Meet the 2018 Leaders: Africa Conference, Johannesburg, 15th of July to July 18th (Obama Foundation)

Dr. Ibrahim is the Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he established in 2006 to support good governance and exceptional leadership on the African continent. He also helped pioneer mobile services in Africa through Celtel International and founded Mobile Systems International (MSI), a world leading cellular consulting and software provider.

Uzodinma Iweala is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and medical doctor. He is the CEO of The Africa Center in New York, promoting a new narrative about Africa and its diaspora through a focus on culture, policy, and business. He is the Co-Founder of Ventures Africa Magazine, a publication that covers business, policy, culture, and innovation spaces in Africa, and has written three books: Beasts of No Nation (2005), Our Kind of People (2012), and Speak No Evil (2018).

Hatim Eltayeb is Dean of the Academy at the African Leadership Academy (ALA). He spent his formative years in Cairo, Egypt and returned in 2012 to co-found Symposium, a school services and consulting company. Most recently, Hatim served as President at Top Choice Admissions, where he led the development of the MENA region’s first 100% proprietary university admissions curriculum. Hatim is a graduate of Harvard University.

Ryan Findley is Chief Learning Officer at African Leadership University School of Business. As a former Partner with the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) at African Leadership Academy, Ryan served as the head of leadership curriculum and lead consultant to schools and organizations on developing leaders from the classroom to the boardroom. Ryan has trained students, teachers, and professionals globally in the areas of leadership, experiential learning, design thinking, values-based (character) education, and entrepreneurship. Ryan received a Bachelor’s in Business Studies and Business Management from the University of Colorado Boulder and completed further studies with HBX by Harvard Business School.

Rachel Nyaradzo Adams is the founder of Narachi Leadership, a consultancy that equips leaders with tools for transformational leadership. She read for her Masters in African Studies at the University of Oxford and for her undergraduate and Honours degrees in Anthropology, Media, and Writing at the University of Cape Town. She is the host of Leadership 2.0, a radio show that interviews leaders on their experiences of leading self, leading others, and leading change.

Rob Burnet is a two-times Emmy Award winning media producer and CEO of Well Told Story, a media research and production company operating across Kenya and Tanzania. Well Told Story aims to understand young people and the often invisible forces that drive or frustrate their progress. This data informs Shujaaz, a stream of comic books, radio, and other media that engages close to 8 million young people across the African continent. Before founding Well Told Story, he set up the Kenyan visual arts studios Kuona Trust and led the Ford Foundation’s East Africa program for media, arts, and culture.

Mimi Kalinda is Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Africommunications Group (ACG), a pan-African public relations and communications agency. As FleishmanHillard’s Africa Lead, Mimi was part of the team that won PRISM Awards for the Barclays Africa “Prosper” campaign. She was the first African woman to host an MTV Europe show and received the One World Media Award. Mimi, a New York University graduate, sits on the Africa Brand Counsel and is the Rebranding Africa Champion for Africa 2.0.

Taiye Selasi is a critically acclaimed author and photographer. Born in London and raised in Boston, she holds a BA in American Studies from Yale and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford. In 2005, she published the seminal essay “Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What is an Afropolitan?)” and made her fiction debut in 2011 with "The Sex Lives of African Girls," selected for Best American Short Stories 2012. Her first novel, the New York Times bestseller Ghana Must Go, was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

Veda is a citizen of Mauritius and has spent 8 years serving the African Leadership (AL) Group. He has played a key role in the design and implementation of several major programs and products across all AL entities. Veda started at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) - a pan-African high school in South Africa, seeking to nurture entrepreneurial, ethical leaders. Since 2015, Veda has been working at the African Leadership University (ALU), first as the Director of Student Life at the Mauritius campus and currently as Head of College at the Rwanda campus.

Sam N. Ngcolomba, former Acting Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science is an admitted Human Rights Attorney, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow, US International Visiting Leader (IVLP: 2018) and a L’Oreal Paris “Women of Worth” Honouree. She specializes in Social Entrepreneurship, CSR/CSI and Women’s Rights. She is currently pursuing her LLM (UCT) under the supervision of renowned Professor Pierre de Vos.

Jason Njoku is Founder and CEO of IROKO, the home of Nollywood (Nigerian cinema)  content. He has pioneered the African digital content market by bringing Nollywood to a global audience, and in the process has raised over $40m in investment from international VCs. Launched in 2010, iROKO is one of Africa’s largest internet TV providers, with a dedicated mobile app, IROKOtv, as well as ROK Studios, ROK TV channels on Sky in the UK and DStv across Africa. Njoku is also co-founder of Spark, a company that invests in and builds Nigerian tech companies.

