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Africa Gathering - Friday Business Networking Event

Friday April 23rd, 5pm

Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street, NW Upper Courtyard, Washington, DC 20007

Stephen King - Senior Director, Investments, Omidyar Network

Stephen brings Omidyar Network exceptional experience in applying media and technology to create positive social impact. Based in London, Stephen focuses on expanding our efforts outside the U.S. in the Social Media and Government Transparency investment areas. He also makes investments across all areas within the Media, Markets & Transparency initiative.

Prior to Omidyar Network, Stephen served as the Chief Executive of the BBC World Service Trust, where he led a period of sustained growth that included building programs in more than 40 countries in the developing world. Stephen helped establish the Trust’s international reputation as one of the largest and most successful organizations using media and communications to improve the lives of the world’s poor and promote better governance and transparency worldwide. Prior to the BBC, Stephen was the Executive Director of the International Council on Social Welfare, an international organization working to promote social development. Stephen has also held positions with nonprofit organizations HelpAge International, Help the Aged, and Voluntary Service Overseas.

Stephen is a board member of CARE International in the U.K. He holds an MA in Oriental and African Studies from the University of London. 

Bill Zimmerman - Limbe Labs

Bill Zimmerman is the founder of Limbe Labs (www.limbelabs.com), a startup incubator, tech hub and open collaboration space based in Cameroon. Limbe Labs Ventures seeks to be a model firm for socially- responsible investment and incubation of African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on technical innovation. By providing a flexible coworking model combined with business incubation and software development for the local and international market, Limbe Labs creates an energetic, highly collaborative, café-like environment for engineers, designers and hackers to share ideas and develop sustainable businesses.

Prior to founding Limbe Labs, Bill worked as a software engineer for organizations such as Microsoft, Visio, iStartVentures and as an independent consultant to multinational clients. In 2003, he founded a popular social networking website that enabled users to find timely, location-based restaurant reviews with a mobile phone in 20 major U.S. cities. In partnership with AT&T and Cingular Wireless, the application was deployed as a content service to more than 40 million subscribers.

Bill regularly contributes analysis and opinion on African technology to ComputerWorld and has been featured on BBC Radio 5 Live speaking on topics related to Africa. Bill is an avid blogger with a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and the emergence of the African techno-creative class. His writing has appeared in Summit Magazine and been featured on many online publications including Afrigadget, Make and Global Voices Online.

Bill holds degrees in Computer Science Engineering and Anthropology. He’s combined these diverse fields by doing research on genetic algorithms, game theory and simulations of macroevolutionary processes. 

Tidjane Deme - Google, Country Manager, Senegal 

 As Office Lead in Senegal , in charge of Francophone Africa, Tidjane is currently working for his passion : bring the benefits of Internet to every corner of some African countries.

Tidjane who grew up in Dakar, studied and lived in Paris for about ten years and then spent some time in London and the Silicon Valley. He moved back to Senegal in 2003 to start his first IT company. After many struggles, Tidjane was running a small consulting firm in Dakar before joining Google a year ago.

Tidjane has a passion for his small community/village in the province of Saloum in Senegal and its chaotic evolution through global changes mirroring the whole continent. His current activity within the community is helping set up the school and convince parents to register their children, address the employment issue of unskilled young people who cannot rely on farming anymore, introducing new environment friendly building techniques, etc.

Nick Tadd – brand auditor/social web strategist. 

As an early adopter of the action of social media, Nick has recognised that all companies need to understand how to achieve traction on the social web by strategic deployment of social communications. 

A former TV cameraman turned full-time property investor, Nick created the Property Tribes forum, one of the most successful property and Landlord communities on the web.  He knows only too well what it takes to build community, “pipe” the social web, and the power of community around a business. 

From the start of building his network in 2004, Nick has built a network of over 30,000 contacts and, thanks to insightful blogs and leading by example on the social web,  is now regarded one of the foremost authorities on social communications in the U.K.    

On a recent blog, Nick suggested:  “Put your shop in the High St and you pay high rates, this is the same as SEO. Advertise in local papers, radio or TV, is no different than PPC or GA. However, what the social web allows us to do is move the shop to the people. Listening. It would seem that too many people are too concerned with what they should put on the web and where, "should I be on facebook, should I be on twitter" etc. The answer is probably yes (if that's where the customers are, that's where you "hang out").” Nick says that, as a user of "social media" (the act of sharing), you don't need to measure -  just share. As a business, you need to listen - and listen to the social web and pipe it. Nick recognises that the world is at the cusp of a change.   We've gone from the agricultural age to the industrial age, and now we are transferring to the information age. This does not meant that we have to sell information, it means that we need to engage in the transfer of information, by doing this you will gain "brand traction" and business can be done because there is trust.  Where there is trust, then business happens.  

Nick shares his 6 years of experience of on-line engagement with companies to help them build brand traction on-line.  He speaks at events and conferences all over the world, and recently returned from a visit to the “mother ship” in Palo Alto, California. 

