Fiona Kirubi
Fiona Kirubi is a partner at Gateway Global and the head of Fintech and Leadership Development for Africa. She is active with Gateway's Conversion Factory, Digital Strategy & Fintech, Gender Equity & Inclusivity, Real Estate, and Social Responsibility & Impact practices. Her mission is to provide innovative solutions to communities, institutions, and governments. She is also an EmoWave coach and certified practitioner, as well as the GCC's pioneer in emotional intelligence coaching.
Charles Warria
Charles is a socio-economic development practitioner with over 22 years of experience in climate adaptation and climate-smart technologies designed to build sustainable and inclusive business models. He was the Chief Operations Officer of iGov Africa, the Leader of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement at Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund, and most recently the Chief Sustainability Officer of Grow Fairly Limited.
Amelia Hopkins Phillips
Amelia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Somo. She began working with schools and youth groups in Nairobi's informal settlements in 2012. Driven by a passion for creating opportunities for people to break barriers, she launched Somo’s initial programs in 2016. Over the past eight years, she has grown Somo into a transformative organization, creating and impacting over 14,000 jobs in Kenya and Tanzania, with plans to expand to Uganda. Amelia holds a BA in International Area Studies from UC Berkeley and has worked in entrepreneurship and education across East Africa, Mexico, and India, focusing on empowering marginalized communities through entrepreneurship.
Edel Were
Edel Were works as a strategy consultant for NGOs and businesses in Africa, specializing in employment, entrepreneurship and education. She is a co-founder of Buyu Media, a collective that produces original educational content based on African history. She was a Senior Consultant at Dalberg Advisors, having previously worked for IBM Research Africa and ANDE. Edel is a member of the Global Shapers, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. She has a BS in Financial Economics from Strathmore University in Kenya.
Eskor John
Eskor is the founder of Marigold Advisers, a London-based advisory firm that provides support to business leaders. Prior to founding Marigold, Eskor was with BizCorps, a consulting firm focused on supporting SMEs in fast growing economies. Eskor has an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
Tom Phillips
Tom is an advisor to entrepreneurs and early-stage, mission-driven companies in the U.S. and Africa. Previously, he was CEO of Dstillery, a machine-learning-based data analytics company, and a director at Google, where he pioneered new uses of Google data for ad analytics. He has been a venture partner at Insight Ventures, CEO of Deja.com, media chief for Starwave (creators of ESPN.com, NFL.com, ABCnews.com and NBA.com), and founding publisher of Spy magazine. He has a BA from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.
Brittany Ryden
Ryden launched Somo’s market access programs in Nairobi in 2017, and subsequently started Somo’s sister hub in Latin America, called La Chispa. To date, La Chispa has trained over 200 aspiring entrepreneurs and has over 30 active businesses in its incubator. Before moving to Kenya, Ryden was a manager at Bridgewater Associates.
Kagure Wamunyu
Kagure Wamunyu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jumba, a construction technology company that provides a B2B platform for purchasing and financing construction materials. She previously worked as the Global Head of Operations at Kobo360, Senior Director in Strategy for East Africa for Bridge International Schools and the Country Manager of Uber for Kenya. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and education, and their ability to change people's lives. She holds a Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley, a BSC in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State and a BA in Mathematics from Meredith College.
Ann Lawi
Anne Lawi is a seasoned expert with 18 plus years of experience in strategic leadership, particularly in investment and startup deal flow management across Africa. Her expertise inventure building, acceleration, and incubation has been pivotal in driving the growth and success of numerous startups on the continent. She has contributed greatly in building of the Kenya startup ecosystem, building and supporting over 5,000 startups, driving socio-economic transformation through strategic investments and innovative programs Across Africa. With a passion for sustainability and impact, Anne is serving in number of boards, including Kenya Association of Startup and SMEs Enablers of Kenya, (ASSEK) Pangea Trust, Diaspora Invest and others.
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