Bina Maseno is the founder of Badili Africa, an initiative that empowers youth to be active participants in governance. A former media reporter at K24 TV and political aspirant, she has worked with various charitable organizations and participated in key forums as a speaker and moderator, including the 2017 Goalkeepers Event, the African Union, and the National Democratic Institute. Her dream for Africa is to see youth actively participate in democracy, policy, peace sustainability, and development.

Patrick Awuah is the Founder and President of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit university in Ghana. He holds Bachelor degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College, an MBA from UC Berkeley, and honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, and University of Waterloo. In 2015, he was listed as one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune Magazine and was named the 2017 WISE Prize for Education Laureate by The Qatar Foundation--becoming the first African to receive the award.

Khanyi began her media career as a television news and lifestyle anchor. She’s now a media entrepreneur and investor whose multi-platform, award-winning company Ndalo Media reaches more than 4 million consumers in more than 13 African countries. She’s been selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is also a recipient of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Africa Business Club Leadership Excellence Award. She also holds an MBA from HBS.

Graça Machel is an African stateswoman whose professional life is rooted in international advocacy for women and children’s rights. Machel is a founding member of The Elders and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Advocacy Group. She founded the Foundation for Community Development and the Zizile Institute for Child Development. She created the Graça Machel Trust, focusing on child protection and development, women’s empowerment, food security, and governance.

Hon. Bogolo J Kenewendo is the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, and a Specially Elected Member of the Parliament of Botswana. She is the youngest MP of the 11th Parliament and the youngest woman MP in the history of The Parliament of Botswana. She is Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence, Justice & Government Assurances, and a member of the IPU WTO Steering Committee. She previously worked at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Ghana and holds an MSc in International Economics from the University of Sussex.

Thulisile Madonsela served as Public Protector of South Africa from 2009 to 2014. When appointed in 2009, she was the only full-time commissioner in the South African Law Reform Commission. She received international praise for her efficiency and professionalism as Public Protector, including recognition by Time, Glamour, and the BBC. In 2012, she was honoured with South Africa’s Most Influential Women Award. Madonsela was one of the drafters of South Africa’s constitution in 1994. Born in Soweto, she obtained a Bachelor of Law from the University of Swaziland and an LLB at Wits University.

Fred is passionate about Africa, believing that the missing ingredient on the continent is good leadership. He has founded and led three organizations to catalyze a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial leaders around the world. He began his professional career as a consultant with McKinsey and Company and has an MBA from Stanford Business School. He was born in Ghana and has lived and worked in 10 different African countries.

Sangu is Managing Director of Africa Health Holdings and Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation. Delle has been named Africa’s “Young Person of the Year”, a 2014 TEDGlobal Fellow, a 2013 Soros Fellow, one of Forbes’ top 30 most promising entrepreneurs in Africa, and one of Euromoney’s “Africa’s Rising Stars”. Sangu is a Trustee of the Peddie School, an Advisory Board member of Harvard University's Center for African Studies, a member of Harvard Medical School’s Global Health Advisory Council, and an Elected Director of Harvard University's Alumni Association. Sangu graduated with a BA, a JD, and an MBA from Harvard University.

Maryana Iskander is Chief Executive Officer of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and she currently sits on the board. Maryana was an associate at McKinsey & Company and a law clerk on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Maryana was born in Cairo and moved to the United States at four years old. She earned a BA magna cum laude from Rice University, an MSc from Oxford University, and a JD from Yale Law School.

Judy Sikuza is the Deputy Executive Director of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation. Previously, Judy was a consultant, facilitator, and coach with Reos Partners and a consultant for Absa and Investec. Judy was recognized as one of Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans and one of Sarie magazine’s top 10 women under 30. Judy completed a BA Psychology degree and an Honours degree in Industrial/Organisational Psychology from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and holds an MA in Organisational Psychology from Columbia University.

Nozipho is one of the world’s most sought after moderators for strategic, presidential, and C-suite level conversations. She has moderated for the World Bank, UN organisations, and multinationals operating in Africa. She is the Co-founder of The Talent Firm, supporting corporate clients to deliver high-impact leadership journeys for their Black, Women, and Millennial talent. She is also a member of faculty with Duke Corporate Education, supporting the delivery of learning experiences for graduate programmes for companies across Africa. Nozipho is an award-winning broadcaster with CNBC Africa. She covers the African business story through the lens of women, youth, and Black business.

