Global communications firm, Edelman, has today announced the renewal of its strategic partnership with Founders Forum Group, a curated global community of the world’s leading digital and technology entrepreneurs and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys.
This year’s Founders Forum Global, held from 9–11 June, gathered the world’s most influential technology founders, CEOs, investors, and policymakers, featuring impactful discussions shaping the future of business and technology. The event hosted its highest calibre guestlist to date with 450 entrepreneurs, including nearly 300 unicorn founders. Founders in the room achieved an aggregate valuation of over $1 trillion. Investors in the room, meanwhile, represented $2 trillion in Assets Under Management.
While most of the event takes place under the Chatham House Rule, the forum’s dedicated livestream stage highlighted a series of thought-provoking conversations to a global audience via Bloomberg. This year, a select number of podcasts were also invited to record an episode live at the event, including The Business of Creativity, The Times Tech Podcast, Time to Talk Quantum, CNBC’s The Tech Download, and Laura Brown’s All the Cool Girls Get Fired.
This year’s partnership builds on Edelman’s ongoing collaboration with Founders Forum Group’s global portfolio of forums, which tackle defining questions around innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership.
This year’s event comes at a time when CEOs are increasingly called upon to play a more active role in rebuilding trust across divides. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer finds that 70% of people globally have an insular trust mindset, meaning they are hesitant or unwilling to trust someone different from themselves. The tech leaders convened at this year’s Founders Forum Global face a unique opportunity to deepen trust in emerging technologies by serving as trust brokers: building open dialogue, forging cross-sector collaboration and demonstrating forward-looking leadership that helps people feel greater confidence in the innovations affecting their lives.
“The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that seven in ten people globally are hesitant to trust those unlike themselves – but the founders and leaders we convene at Founders Forum Global are uniquely placed to turn that around,” said Carolyn Dawson, CEO, Founders Forum Group. “The entrepreneurs in this room have built companies that billions of people rely on, and they've already proven that bold ideas and genuine human connection can transcend divides. Our continued partnership with Edelman brings together two organisations that share that same optimism, and a commitment to giving the world's most innovative leaders the platform to build something bigger than their businesses.”
“Founders Forum Group continues to create a vital space for CEOs to come together and confront the realities of leading in an increasingly divided world. This year’s Edelman Trust Barometer found that 73% of people globally believe CEOs have a responsibility to bridge divides and build trust, yet only 44% believe business leaders are doing so effectively. That gap is the opportunity. Spaces like Founders Forum Global and its Chair & CEO Forum give leaders the chance to engage candidly, learn from one another, and strengthen their role as trusted stewards of business and society,” said Julian Payne, CEO, EMEA and Global Chair, Crisis & Risk at Edelman.
