potential solutions like inspiration and STEM education without detailed implementation strategies

What are the best practices for managing e-waste in the context of rapid digital transformation, particularly in developing regions?

Speaker

Jimson Olufuye

Explanation

He identified e-waste as a major issue requiring collaborative leadership but didn’t provide specific solutions or frameworks for addressing this challenge