Ready to take your leadership to the next level?
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN for the 2026 cohort of the Tällberg Leaders Mentoring Leaders (TLML) program, which offers extraordinary individuals the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills, broaden their perspectives, and prepare for values-based leadership through a focused one-on-one, year-long mentorship.
Emerging leaders from any country, sector, or discipline who are committed to ethical leadership and making a meaningful difference in their communities and beyond are invited to complete an application.
Applications are open through May 1, 2025. However, successful applicants should initiate the process as soon as possible.
How to Apply for TLML 2026
1️⃣ Create Your Profile
Begin by setting up your profile in the application portal.
For the best experience, we recommend using Google Chrome.
2️⃣ Complete the Five-Part Application Form:
✅ Essay – Write about your leadership approach and how mentorship could support your impact.
✅ Video (2 minutes) – Tell us why you are applying.
✅ Supporting Evidence – Share sources that validate the impact of your work.
✅ Bio & CV – Provide a short biography and a structured CV.
✅ Practical Questions – Answer a few logistical and program-related questions.
3️⃣ Save, Review, and Submit
You must submit your application within two weeks of starting it.
If you begin near the end of April, your final deadline remains May 1—no exceptions.
What Else You Need to Know
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There is no cost to apply or participate in the TLML program.
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Mentees should be comfortable speaking English.
- There is no age requirement to apply. What matters most is the quality of your application—our juries will evaluate your responses to assess your potential and fit for the program
Timeline
March 1 – May 1, 2025
📌 Application Period – Applications are open during this time. Once you begin your application, you must submit it within two weeks.
May – September 2025
📌 Selection Process – Applications undergo rigorous vetting, research, and pre-jury evaluation. In September, an international jury reviews the candidates and selects the mentees who best fit the TLML program.
November 2025
📌 Announcement of 2026 Mentees – The selected mentees for the 2026 TLML program will be officially announced.
January – December 2026
📌 Program Duration – The TLML formally starts with an in-person multi-day workshop in January, followed by a year-long program of mentorship, learning, and engagement
Frequently asked questions
What is the Tällberg Leaders Mentoring Leaders (TLML) program?
TLML is a mentorship program that aims to identify and nurture emerging leaders with outsized potential, leveraging the Tällberg Foundation’s global network to accelerate their growth as impactful leaders.
The Tällberg Foundation has a deep commitment to encouraging global, values-based leadership wherever we can find it. In a world beset by existential challenges, we believe the only sustainable solutions are the ones imagined and pursued by leaders who operate with courage, creativity, persistence, commitment to universal values—but, above all, an understanding that global challenges demand global solutions.
The TLML concept is simple: in our messy world, we need as many extraordinary leaders as possible. Our program matches emerging leaders from a wide range of countries and disciplines with equally diverse established leaders in a focused, one-on-one, year-long process of conversation and collaboration designed to accelerate the development of high-potential leaders.
Why did the foundation establish the TLML?
The Foundation’s board believes that many societies, as well as the global system, are at or approaching inflection points. Institutions, paradigms, and societal norms are under enormous pressure to change, but old habits die hard, even if they no longer are adequate to deal with new realities. That puts great value on courageous leaders and innovative leadership.
The mentoring program leverages Tällberg’s global network to accelerate the mentees’ growth as impactful global leaders by enhancing understanding, skills, and readiness for values-based leadership in whatever professional trajectory unfolds for the individual participant.
We hope to leverage mentors’ experiences and learnings—successes as well as failures—so that emerging leaders can seize their leadership opportunities as fully and as soon as possible.
Who is eligible for the TLML Program?
The TLML program is open to emerging leaders from any country, sector, or discipline who are committed to values-driven leadership, dedicated to making a meaningful impact in their communities and beyond, and who embrace a global mindset.
How do potential mentees apply?
Mentee candidates apply through an online process that is open during the spring of each year. Applicants are asked not only to articulate their work and its actual or potential impact, but also how an intense, globally-oriented mentorship will help them grow as leaders.
Selected mentees are expected to actively participate in the program, which includes:
- Participating in an initial several-day kick-off session in January.
- Committing time to regular mentoring sessions and additional group discussions throughout the year.
- Engaging openly and reflectively in the mentoring relationship.
- Taking initiative to maximize their learning experience and apply insights to their leadership journey.
Applications for the 2026 TLML program will be open from March 1 – May 1, 2025, and can be submitted through the application portal on this webpage.
How are the mentees selected?
Applications are reviewed and researched by Tällberg staff and then vetted by a pre-jury of leaders from Tällberg’s global network. Once those processes are complete, applications are reviewed by a global jury of leaders from diverse backgrounds who select a cohort of mentees. The selection process involves rigorous deliberation and assessment to ensure that the chosen mentees embody the program’s overarching criteria: demonstrated courage, creativity, persistence, commitment to universal values, evidence of impact, and an understanding of the need for global solutions to address global challenges. Most importantly, the jury seeks to identify people with high potential to grow as global leaders.
When are the global mentees announced?
The 2026 mentees will be announced in November and the program will run from January-December, 2026. You can learn more here, tallbergfoundation.org/tlml/.
What types of leaders are serving as mentors?
What’s unique about Tällberg is the idea that while borders—between countries, disciplines, religions, thought systems, and cultures—are important to our identities, they are too often obstacles to the solutions demanded by the problems confronting our societies. Leaders active in the Tällberg network understand that, thereby positioning them to help high-potential leaders grow their leadership skills in a world that demands global approaches and solutions. Visit our website to learn more about the current group of mentees and their mentors at tallbergfoundation.org/tlml/2025-cohort/.
How does the program actually work?
In essence, TLML centers on leadership. The goal is to enhance participants’ understanding, skills, and readiness for values-based leadership on their respective professional journeys. The method focuses on matching each participant with an accomplished global leader from Tällberg’s worldwide network.
Mentors and mentees are matched through a process of interviews, surveys and research—the key element of which is finding the right personal chemistry.
The TLML program formally starts with an in-person multi-day workshop in January. That program is designed to encourage conversation about leadership as well as about the global context in which leaders need to operate—today and tomorrow. The goal is to jump-start mentee/mentor relationships, as well as to generate insights into the complexities of leadership, and counsel on coping with the kinds of challenges that characterize the early 21st century.
Subsequently, mentors and mentees meet virtually at least monthly over the balance of the year. Those meetings are supplemented by group “pulse checks” as well as other meetings, typically virtual, to explore various leadership issues as a group.
Graduates of the program will receive a certificate of completion and become integral members of Tällberg’s global network.
Who leads the TLML?
Team leader is Michael Niconchuk, a researcher and practitioner at the intersection of psychological trauma recovery, migration, and violence prevention, who is a director of the Tällberg Foundation. Supporting him are Ulla-Britt Fräjdin-Hellqvist, an experienced business leader and board member with expertise in industry and technology, and Tom Cummings, who advises corporate and non-corporate leadership (also a Tällberg director). In his capacity as Tällberg’s chairman, Alan Stoga advises the team.
Who is the Tällberg Foundation’s lead supporter?
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF supports organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving the public welfare.
Since 1996, the Foundation has committed more than $3.8 billion through over 5,500 grants to nonprofit organizations in more than 130 countries around the world.
Learn more at SNF.org.