World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Program: An Innovative Capacity Building Program to Facilitate the 25 × 25 Goal

•To help achieve the goal of reducing the risk of premature mortality from noncommunicable, chronic diseases by 25% by 2025, the World Heart Federation has developed its Emerging Leaders program.•The Emerging Leaders program focuses on implementation science, health systems, and health policy research and action among a target of at least 100 emerging leaders over the next decade to initiate and facilitate cardiovascular disease prevention activities globally and in every region of the world.•We describe the rationale for and characteristics of the Emerging Leaders program, including its training objectives, methods, and future directions.•The Emerging Leaders program represents a major opportunity for the World Heart Federation, its member organizations, and the emerging leaders themselves to leverage their collective strengths toward achieving the ambitious, yet achievable, “25 × 25” goal through an innovative global collaborative leadership-enhancing experience.