A young leader and social entrepreneur, Sam is recognised as a young peace-builder by the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, one of Asia’s top under-30 social entrepreneurs by Forbes Magazine, and a 30-under-30 fellow by the NAEEA. His projects and campaigns have been featured in multiple media outlets, including Forbes, The Age, Al Jazeera, SBS, ABC, the Australian, and the Huffington Post.

Sam began his professional journey while studying as an undergraduate at Monash University. During his time at university, he led a nation-wide campaign on human rights; co-founded the Monash International Affairs Society, and served as the CEO of the world’s biggest international student conference, which generated $8.6 million of revenue for the Victorian economy.

Since 2015, Sam has served as a Program Director at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) – a research and policy organisation, working under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General, Antònio Guterres. During his time at the SDSN, Sam has worked across a range of projects, including development finance, innovation systems, sustainable cities, and more recently, education for sustainable development. Sam was also the founder of SDSN Youth, one of the world’s biggest networks of young leaders dedicated to action on sustainable development, operating across 80 countries and 22 regional centres. During his time at SDSN, he pioneered the Global Schools Program and Local Pathways Fellowship.

He is currently serving on several international boards and committees, including the SDSN Leadership Council, the Global Citizen Policy Committee, the United Nations Strategy Hub, the UN MGCY’s board of directors, and the UNLEASH Advisory Board. Previously, he was a member of IIASA’s Alpbach-Laxenburg Group, CSIRO’s National Outlook Project, the Australian government’s innovationXchange program, and the SDG Financing Group, co-chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD.

Sam is currently based at the University of Oxford, Christ Church College, undertaking graduate studies as part of the Oxford 1+1 Programme at the Oxford Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and the Saïd Business School (SBS).

This webinar will also feature discussant Safoora Biglari.

Safoora is the Director of Community at One Young World. She is responsible for maintaining engagement with OYW’s key stakeholders and its community of over 12,000 Ambassadors who are affecting positive change across every sector, in every country in the world. Safoora and her team create and connect Ambassadors with growth opportunities, bespoke programmes, leadership development, media visibility and impact measurement. Notable 2020 programmes include the Covid-19 Young Leaders Fund which provided nearly $500,000 in support to young leaders on the frontlines of the pandemic response, and successful collaborations with the Obama Foundation, Hamilton Commission, and 20+ multinationals. Since 2019, the team have brought together over 15,000 young people in their programming. Collectively, OYW Ambassadors have impacted 26 million people to date.