Acquia Founder, Drupal Project Creator Dries Buytaert Named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum
BURLINGTON, Mass. – March 12, 2013 – Acquia, the enterprise guide to Drupal, today announced that Acquia co-founder and Drupal project creator Dries Buytaert was named among this year’s class of Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum.
Buytaert is among 199 young leaders from 70 countries selected in recognition of their professional accomplishments and their commitment to contribute their knowledge and energy to address global challenges and work toward a better future. Young Global Leaders are active in a wide range of initiatives, including those that promote health, education, employment and economic opportunity in regions impacted by poverty and natural disaster.
“The Forum of Young Global Leaders provides a unique effort to engage the younger generation into the management of global affairs, working together and being integrated into the larger Forum community. The Young Global Leaders have an exceptional opportunity to improve the state of the world,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum.
This year’s Young Global Leaders were chosen by a committee chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The committee selected leaders from among thousands of candidates after evaluating their past work, ability to overcome adversity, and commitment to society.
"Young Global Leaders contribute their expertise and energy to tackle some of world’s most pressing problems. I’m honored to be selected among this year’s class of leaders and look forward to taking a role in the forum’s collective work," said Dries Buytaert, co-founder and CTO of Acquia. Read more from Buytaert about his selection to the Young Global Leaders at http://buytaert.net/young-global-leader-2013.
The Forum of Young Global Leaders is currently composed of more than 700 leaders from around the world. The next annual summit of the forum is scheduled for June 2-5, 2013, in Yangon, Myanmar.
Buytaert is the original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform. Buytaert serves as president of the Drupal Association, a non-profit organization formed to help Drupal flourish. He is also co-founder and chief technology officer of Acquia, a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for Drupal. Buytaert is also a co-founder of Mollom, a web service that helps ensure oversight of user-generated content, and, more importantly, protects websites from spam. A native of Belgium, Buytaert holds a PhD in computer science and engineering from Ghent University and a Licentiate Computer Science (MsC) from the University of Antwerp. In 2008, Buytaert was elected to Young Entrepreneurs of Tech by BusinessWeek as well as MIT TR 35 Young Innovator. In 2012, Buytaert was named CIO of the Year by Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech, as well as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the emerging category in New England.
Additional information about the Forum of Young Global Leaders can be found at http://www.younggloballeaders.org/.
About Acquia
Acquia provides enterprises with the freedom to create extraordinary web experiences based on Drupal, the open source platform that integrates content, community and commerce. Offering a variety of SaaS solutions specifically designed for Drupal, Acquia gives global organizations the unparalleled ability to rapidly deploy and manage multichannel content across web and mobile devices. Co-founded by Drupal project’s creator in 2007, Acquia has helped more than 2,500 companies including Twitter, Warner Music Group, Stanford University, Mercedes-Benz and the New York MTA, to grow and scale their digital experiences with confidence. Acquia was recently named the number one software company in the 2012 Inc. 500 and was named one of the 100 most promising companies in America by Forbes Magazine. See who’s using Drupal at http://www.drupalshowcase.com, and for more information visit www.acquia.com or call +1 781 238 8600. Acquia is a registered trademark of Acquia, Inc.
