In late June, the Tällberg Foundation joined with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in Athens to celebrate the winners of the 2025 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize as part of SNF’s 30th anniversary celebration. This special edition of New Thinking for a New World picks up where that celebration left off.

Tällberg Foundation board members Helena Nilsson Friberg and Tom Cummings sat down with the three 2025 laureates—Rhett Ayers Butler, founder and CEO of Mongabay; Bryan Doerries, artistic director of Theater of War Productions; and David Gruber, oceanographer and founder of Project CETI—for a conversation about what leadership demands of them.

Rhett, Bryan, and David talked candidly about the choices that have shaped their leadership journeys as well as the challenges of the future.

Listen and tell us what you think makes great leaders great.

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You can also find New Thinking for a New World on your preferred platform, including Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. 

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ABOUT OUR PRIZE WINNERS

Rhett Ayers Butler is a journalist, conservationist, and founder of Mongabay, a leading global environmental news platform producing original reporting in multiple languages. Under his leadership, Mongabay has grown into one of the world’s most widely read sources on forests, wildlife, oceans, and climate change, reaching tens of millions of readers annually and shaping public debate on biodiversity and conservation.

Rhett’s work bridges investigative journalism, conservation science, and storytelling, amplifying the voices of communities on the frontlines of environmental change. He has spearheaded initiatives to expand environmental journalism in tropical countries by building networks of local reporters and strengthening access to independent, fact-based information. His leadership has been recognized with awards from the Heinz Family Foundation and the Parker-Gentry Award for Conservation.

Born in the United States, Rhett studied economics and biology at the University of California, San Diego, before working across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Bryan Doerries is a writer, director, and translator serving as Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions. A self-described evangelist for ancient stories, Doerries uses age-old approaches to help individuals and communities heal from trauma and loss.

Under his leadership, Theater of War Productions has presented projects across the United States and internationally, using dramatic readings of seminal plays and community conversations to confront topics including combat-related psychological injury, end-of-life care, racialized violence, incarceration, gun violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, the refugee crisis, and addiction.

Doerries is the author of several books, including The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today and The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan. Among his honors, he has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kenyon College, was named Public Artist in Residence for the City of New York, and was elected a Hastings Center Fellow.

David Gruber is a marine biologist, explorer, and innovator whose work bridges biology, robotics, and artificial intelligence to reveal the hidden lives of ocean creatures. He is the Founder and President of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), an effort to decode the communication of sperm whales using advanced machine learning and robotics. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York and a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

David’s discoveries include the first biofluorescent sea turtle and more than 200 new fluorescent and bioluminescent marine species. Collaborating with engineers at Harvard, he has co-developed soft robotic devices to study fragile ocean life without harm. A National Geographic Explorer and TED Audacious grantee, he has received international recognition including the Lagrange Prize. He is also the author of Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence.

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ABOUT OUR FACILITATORS 

Tom Cummings is a thought leader, entrepreneur and board member for the Tallberg Foundation serving as secretary of the jury, the Leaders Mentoring Leaders program and Rethinking How Non-profits can Fund Themselves.

Tom leads the CEO roundtable for the Global Alliance for Banking on Values where he He is a Co-Director of the Institute for Values Based Governance and Governance Academy. He is a full member of the Club of Rome and on the board of B-Corp Foundation.

He has served as an executive for Unilever NV, ABN AMRO bank and Shell NV, and has worked as a close adviser to public and family firms.

He is co-author of Leadership Landscapes (2008); Nine Visions of Capitalism (2015), Reference Handbook on Political and Civic Leadership (2010) and Leaders for Tomorrow (2009). His academic history includes University of London and IMD with visiting research and teaching assignments for more than 20 universities.

Helena Nilsson Friberg is an experienced People & Culture leader passionate about developing both Business & People. She always engages in the interdependencies of business development, culture, and organizational transformation and works with a Gestalt and systemic approach at the core. After 19 years at IKEA, she strives to always contribute to creating a better everyday life for the many people.

Helena is currently deputy CEO of MiL Institute. Before that, she headed up HR, Communication and Continuous Improvement at Electrolux, BA Europe. Prior to this, Helena was head of People & Culture at Inter IKEA Group, which included being the strategy owner of the IKEA People Strategy; creating, strategizing, and integrating a continued strong people focus across IKEA.

She has a BSc in Business, Marketing and Management from Växjö University/Kansai Gaidai and an MSc in Gestalt in organizations from the University of Derby/Gestalt Academy in Scandinavia.