A chief executive in Lyon, a minister in Accra and a foundation director in Berlin now face the same three files on the same morning: an artificial-intelligence decision, a climate obligation and a question of trust from the public. Their answers will differ; their problems do not. Yet most of them still exchange only with people from their own country and their own sector. The international leaders' circle exists to correct that.
What changes when the room is international
Three things. First, calibration: what looks like a crisis in Paris may be routine in Nairobi, and the reverse; hearing it from a peer resets the scale. Second, foresight: regulation, consumer behaviour and political mood travel between countries with a delay of a few years, and a well-composed circle lets you see the next wave before it reaches you. Third, humility: an international room punishes the assumption that one's national way of doing things is the way.
What changes when it is also cross-sector
Most international networks are international within one sector: chief executives with chief executives, diplomats with diplomats. The decisions that matter in 2026 sit at the boundaries between them. A circle that seats a company head next to an elected official and a civil-society leader, from three continents, produces the rarest thing in a leader's week: a conversation where nobody can hide behind the codes of their own world.
The conditions for it to work
Distance kills circles that rely on chance. An international circle needs a fixed rhythm (a monthly forum, online or in person, and physical gatherings each year), a shared language of rules (the Chatham House rule, no soliciting, equal speaking time), and a size small enough for everyone to know everyone. It also needs a home: a city where the circle is anchored and where members know they will meet.
The existing models
The large executive networks are international by scale, with chapters in every major city and a global directory. The selective fellowships of the World Economic Forum or the Aspen Institute are international by design but closed to application. Regional circles, from the Africa CEO Forum to the European business associations, gather leaders around a geography. Each answers part of the need; few answer the cross-sector part.
The World Leaders Society's circle
The World Leaders Society was founded in Paris in 2025 precisely as an international, cross-sector circle: forums of eight to twelve members that bring together business leaders, elected officials, senior public officers and civil-society figures, formed by region, starting with Europe and Africa, and gathered each year at a summit. Its annual publication, the WLS 100, already spans forty-four countries and eight categories. Admission is by application, without an age limit, through an independent committee; fifty inaugural seats are open for 2026.
Nobody learns much from people who share their passport, their sector and their certainties.WLS Editorial
An editorial analysis from the World Leaders Society.
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