In a rapidly evolving business world, leaders who can adapt are shaping the future. In 2025, we are seeing entrepreneurs and executives who are not just running companies but also redefining industries. Their ideas, strategies, and dedication make them stand out in a competitive market.
The top 10 business leaders driving global change are individuals who have shown exceptional vision and determination. They are driving innovation, strengthening economies, and ensuring that businesses remain relevant in a fast-changing world. From building stronger connections with customers to leading sustainable initiatives, these leaders are proving that modern leadership is about more than profits—it is about long-term impact.
This article takes a closer look at the top 10 business leaders who are driving global change. Their journeys highlight how passion, responsibility, and strategic thinking continue to define success in the business world.
Top 10 Business Leaders Driving Global Change in 2025
Below are the top 10 business leaders who are driving change and leaving a strong impact across industries.
1. Dr. Peter Kronen | Empowering Safe Anaesthesia in Veterinary Treatments
Anaesthesia plays a very crucial role in every veterinary practice, right from surgical interventions to numerous diagnostic procedures. However, several studies reveal that veterinary anaesthesia is quite risky, often leading to high mortality rates, which is a stressful issue for veterinary personnel, while leaving pet owners in fear. As a visionary in this field, Dr. Peter Kronen founded VASTA (Veterinary Anaesthesia School for Technicians and Veterinarians) for veterinary nurses, which quickly gained global attention and official recognition by the Swiss and several international professional organizations. Today, VASTA is among the leading names as a Veterinary Anaesthesia School around the world.
Careful analysis based on international insight by Dr. Kronen highlighted the developmental lag of anaesthesia behind the specialties of surgery and diagnostic imaging, leading to a treatment gap in veterinary care, reflecting how veterinary patients often undergo major interventions without adequate and dedicated anaesthesia support. Most veterinary personnel, including veterinarians, nurses, and technicians, receive only a minimal anaesthesia education and training during their professional education.
In most cases, undergoing specialty training is impossible for veterinary personnel due to workload, cost, or even geographical constraints. To solve this issue, VASTA by Dr. Kronen offers clinically meaningful, up-to-date knowledge and skills to veterinary personnel from renowned experts in the field, in many geographical regions. At the same time, with this initiative, veterinary clinics gain a direct competitive advantage from training their personnel in this important field.
With a 1-year programme, participants receive a profound knowledge and skill package, allowing them to safely and comfortably anaesthetize the vast majority of clinically relevant patients with different diseases and health statuses. To ensure strict evaluation, VASTA also undertakes a quality control system, where successful candidates are awarded the prestigious title of VAT (Veterinary Anaesthesia Technician) or CVAP (Certified Veterinary Anaesthesia Practitioner) upon completion.
With his relentless efforts and dedication, Dr. Kronen has established VASTA as a pioneering veterinary education provider, with over 1100 graduates globally. Reshaping the way anaesthesia is applied in veterinary medicine in the regions, Dr. Peter Kronen operates VASTA as a major contributor to anaesthetic safety in the veterinary landscape, while reducing fear of anaesthesia for pet owners alike.
2. Stanislas de Quercize | Towards Emparadising the Globe
A visionary leader and seasoned entrepreneur, Stanislas de Quercize has a proven track record of building teams, brands, image, and profit at an international level with a long-term view. With a distinguished career path, Stanislas’ former roles include Marketing Director of Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill in France, President of Montblanc in the USA, Vice President of Alfred Dunhill in London, President of Cartier France, President of Van Cleef & Arpels International, President of Cartier International, and President of Richemont, among others. With more than 9 years in marketing at Procter & Gamble in France and Belgium, and 27 years of experience at Richemont,
With a mission to “Emparadise” the world, Stanislas is passionate about making each day better than ever and relentlessly works towards this cause. To improve the desirability of the brands, he believes there is a need to improve the three important questions: what, how, and where. By introducing innovative approaches, like bi-annual evaluations focusing on the what, how, and why, along with 360-degree evaluations, Stanislas leverages his expertise to improve the desirability of brands. Demonstrating his strong leadership skills, he organizes annual global meetings for CEOs, marketing directors, commercial directors, and HR directors to discuss solutions and enhance brand desirability.
