2023 FUTURE GLOBAL LEADERS AWARD

The Monash Business School Future Global Leaders Award recognises students who are committed to the development of sustainable businesses and practices that contribute to the economic, environmental and social development of communities, and who demonstrate the drive and ambition to become global leaders of the future.

Winners Of The 2023 Future Global Leaders Award

Riya Maben

Growing up in Mumbai, Riya Maben saw firsthand the terrible impact rampant waste can have on the local environment. Without a proper disposal system, discarded food was piling up, attracting stray animals and causing disease outbreaks.

Riya decided to take action, collaborating with animal welfare organisations to spearhead a composting program to help address the problem. She began volunteering at the shelters, where she quickly realised financial challenges threatened the vital work.

Drawing on the knowledge from her Master of Banking and Finance, Riya applied her financial expertise to draft funding applications and incorporate technology to streamline the organisation’s financial management.

“We also managed to increase the number of volunteers, which was excellent,” Riya says. Now working in asset management, her commitment to driving social impact remains as strong as ever.

“I volunteer at the Chartered Financial Analyst Society in Melbourne, where we aim to raise awareness and support women in their journey towards working in investment management,” she says.

Riya described her Future Global Leaders accolade as “the cherry on top”.

“This recognition will allow me to share my story with a wider audience and hopefully inspire others to take small steps to spread kindness and make life better for the people around them.”

Sharar Kader

A Bachelor of Commerce Honours student specialising in Economics, Sharar Kader’s work in tackling poverty and protecting threatened ecosystems has been building momentum since he addressed the twin challenges in his research thesis.

Sharar’s thesis, which examined the link between poverty alleviation and biodiversity loss in developing countries, found households would not need to hunt wildlife “as a coping mechanism” if they were compensated for reductions in income caused by a lack of rainfall.

Sharar is now building on this work. Partnering closely with the Zoological Society of London, he is pioneering a cash transfer and insurance pilot initiative to tackle wildlife hunting near Cambodian National Parks.

“Our goal is to reduce the need for financially vulnerable households living around highly biodiverse areas to rely on hunted wildlife as sources of nutrition and income,” Sharar says.

His work has caught the attention of the Asian Development Bank, and will be submitted for funding in the forthcoming round of the Darwin Program, funded by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). If successful, the pilot program will be implemented in 2024.

Sharar says winning the Future Global Leader Award has motivated him to continue working in this space.

“My supervisor, Paulo Santos, has been great in supporting me through this project,” he says.