President of the Homeless World Cup and Chairman of Sportscotland; UK

Mel Young is a leading social entrepreneur and passionate change-maker who has spent his career fighting exclusion and inequality.

With a background in journalism, he has founded several initiatives, including The Big Issue in Scotland and International Network of Street Papers. He is best known, however, for establishing the Homeless World Cup: under his leadership, it has grown into a globally recognised brand that has changed the lives of over a million homeless people around the world.

This year he established his latest venture which is a discussion forum with a huge ambition – to create a new, more inclusive economic system that brings together the efforts of social innovators across the world. The New Ism will invite these trailblazers to debate across several formats how to create sustainable and widespread change.

Mel also has several other roles. He is Chairman of Sport Scotland promoting the role of sport in transforming society. He speaks at events around the world and continues to write – he has a regular blog and recently released his first book, Home Game. He is a Senior Ashoka Fellow and a Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum and was awarded an MBE in 2017.