Moky Makura joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the Deputy Director for Communications Africa in January 2015. In this regional role, which is based in South Africa, she is responsible for building and managing the foundation’s reputation on the continent. Before joining the foundation, Moky worked in communications for the Tony Elumelu foundation in Nigeria. Prior to that she was a well-known TV presenter, producer, publisher, author, and actress.

Dan is the Director of Program Advocacy and Communications with the Global Policy & Advocacy division. His team focuses on advocacy and communications across all of our global initiatives to help generate the awareness, resources, partnerships, and policy changes necessary to achieve our goals. Previously, Dan was Senior Vice President at Home Front Communications, a media and digital consulting firm. Before joining Home Front, he was a 17-year veteran of ABC News, having worked at its southern Africa bureau from 1990-1993 then as a producer and senior producer at Nightline. His worked earned him three Emmys, a Columbia DuPont Award, NABJ’s top honors, and a Peabody Award.

Alice is the Campaigns and Policy Director at Project One, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to put the power of great communications behind the Global Goals. As well as leading campaigns and strategy work, Alice’s work includes building partnerships with organisations around the world. She was previously Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at Save the Children. Alice has worked around the world including as a governance adviser in the Office of the President of Rwanda. She began her career at the British Labour Party where she headed the Research Unit and was a senior political adviser on international affairs.

Linda Etim is the Senior Advisor for Africa Policy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Ms. Etim most recently served as the head of the Africa Bureau for the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) where she was responsible for more than $7 billion of assistance funding to 46 countries in Africa as well as over 1,000 staff. Ms. Etim brings nearly two decades of foreign affairs experience including as the Director for African Affairs at the White House National Security Council.

Madji is a Partner in Dalberg’s Dakar office and serves as Dalberg’s Global Operations Partner. She has more than 20 years of experience implementing and managing projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the United States. Her recent project portfolio is strongly focused on supporting national governments to take a leadership role in development programs, and development partners to build and/or strengthen the mechanisms for transition to stronger government ownership of sector programs. Madji holds an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, School of Global Management. She is fluent in English and French.

David Moinina Sengeh is Chief Innovation Officer, heading the Directorate of Science, Technology, and Innovation for the Government of Sierra Leone. The Directorate will seek to transform Sierra Leone through science, technology, and innovation and by facilitating and supporting a vibrant national innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem for both public and private sectors. At the time of his appointment by President Julius Maada Bio in May 2018, David was working as a Manager for IBM Research Africa, leading a healthcare team that designs and implements AI-enabled systems for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease in Africa.

Edwin is the Policy Manager for Transparency and Accountability covering Africa and was the immediate past Nigeria Country Representative for ONE Campaign, an international anti-poverty campaigns organization. He also worked for the Development Impact Evaluation Unit of the World Bank as an Impact Evaluation and Advocacy Coordinator in the Nigeria Country Office. He is a policy expert in public resource governance. His advocacy work covers pro-poor policies and transparency in public finance management, health, agriculture, food security and trade. He holds Masters degrees in Development Management from the University of Turin, Italy and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Patience is the Media Manager covering Africa at the ONE Campaign. Patience started her career as a journalist. She has worked in more than 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in roles including Head of Public Engagement - Oxfam South Africa, Head of Communications - African Union Foundation, and Editor - IFC Advisory Services (World Bank Group). Patience holds a Bachelor of Journalism (Hons), a Postgraduate Diploma in Management, a Master’s in Public and Development Management, and pursued a Master’s in Business Communications.  She served as Head: Corporate Affairs for Celpay - a mobile payments company in Zambia, DRC, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Reverently called “The Voice”, Waje is one of Africa's most respected and iconic female musicians. She is a multiple award winning Nigerian singer and songwriter, who has collaborated with artists from across the continent including South Africa’s own Lira, with the hit song Mountains. She is among the judges for The Voice Nigeria alongside Yemi Alade and Patoranking. An activist at heart, she is an ambassador for the ONE Campaign and UN Peace. She has worked with the youth of her community through her organisation "Waje's Safe House", where she teams up with other NGOs to help fight for their cause.

Dr. Frank Aswani works on ALA’s fundraising and global partnerships. He joined ALA in April 2012 having previously worked with ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) as the Regional Director for Africa and Eli Lilly where he was Sales Director for South Africa and Regional Director for Sub Saharan Africa.