Currently, Stanislas serves across 12 boards, including Barnes International, Messika, Louboutin, Fondation Remy Cointreau, American Friends of le Louvre, Luxurynsight, Reluxury, and others. As a trailblazer in the field, Stanislas has even authored “Emparadise la Vie” where he has offered 50 solutions to Emparadise lives, and mentioned 130 global leaders who are contributing to this cause. With a commitment to increasing the desirability of brands and leaving behind a positive impact, Stanislas de Quercize is a well-acclaimed and influential figure in the luxury industry.
3. Redefining Logistics and Empowering the African Continent | Capt. Pappu Sastry
In the ever-evolving logistics landscape, which plays an instrumental role in the global economy, leaders like Capt. Pappu Sastry are driving the industry forward. A visionary figure in the logistics sector, Capt. Pappu Sastry is the CEO of ADHIRA Shipping & Logistics (ASL), a renowned name in the field exceeding mining logistics requirements. With over 25 years of in-depth knowledge of Shipping and expertise of the African logistics landscape, Capt. Sastry is acclaimed for his unwavering dedication to enhancing the continent’s logistical capabilities.
Driven by a deep understanding of the challenges and potential in the logistics sector of the African continent, Capt. Sastry embarked on a journey to transform the setbacks into breakthrough opportunities. ASL reflects his belief in growth and innovation, boosting the region’s supply chain under his effective leadership. His commitment to innovative economical solutions is reflected in ASL’s investment in structures and procedures, ensuring enhanced supply chain visibility, optimizing efficiencies, and timely deliveries, alongside offering unparalleled services to clients.
Under Capt. Sastry’s leadership, ASL has expanded its services into the global logistics landscape, while maintaining customer-centric services, and dedication to uplift Africa’s economy, implying that professional endeavours and social responsibility can go hand in hand.
As a trailblazer in the field, Capt. Sastry is associated as an advisor to the boards of several renowned companies, including Legacy Group, Empower Capital, Critical Investments, and Africa Bulk Shipping. With numerous recognitions and honours, he has been certified as “Certified CEO” by the CEO Institute, Australia, in 2023 and “Certified Chair” by the Advisory Board Center, Australia, in 2025. Additionally, he has received several awards, including the “Bulk Logistics Excellence Award” at the IBJ Awards in Antwerp 2024 and London 2023, and “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the Netherlands in 2022.
By driving economic development for Africa through business as the medium, Capt. Pappu Sastry proves that along with strengthening the local ecosystem, leaders like him can even profoundly impact the socio-economic growth and development of an entire continent.
4. Dr. Sofica Bistriceanu | A Dynamic Healthcare Expert, Researcher, and Poetess
Dr. Sofica Bistriceanu, MD, Ph.D., a skilled family physician, has extensive experience in healthcare. She graduated from Iasi University in Romania and completed family medicine research at Maastricht University. She has participated in numerous meetings worldwide. With over 120 presentations internationally and more than 50 articles published in international journals, she has earned several awards.
Dr. Sofica Bistriceanu is also a member of the Academy for Professionalism in Healthcare and serves on the Editorial Review Board for The Journal of Patient Experience (JPX), the Editorial Board of the Journal of Medical Research and Clinical Case Reports – Research Portal Central Publishers. Additionally, she serves as an Associate Editor for Primera Scientific Publication and represents the Academic Medical Unit – CMI Dr. Bistriceanu, S., in NT, ROU. Reflecting her literary and creative expertise, Dr. Bistriceanu has also authored seven volumes of poetry, published by Cronica, and Time, both from Iasi Publishing House.
Her research focuses on how communication styles influence people’s lives, including their health. She highlights the harmful effects of improper interactions, both in person and online, on overall well-being and balance. She underscored that Inappropriate verbal and nonverbal communication can lead to conditions such as arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, other endocrine disorders, and even brain hemorrhages or tumors in vulnerable individuals. Paying attention to communication skills is crucial in daily interactions.
Since poor communication is a risk factor for various physical and mental health issues, being polite is essential. It is the most cost-effective way to prevent serious diseases and reduce healthcare costs. Additionally, she has emphasized that building and maintaining honest and respectful relationships with customers, along with a friendly attitude toward them, enhances their collaborative work and lives. Client loyalty reflects the provider’s offerings, including product quality, availability when needed, reasonable prices, effective communication, sharing the presence well, as well as a good name.
With notable contributions to healthcare and research, Dr. Sofica Bistriceanu is committed to advancing medical knowledge and inspiring the next generation of healthcare professionals and leaders.
5. Maria Sergeeva | Redefining Health Data Management
From clinical psychology to global advocacy, from data journalism to technology leadership and non-profit entrepreneurship, Maria Sergeeva’s career has always revolved around one central thread: making information usable to drive change. Whether amplifying unheard voices through data journalism, designing PR campaigns grounded in analytics, founding mission-driven organisations, or writing hundreds of GP letters to bridge communication gaps in healthcare as part of her patient and neurodiversity advocacy, Maria has consistently worked at the intersection of data, impact, and human stories.
That mission became deeply personal when she realised she could not bring her own health data together in one place—across languages, countries, providers, and countless apps that often added to the fragmentation. She also noticed that the patients she was advocating for were drowning in information without ever being able to make their data usable. In 2019, Maria built a simple solution to manage her own records and those of people she was supporting, convinced that a comprehensive tool for users must already be on its way.
When she moved countries again in 2021, Maria discovered just how wrong that assumption was. Through research, conversations with professors, clinicians, and founders, she realised that the reason no solution existed was structural: systems were never built to give patients ownership for many reasons, and their privacy would hardly be the priority. If it was going to change, she would have to build it herself.
That insight led to the creation of Health Data Avatar (HDA), the platform Maria founded to finally give patients a multilingual, cross-border digital health twin to use their data on their terms. By turning scattered files, handwritten and personal notes, and records into structured, searchable, and shareable data with multiple privacy options, HDA enables patients to take control of their health story in any language, avoid dangerous medication overlaps, prevent unnecessary repeat tests, and make prevention and care more accessible.
Looking ahead, she is determined to establish a new global standard for personal health data ownership: one where patients are not passive record holders, but active agents of change whose stories drive better care and more equitable systems worldwide.
6. Reimagining Human Connection in a Disconnected World | Olga Ploke
A bold and influential voice in the global movement to combat loneliness, Olga Ploke is pioneering innovative solutions to one of the 21st century’s most urgent yet overlooked social challenges. As Founder and CEO of adandra, a human-centered digital platform nurturing intergenerational connections and empowering “chosen families,” she spearheads a paradigm shift in how we design community, care, and belonging.
Olga’s journey is deeply personal as well as visionary. Born in Ukraine and raised without a traditional family network, she later moved to Germany navigating the challenges of single motherhood and caring for her mobility-impaired mother. These experiences gave her profound insight into the isolating gaps permeating modern society. Her yearning for connection was not only emotional but fundamentally structural. This intimate understanding, combined with her international academic and professional background, ignited the vision behind adandra.
Holding a BA in Linguistics from Belarus and dual Master’s degrees, an MPA and MBA, from the American University in Washington, D.C., Olga brings a globally informed, systems-thinking approach to social innovation. Her career spans complex roles in government and nonprofit organizations such as the US Information Service in Belarus, International Republican Institute in the USA, and Scottish Development International in Germany, along with business development at Ernst&Young, where she worked for over 13 years. Yet, at heart, she remains devoted to community-driven impact.
At the intersection of technology and empathy, adandra embodies Olga’s solution to a fragmented world. The platform leverages ethically developed technology for personalized matching and integrates self-reflection and communication tools that help people cultivate lasting, meaningful bonds — what Olga calls “a structural response to loneliness.”
But adandra is far more than a product; it is a social movement. Under Olga’s leadership, it is redefining family, community, and care in an era where millions suffer in silence. She has emerged as a powerful advocate for social inclusion, emotional well-being, and digital innovation that genuinely serves humanity. As one of today’s most influential new voices shaping the future of human connection, Olga Ploke reminds the world that empathy, thoughtful design, and courageous leadership can heal even the most invisible epidemics.
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7. Anita Mendiratta | Leading With Vision: Inspiring Global Impact With Courage and Compassion
Global strategic advisor, diplomat, author, and on-air and on-stage personality Anita Mendiratta’s career is a rare blend of corporate mastery, entrepreneurial vision, and deeply human leadership. Her unique journey began in the dynamic corridors of IBM, Unilever, and The Coca-Cola Company, international corporate powerhouses that shaped her strategic acumen and anchored her ability to lead across cultures. Building on this foundation and with a commitment to translating vision into genuine action, she created ANITA MENDIRATTA & ASSOCIATES, a London-based management consultancy renowned for enabling strategic leadership. With an acute understanding of the economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors shaping and reshaping nations and industries, over three decades, she has advised over 100 countries, becoming a trusted confidante to world leaders, CEOs, and global institutions in the establishment clear, compelling, united and competitive economies, societies and identities, particularly in the areas of sustainable development through tourism and aviation. Most recently, and as the world rebuilds and reshapes post-pandemic yet in the face of significant ongoing challenges including the climate crisis and geo-political conflict, Anita works closely with leaders guiding them through transformation, and importantly, crisis, with clarity, courage, and care.
Furthermore, as the long-established and globally trusted Special Advisor to the Secretary General of UN Tourism, Anita plays an active role in shaping the global leadership landscape, providing counsel pivotal to national advancement and competitiveness, particularly across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa where she has helped governments and industries leverage these sectors as engines of economic growth, societal development, and international standing.
Her evolution from corporate executive to globally trusted thought leader and confidante has been defined as a voice that is authoritative and deeply relatable. A go-to for global media including AlJazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, France24, Sky News, and TRT World, Anita is recognised for distilling complex realities into clear, actionable insight, often in moments of global uncertainty. Her multi-award-nominated book, “The Call to Leadership,” has resonated worldwide as a landmark work on courage, vision, and the human side of decision-making during times of crisis. A familiar presence on UN, IATA, WTTC, and other global stages, she has brought a unique richness of perspective, earning her recognition among the “Most Influential Women in Tourism” and “Top 25 Executives to Watch.”
At the heart of Anita’s leadership is a conviction that influence must be matched by impact which she brings to life through The Anita Mendiratta Foundation (AMF), channelling her expertise and networks into uplifting vulnerable communities, particularly in crisis-hit, tourism-dependent nations. Focused on education and economic sustainability, AMF projects are committed to building futures of dignity and hope.
Anita Mendiratta’s path is one of uncommon depth – an arc that seamlessly connects corporate success, entrepreneurial leadership, global influence, and purposeful philanthropy, proving that the most resonant leadership is that which blends strategy with humanity, and achievement with service.
8. Sarjan Ram | Pioneering Creativity and Innovation Across Industries
A seasoned professional and an innovator, Sarjan Ram is the founder and Creative Director of Beach Haus, a City of London–based consultancy and cultural brand that operates at the edge of art, branding, creative, hospitality, and technology. Originally launched as a disruptive gallery concept, Beach Haus has evolved into a high-concept consultancy uniting creative strategy, avant-garde expression, and socially conscious design. Its themes: purpose over popularity, disruption across multiple verticals, and AI-enabled guest experiences, reflect Sarjan’s vision for businesses that balance creativity, commerce, and community. He describes Beach Haus as his intellectual and creative platform, integrated on truth, and designed to disrupt. It is a cultural and intellectual project that mixes the old world with the new, carried forward by a long-term independent vision.
With a distinguished corporate career, Sarjan has delivered multi-million-pound innovations and led global strategy projects across industries, including food, beverage, nutrition, and ingredients. His experience spans enterprise-level programmes in brand building, analytics, consumer insight, M&A integrations, cross-channel marketing, geographic expansion, and corporate innovation strategy.
Parallelly, as a creative spanning design, interior, advertising, music, artistic and literature, in his own right, Beach Haus has enabled Sarjan to fully integrate his curation and artistic side into his professional practice. With Beach Haus, he has created an MVP concept that blends cutting-edge creative agency work with a gallery-led guest stay retail model—a pioneering move that is premiumising the experiential guest stay market. As one of the earliest innovators in this space, Sarjan positioned Beach Haus years ahead of its time. Under his strategic direction and vision, Beach Haus has become a multi-award-winning ecosystem that crosses different industry verticals and ways of working, collaborating with leading artists—including talent represented by Tate Modern and Saatchi, while earning recognition for disruptive innovation in the gallery and contemporary art space.
From boutique hospitality destinations like Gensing Lodge and Florence of Oxford to AI-powered storytelling and cross-sector collaborations, Sarjan Ram is redefining what it means to build globally connected, culturally disruptive, and ethically future-facing businesses.
9. Chris Hughes | Simplifying International Payments with a Redefined Travel Card
Chris Hughes has built his career at the heart of fintech’s most transformative moments, from helping architect financial systems at Revolut during its hypergrowth, to leading core products at Tamara as the Gulf’s fintech scene accelerated. His contribution has consistently been at the intersection of finance, technology, and execution: designing the infrastructure that makes complex financial products simple and accessible for end-users. As the Founder and CEO of Sinder, he is bringing this experience to bear by building the UAE’s first 0% FX markup debit card, underpinned by Shariah compliance and a premium customer experience.
His vision for Sinder is rooted in solving real, local problems while setting a global standard for design and transparency. The Gulf is the world’s highest-value outbound travel market, yet its financial services remain a decade behind Europe and the US. By focusing on travel-centric money, cards, wallets, remittance, and connectivity services like eSIM, Chris aims to close that gap and create a borderless experience for global citizens living in the UAE. Sinder’s mission is to simplify international payments and empower expats, students, and frequent travelers with transparent, tech-forward financial tools.
Looking ahead, he sees fintech evolving toward hyper-localisation and commoditisation: financial services delivered at near-zero cost, tailored precisely to customer needs. Chris Hughes’ ambition is not just to launch another card, but to build a platform that empowers UAE residents to move, spend, and connect globally without friction, proving that the region can be a birthplace for world-class fintech innovation.
10. Sasa Pejic | A Guide to the Field of Investment
A visionary investor and financial advisor, Sasa Pejic currently leads as the Co-founder and CEO of Pannon GroupNS, a finance consulting and investment advisory service provider. With over two decades of expertise as an investor and financial advisor, Sasa has been offering his knowledge and counseling services throughout his career path. Apart from his current endeavours, Sasa is also a serial entrepreneur, successfully building and selling several startups.
With years of experience in the financial landscape, Sasa has been helping build predictable cash flow, educate on investment forms, design tailored investment strategies, and apply investment strategies. Committed to staying ahead of the curve, Sasa has added several licenses and certificates to his professional experience, equipping him with additional skills and field knowledge. Furthermore, mentoring in the banking sector helped him hone his leadership, strategic, and decision-making skills, empowering Sasa to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.
Apart from his professional endeavours, Sasa is deeply committed to serving his community. With a strong belief that individual progress is a result of supporting the community, he has led several initiatives to introducing chess to primary schools fostering critical thinking in children, alongside organizing some of the first online chess tournaments over 15 years ago as the secretary of his local club.
At Pannon GroupNS, Sasa offers tailored consulting services in the finance and investments sector. With unmatched financing, investment, and corporate restructuring services, the group is revolutionizing the landscape, emerging as a trusted partner in the field. Committed to filling the gap in the industry, Sasa Pejic brings a fresh approach to the field and finance education, playing a crucial role in setting the group apart from the competition in the field.
Conclusion
The top 10 business leaders for 2025 remind us that success is about more than just growth numbers. It is about influence, responsibility, and the ability to guide others in the right direction. These leaders are shaping industries, setting new benchmarks, and proving that strong leadership can inspire change. As we move forward, their journeys will continue to be an example for the next generation of entrepreneurs and decision-makers.
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