New York born and raised, world famous legendary actor, with over 50 years of award-winning and commercially successful roles. For his contributions to the film industry, Caan was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978. Amongst his many charitable endeavors, he serves as Global Ambassador of the Genius 100 Foundation.

“Coming from Sunnyside Queens has shaped me, inspired me and informed my creativity. As a New Yorker through and through, and as Global Ambassador of Genius 100 Foundation, I am pleased to support the G100 Inspiration Award and look forward to viewing the submissions from around the world.”

Dr Sima Samar was born in Jaghoori, Ghazni, Afghanistan. She obtained her degree in medicine in February 1982 from Kabul University, one of the few Hazara women to do so. She practised medicine at a government hospital in Kabul, but after a few months, she was forced to flee for her safety to her native Jaghoori, where she provided medical treatment to patients throughout the remote areas of central Afghanistan.

One year after the communist revolution in 1978, her husband was arrested and was never heard from again. Some years later, Dr Samar and her young son fled to the safety of nearby Pakistan. She then worked as a doctor at the refugee branch of the Mission Hospital in Quetta. In 1989, distressed by the total lack of healthcare facilities for Afghan refugee women, she established the Shoehada Organization and Shoehada Clinic in Quetta. The Shoehada Organization was dedicated to the provision of health care to Afghan women and girls, the training of medical staff, and education. In the following years, further branches of the clinic/hospital were opened in central Afghanistan.

After living in Quetta as a refugee for over a decade, Dr Samar returned to Afghanistan in December 2001 to assume a cabinet post in the Afghan Interim Administration led by Hamid Karzai. In the interim government, she served as Deputy Chairperson and first-ever Minister for Women’s Affairs. She was forced to resign from her post after receiving death threats and being harassed for questioning conservative Islamic laws, especially sharia law. During the 2002 Loya Jirga, several religious conservatives published an advertisement in a local newspaper calling Dr Samar the Salman Rushdie of Afghanistan. Rushdie is also a Genius 100 Visionary.

Dr Samar served as head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).  Over the years, she has been recognised through several international awards, including the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and the 2004 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights and was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Despite opposition and limited funding and death threats in her past, Dr Samar has persevered and has made what seems to be impossible possible.

Don Tapscott, Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, is one of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society. He has authored 16 books, including Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, which has been translated into over 25 languages.

In 2016, with his son Alex, he co-authored the global best seller Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World, now translated into 20 languages.

According to the late, great Clay Christensen of Harvard Business School it is “the book, literally, on how to survive and thrive in this next wave of technology-driven disruption.” The paperback version of the book, updated with new material covering recent developments about digital assets, sovereign identity and Central Bank Digital Currencies was published in June 2018.

In 2017, Don and Alex co-founded the Blockchain Research Institute, whose 100+ projects are the definitive investigation into blockchain strategy, use-cases, implementation challenges and organizational transformations. Since then Don produced a new book entitled Supply Chain Revolution: How Blockchain Technology Is Transforming the

Digital Flow of Assets. The book debuted in June 2020 as the “#1 New Release” in the commerce category on Amazon.com.

Don is a member of the Order of Canada and in 2019, then ranked as the 2nd most influential Management Thinker by Thinkers50, joined Professor Christensen, Michael Porter, Peter Drucker and others in the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. He is an Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and Chancellor Emeritus of Trent University in Ontario where he served as Chancellor 2013-2019.

It is hard to imagine anyone who has been more prolific, profound, and influential in explaining today’s technological revolutions and their impact on the world.