Lauren is on the business operations team at Stripe and primarily focuses on M&A and investing. Before that, she led startup partnerships -- working with venture capital firms and accelerators to help entrepreneurs run and scale their businesses. She also helped build Stripe’s growth team. Prior to joining Stripe, Lauren was an investment banker at Barclays, advising high growth consumer retail clients on their IPOs and equity financings. Lauren received her degree in political economy from Princeton University. At Princeton, she was the team captain of the women’s basketball team. Her mother is from Roodepoort.

From 2000-2014, Ahmed built, developed, and headed the regional sales trading and trading arms of Sigma Capital, HC Securities, and Beltone Financial. At Beltone, he also architected the development of Egypt's first ETF market-making system. Seeking a new challenge, Ahmed helped develop what would become Elves in late 2015, and became a Partner and Chief Business Officer at Elves when it was founded in mid 2016. Since then, he has helped architect the platform for Elves to grow and in the process oversaw the raise of $2.2M, the largest seed round in the region's history in 2017.

Aisha R. Pandor is co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, Africa’s first online platform for home cleaning services. One of few black female-led tech startups, SweepSouth is also one of the fastest-growing startups in South Africa, and became the first SA startup to be accepted to the 500 Startups accelerator in Silicon Valley. Aisha completed her PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town. She then worked as a management consultant before launching SweepSouth, providing work opportunities for thousands of women. Aisha was recognized by the World Economic Forum in 2017 as one 6 African female breakthrough innovators.

Shola is the co-founder and CEO of Paystack, an online payments company facilitating commerce in Africa by enabling frictionless payments, and the first Nigerian company to be accepted into Silicon Valley Based Accelerator, Y Combinator. Since its launch in early 2016, Paystack has partnered with over 1,300 merchants in Nigeria alone, including industry e-commerce pioneers Hotels.NG and Jobberman. Prior to Paystack, Shola co-founded Precurio, an open-source collaboration software for businesses in emerging markets that was downloaded over 150,000 times and made available in 6 languages.

Meka leads Stripe's Startup & SMB Sales team, which advises high-growth companies on their growth and monetization strategies. Before Stripe, Meka led projects in Bain & Company's technology consulting practice and worked in Baseball Operations at the Cleveland Indians. Meka studied Economics at Princeton (honors) and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. Meka is a private pilot, enjoys scuba diving, and is a proud Chicago Bears fan.

Marlon Parker founded the Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs), a global movement that has impacted more than 10 Million people in 23 countries. He is an alumni of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative, an honorary faculty member of the International School of Digital Transformation, and was listed as one of the 100 World Class South Africans. He was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Dangote Fellow, and an Ashoka Fellow. Marlon was the co-founder of JamiiX. He was the 2015 Lead SA Hero and was listed by Quartz as one of the African Innovators of 2017.

Raphael is the co-founder and CEO of Supermart.ng, an online retailer that allows users to shop from supermarkets and retail outlets across Lagos, Nigeria. Prior to Supermart.ng, he founded Jumia, which incubates and invests in internet and technology companies globally. It provides operational support to its companies and helps them scale internationally.

Wambui is the Vice President of Success at Andela, a technology company that helps companies build high performing distributed engineering teams by investing in Africa’s most talented software developers. As Vice President of Success, Wambui leads Andela’s technology delivery to the global engineering teams. Wambui was formerly Group Managing Director, Pan Africa and South America for the global technology consulting firm ThoughtWorks. Currently based in Nairobi, Wambui has been in the digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting industry for twenty years and has worked in North America, Europe, and Africa for companies such as Praekelt Consulting, IBM Global Business Services and Digitas (Publicis Groupe).

James Allgrove leads Startup Growth and Stripe’s New York office. Prior to this role, James ran Stripe’s operations in the UK, the company’s largest market outside of the United States. He studied at the London School of Economics and worked at Nutmeg and Bain & Company before joining Stripe.

James Mwangi is the Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, a collection of impact-driven businesses, and a Partner with Dalberg Advisors. Mwangi founded and built up Dalberg’s presence in Africa. He served as Global Managing Partner and Chief Executive of Dalberg Advisors from 2010 to 2014. Prior to Dalberg, Mwangi worked at McKinsey & Company. He is a 2009 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow, a 2013 Young Global Leader, and a member of the Young Presidents Organization. He currently serves as a member of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council. Mwangi holds an AB Hons Degree in economics from Harvard University.

