Region: Africa
Simidele Adeagbo
Simidele Adeagbo is a trailblazing Olympian, passionate advocate, and inspirational speaker focused on building a better world through sport. Simidele made Olympic history at the 2018 Winter Games, becoming the first Nigerian Winter Olympian and the first African and Black woman to compete in Skeleton at the Olympics. For more than fifteen years, Simidele led innovative marketing campaigns at Nike and now helps audiences unlock the power they have as change makers. Through her signature master classes, Simidele also helps girls across Africa build their leadership skills through the uplifting power of sport. An Obama Foundation Leader and Malala Fund supporter, Simidele has appeared in prominent media outlets such as…
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Rufaro Mudimu
Rufaro Mudimu is a social entrepreneur that is dedicated to youth development and socio-economic transformation in Africa. Rufaro’s commitment to youth development in Africa is driven by her belief that socio-economic transformation and leadership of the continent is in its young people. She currently leads enke: Make Your Mark (enke), a leadership development organization that generates and incubates youth-led social impact and enterprise in South Africa. enke, meaning 'ink' in SeTswana, was started in 2009 to bridge socioeconomic inequality by connecting, equipping, and inspiring young people with the skills and experiences to realize their value, thrive, and mobilize for a better future for themselves and others. Additionally, Rufaro is the…
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Stephanie Busari
Stephanie Busari is Senior Editor for Africa at CNN Worldwide. She heads up CNN's Nigeria bureau where she pioneered CNN's first digital and multiplatform bureau. She also reports on-air for CNN International and led the network's 2019 Nigeria presidential election coverage. Stephanie oversees CNN Africa's digital editorial and operational strategy, crafting a new narrative for Africa and chronicling the continent's changemakers and innovators. In April 2016 Stephanie exclusively obtained the ‘proof of life’ video that showed that the missing Chibok schoolgirls were still alive. This video kickstarted crucial negotiation talks with Boko Haram that led to the eventual release of more than 100 of the kidnapped schoolgirls. She was also…
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Paul Kwengwere
Paul Kwengwere is Founder and Senior Partner of PMK Associates, a Malawian consulting firm working in development. He has undertaken numerous assignments, including an assignment with the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development where he worked on donor and aid harmonization in the water sector, ensuring effective and efficient government processes. Previously, Paul was policy director for ActionAid Malawi, where he sought to reduce poverty and disease in Southern Africa. Prior to joining ActionAid, he held posts in the government of Malawi, the Malawi Central Bank, and the Malawi Investment Promotion Agency. Paul was also a research assistant for the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation…
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Saul Kornik
Saul Kornik has a varied background ranging from healthcare to technology to finance to machine learning to culture change. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Healthforce, an augmentation of technology and doctors that turns nurse-led clinics into effective and specialist health centers. Healthforce is a web application that enables real-time video connections between patients and nurses (or other primary care workers) with higher-level clinical skills (doctors) for the delivery of multi-disciplinary team-based care. The technology reduces care costs, increases care access, and monitors clinical and patient-centric care quality in real-time. Healthforce-supported nurses have run over 1 million consultations and have completed over 80,000 telemedicine consultations with remote doctors. Prior to…
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Naasu Genevieve Fofanah
Naasu Genevieve Fofanah is an entrepreneur and author with extensive gender and global public policy experience. An award-winning women's and girls' rights activist, she has championed controversial issues globally. She launched Susue Women's Finance during the COVID-19 pandemic to influence government policy on women's business and access to finance. Susue Women's Finance and Sierra Leone Commercial Bank formed the Women's Bank Initiative to offer low-interest loans to female entrepreneurs. The Bank of Sierra Leone Financial Literacy Working Group elected Naasu Co-Chair in 2022. Naasu previously served as Sierra Leone's first Special Gender Adviser to ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma. She made gender equality and women's (GEWE) a priority in the National…
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Hyppolite Ntigurirwa
Hyppolite Ntigurirwa is an artist, activist, and founder of Be the Peace, an organization focusing on the use of art to halt the intergenerational transmission of hate and to promote the power of cross-generational healing. A child survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Hyppolite continues to promote reconciliation and peace throughout Rwanda. In 2019, he envisioned and conducted the “Be the Peace Walk,” a 100-day performance piece in which he walked across the country in commemoration of 25 years since the end of the genocide. Hyppolite was an international Artist in Residence with Arts Connect International in Boston in 2016. Since then he has worked as Arts Program…
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Raenette Gottardo
Raenette Gottardo is a consultant based in South Africa with expertise in public policy, politics, and defense and foreign policy. She was formerly the Director of The Helen Suzman Foundation and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. In 1999, at the age of 25, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the South African parliament. As a former Democratic Alliance MP, she was the Shadow Minister of Finance and a member of the Portfolio Committee on Finance. She also served on numerous other parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee on Public Accounts during the arms deal investigation. From 2011-2015, Raenette served as a member of the…
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Dayo Olopade
Dayo Olopade works at the intersection of media and technology, with more than a decade of content, strategy, product, communications, partnerships, contracts, and change management expertise. As Partnerships Lead at YouTube, she structures and negotiates product and licensing deals with video storytellers–major TV broadcasters and cable networks, sports leagues, movie studios, digital native publishers, and fresh, individual voices. She gets to do this across Africa, where the content industry is dynamic and creative problem solving is fundamental. Dayo began her career as a reporter in Washington covering politics, policy, and the Obama administration. She spent two years in Nairobi as a New America Foundation fellow, reporting The Bright Continent, a…
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Norbert Mao
Norbert Mao is a lawyer and politician currently serving as President of the Democratic Party, Uganda's oldest political party. Norbert ran for president in the 2011 Uganda General Elections, emerging third in a field of eight candidates. One of Uganda’s most outspoken advocates for democracy and human rights, Norbert continues to be featured regularly as a speaker in national and international events. He was a Member of Parliament for ten years and most recently the highest elected leader in the Gulu Local Government in Northern Uganda. In that capacity he was a key player in the peace process with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). He continues to champion post-conflict reconstruction…
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