Francisco Santos: Defend Democracy, Defend Freedom | EDGE 2026
Leadership Development
•
05-Jun-2026
In this EDGE - Beyond The Stage 1:1, Francisco Santos shares how surviving kidnapping reshaped his view of leadership, resilience, and the true cost of freedom. He explains why protecting public discourse matters in the age of social media and cancel culture, and why democracy is being challenged globally. His call to leaders is clear: assume responsibility when things go wrong, give credit when things go right, and speak up to defend democracy and the institutions that protect freedom.
Takeaways:
• Being chained” taught him that freedom has a cost and must be defended.
• Leadership builds trust by assuming responsibility and giving credit to others.
• Democracy is “being challenged” and leaders need to “Defend democracy, defend institutions”.
Up Next in Leadership Development
-
The Legacy Lab: Generations Aligned. ...
What kind of legacy will exist because you were here?
During Global Impact Week, YPO and YNG members gathered for The Legacy Lab, an interactive session led by Peter Johnson that challenged participants to think beyond success and consider the long-term impact they hope to create in the world.
...
-
Kwame Owusu-Kesse: Why Impact Must Co...
In this EDGE - Beyond The Stage 1:1, Kwame Owusu-Kesse explains what “impact over profit” really looks like in leadership - not as charity or signaling, but as making decisions based on lives and livelihoods. He argues that leaders need to shift their mental models, stop performative impact, and ...
-
How Leaders Can Excel with Executive ...
AI is scaling knowledge and intelligence.
It rewards good judgment and penalizes poor judgment because AI enables faster scaling.
In a world where expertise is commoditized and analysis is automated, the CEO’s true advantage is no longer access to information or intelligence, it is their judgme...