One crucial part to enable cross-generational dialogue is the participant group of the Leaders of Tomorrow. It is they who build the backbone of our conference by providing insight and innovative ideas.

While 200 Leaders of Tomorrow are hand-selected individuals, 100 qualify via the Global Essay Competition, in which they present their take on each years’ topic. However, since we receive a numerous amount of essays, we have to narrow our participant pool down to 100 with particularly outstanding ideas.

The Leaders of Tomorrow team has neither the capacity nor the independence to guarantee a fair review process. Therefore, each year we invite 40 postgraduate students to read and assess all the contributions anonymously.

Consequently, you, as a member of the Academic Jury, will have the opportunity to select the most disruptive, the most unconventional ideas essays and thereby extend their authors an invitation to the St. Gallen Symposium. Additionally, you will be able to meet the authors of these essays when attending the St. Gallen Symposium in your function as a member of the Academic Jury.

To become a member of the Academic Jury, you have to fulfill the following criteria:

• Currently pursuing a doctoral programme, working as a research assistant or already completed your doctoral studies (3 years ago at most) at the University of St.Gallen or at ETH Zurich
• Fluent in English (oral and in writing)
• Genuine interest in global affairs and in the opinions of the world’s top-class young academics
• Capability and capacity of reviewing around 50 contributions (essays) according to a pre-defined set of criteria within a tight time schedule (beginning February until mid-April)

The jury of the 54th St. Gallen Symposium is required to attend two compulsory meetings, the kick-off and the final meeting:

• Hybrid kick-off meeting for all members: January 2025
• Reviews: beginning February until mid-April 2025
• Final meeting (in-person only): end-March/April 2025

While the Academic Jury is entrusted with a great deal of responsibility as it judges the opinions of future leaders from all around the world, single out the 100 best contributions for our essay competition and shortlist the very best contributions for the award, the Award Jury will decide on the winners of the competition. The authors of most outstanding ides will receive the opportunity to present their ideas on the main stage during the St. Gallen Symposium and will get in close contact with the members of the Award Jury.

The Award Jury consist of the following experts: