Across 10 industries, young entrepreneurs and rising stars have been selected from 23 countries and territories to make up this year’s list. Honorees from as far as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Laos have landed spots on the list for the first time – making the 2019 list even more inclusive and diverse.

A believer in education, Byambajargal Ayushjav co-founded Faro Education, one of Mongolia’s largest language training school networks, in 2014. Educated at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, she chose the name “Faro”, which means lighthouse in Spanish, to convey the company’s goal of being a beacon of light for promoting education in the country. An advocate of public education on digital literacy, Ayushjav also founded Faro Foundation Mongolia to raise awareness and run training programs on digital literacy.

While working at Morgan Stanley’s natural resources group in New York, Erdenetulga Rentsen was inspired to help diversify Mongolia’s economy away from commodity dependence. After returning to Mongolia to join RVJ Capital, Rentsen has identified and led large investment projects, such as establishing a cashmere manufacturing facility and building a major hotel close to Ulaanbaatar’s new airport. Rentsen was the top ranked chess player in Rhode Island during his undergraduate days at Brown University; He plans to pursue his MBA at Harvard during the fall of 2019.

Orchlon Enkhtsetseg is the CEO of Clean Energy Asia, an energy startup founded in 2012 that aims to utilize Mongolia’s vast wind and solar resources to decrease the country’s reliance on imported fuel and electricity. Clean Energy Asia is a joint venture by Newcom, a Mongolian telecom conglomerate, and SB Energy, the energy arm of Softbank Group. In 2017, Clean Energy Asia raised $128 million to build its first 50MW wind farm in the Gobi desert.