Top honour for young leader

After a tough international selection process, Erik de Ridder has been elected as the secretary-general of a simulated chamber of the United Nations (UN) that will participate in the 2012 G8/G20 Youth Summits in Washington DC in June.

The annual summit gathers some of the brightest young minds from these countries – plus an international delegation, which De Ridder will lead – to craft a vision for addressing key contemporary issues. "It's not a model," he says. "It has real, consequent outputs that are communicated to all participating governments and international organisations."