Morwesi is an impact entrepreneur with a passion for advancing access-to-energy as a solution to the energy poverty problem. She has extensive experience in Renewable Energy as a off-grid solar energy projects developer and innovative alternative funder. She is inspired to see the inclusion of women in the energy ecosystem.

Alloysius is the CEO + Co-Founder of Farmerline. In 2013, Alloysius launched Farmerline to transform millions of farmers into successful entrepreneurs. His time on the farm exposed him to the challenges farmers go through to access the services that increase income. Today, the company has profiled and served over 200,000 farmers and mapped 700,000 hectares of farmland across 11 countries. He leads the overall strategy and vision of Farmerline and also focuses his efforts on business development and product design. He has received awards for his work including CBNC Africa's Young Business Leader Award and became a laureate of the King Baudoin African Development Prize in 2017.

Jeff Mohr serves as Advisor, Strategy & Governance, working as a thought partner, collaborator, and project manager for The Omidyar Group and its associated entities. Jeff’s work spans diverse sectors and areas of focus and he brings an appreciation for and understanding of systems, networks, and complexity. In addition to his role with The Omidyar Group, Jeff is Cofounder and CEO of KUMU, a powerful data visualization platform that helps organize complex information into interactive relationship maps. He also serves on the board of Humanity United, a foundation dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have long been considered intractable.

Kofi Annan was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006 and is one of Africa’s most eminent statesmen. During his term in office UN member states agreed the Millennium Development Goals, adopted the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect, and placed poverty alleviation, peace, good governance, and respect for human rights and the rule of law at the top of the international agenda. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN. Kofi Annan is Chair of The Elders, a group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007.

Lakhdar Brahimi joined Algeria’s liberation struggle as a student and later served his country as an ambassador and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1993. In 1989, he brokered the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon’s civil war. He has represented the United Nations around the world, including in South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2000, Lakhdar Brahimi chaired an independent panel to review UN peacekeeping operations; the resulting “Brahimi Report” made ground-breaking recommendations for change. Lakhdar Brahimi is a member of The Elders, a group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007.

“Africa’s Iron Lady” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a leading promoter of freedom, peace, justice, women’s empowerment, and democratic rule. As Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state, she led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following the nation’s decade-long civil war, as well as the Ebola crisis, winning international acclaim for achieving economic, social, and political change. Recognized as a global leader for women’s empowerment, President Sirleaf was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace. She is the recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom—the United States’ highest civilian award—for her courage and commitment to expanding freedom and improving the lives of Africans.

Patrick Gaspard is President of the Open Society Foundations. Previously, Gaspard served as the U.S. ambassador to South Africa from 2013 to 2016. He served as a senior aide to President Obama, as Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee, and as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs. He was the national Political Director for Obama for America in 2008. He began his career as a union organizer, serving as Executive Vice President and Political Director for the Service Employees International Union. He served as a senior aide to New York City Mayor David Dinkins and on the New York City Council.

Aliko Dangote is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group. A leading global philanthropist, Dangote set up the largest private Foundation in sub-Saharan Africa. Locally focused, but globally minded, the Dangote Foundation is at the forefront of improving the health, nutrition, and education of Nigerians and Africans. He is ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the Most Powerful Men in the World.

John Collison is President and co-founder of Stripe, the online payments company that is expanding internet commerce by making it easy to process transactions from anywhere. John and his brother Patrick Collison started Stripe in 2010 while John was studying physics at Harvard. Today, the 1000+ person Stripe team powers online businesses around the world. Originally from Limerick, Ireland, John lives in San Francisco where Stripe is based.

Eleni Giokos is a CNN Correspondent, based in the Johannesburg bureau. Born in Greece and raised in South Africa, Giokos has 15 years experience working across TV, radio, print, and online media. She has interviewed heads of state and business leaders, including South African President Jacob Zuma, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. Giokos has an Honors Degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Witwatersrand, and is an International Monetary Fund Fellow.

Trevor Manuel served as a Cabinet Minister under the first four Presidents of democratic South Africa. He has served in various ministerial positions including, Finance Minister, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Minister in the Presidency responsible for the National Planning Commission. Manuel also served two terms as Chairperson of the Development Committee of the World Bank. He was appointed as Special Envoy to the UNSG on Financing for Development and to the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Finance. Manuel has received a number of awards and recognitions, including Africa's Finance Minister of the Year and the Woodrow Wilson Public Service award.