Jude Ower – Managing Director, Digital 2.0

Jude is founder and CEO of games consultancy Digital 2.0. She has grown the business through a passion to reinvent learning through Digital play.

Jude is one of the original thought leaders on games for education and training. An Associate Researcher of SMARTlab and Futurelab, a member of the Serious Games Institute, and the International Association of Games Developers. 

Previously Jude completed a BA and went on to complete a Masters in International Marketing (focusing on innovation and serious games). Jude is a trained Games Master that enables her to carry out the British Council’s Future City Games projects.

She is currently undertaking a PhD at SMARTlab, University of East London on the topic of meaningful Games Design.

Her portfolio includes having worked with Shell, IBM, PwC, Norwich Union, Essex University, Coventry University, Invest NI, Futurelab, and the Serious Games Institute to name but a few.

Teddy Ruge - Project Diaspora 

As a budding social entrepreneur, he’s currently assisting several indigenous farmer organizations in Uganda move from subsistence farming to large-scale commercial farming of aloe vera and moringa. Teddy is also a mobile technology enthusiast and blogs frequently about the African ICT sectors and it’s effects on development. He has also served on several panel discussions related to Africa, the role of the African Diaspora and Africa’s emerging technology space.

Teddy received a bachelors in Communication Design from the University of North Texas; when he isn’t trying to mobilize the African Diaspora, works as a professional photographer and web designer.

Teddy is a Ugandan record-holder in the decathlon and pole vault and, formerly, the high jump. He was also a one-time Ugandan Olympic hopeful in the decathlon. Teddy was born in Masindi, Uganda to a Sudanese father and a Ugandan mother. He grew up in Uganda, Kenya and Dallas, TX.

Africa Gathering - Main Event

Saturday April 24th 9am - 6pm

Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street, NW Upper Courtyard, Washington, DC 20007

Ernesto Gluecksmann - Infamia

Ernesto Gluecksmann is a partner consultant for Infamia, a web consulting firm in Washington, DC.  He is primarily responsible for business development and managing client relationships. He has worked for over 15 years in the web technologies industry and his work covers virtual collaboration technologies and web systems analysis. 

Infamia focuses on helping nonprofits, startups, and companies looking to develop web projects.  He and his team designed and developed the innovative collaborative platform, Wegora, which they used to build the Africa Rural Connect online community for the National Peace Corps Association.

Ernesto led a workshop at Africa Gathering in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009 on "low-tech social networking" and gives presentations in the DC area on social media and virtual community building strategies.  He is fluent in Spanish and has helped Infamia establish a local and worldwide clientele.

Shawn Sarwar - VaxTrac

Shawn Sarwar serves as the Director of Clinical Operations for VaxTrac, a US based non-profit organization which seeks to provide developing countries with the technologies and services they need to maximize the effectiveness of their vaccination programs. He joined VaxTrac in late 2009 when longtime friend and VaxTrac Executive Director Mark Thomas told him about the project and suggested he would leave his corporate job to pursue it. Seeing the opportunity to greatly improve health for under-served populations, Shawn did the same. Previously, Shawn worked for BrainLAB, a surgical guidance company, serving on various training, marketing and R&D teams, and consulting with surgeons on procedures ranging from neurosurgery to orthopedic trauma. Shawn studied biomedical engineering, earning a B.S.E. from Tulane University. He lives in Washington D.C. where he can often be found searching the couches of friends for change, having misunderstood the meaning of quarterly funding goals. 

Jenny Stefanotti - Harvard University

Jenny Stefanotti is currently finishing a Master’s program in Public Administration and International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  Her completed thesis, written in collaboration with SEACOM's CEO, focused on East Africa's broadband infrastructure and outlined policy recommendations for Tanzania’s national backbone.  While in graduate school, Jenny worked in Liberia for the Office of the President, furthering public and philanthropic support for ICT. 

Prior to Harvard, Jenny spent four years in Google’s corporate strategy group from 2004 to 2008 and concerned with the company’s international expansion.  Previously, she spent two years at Accenture as a management consultant in the technology and communications industry.  Her interests span the intersection of technology and development including public policy, foreign direct investmnet, philanthropic capital, and entrepreneurship. Jenny holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the UC Berkley. 

Jenny will talk about the work she is doing with Ken Banks and Jenny Aker around mobile metrics.

 

Nii Simmonds - William James Foundation

Nii speaks and presents on entrepreneurship, SME financial innovations, sustainable technology, affordable health care, and small-scale manufacturing in Africa. Professionally, Nii is a consultant who has experience in corporate finance, supply chain management, competitive intelligence, corporate strategy and outsourcing.

In 2007, Nii was chosen as a TED Fellow, for the 1st TED Global Africa event in Arusha, Tanzania. He is also the 2009 co-organizer of the Annual Maker Faire Africa. He is the Co-founder of Afrobotics, a non-profit that teaches innovation and entrepreneurship using robots and robot competitions as a mechanism to get youth and young adults to create innovative technologies to solve everyday problems in Africa. He is also the Africa Prize Director for the annual William James Foundation business plan competition. Currently, he serves on the board of advisors for Investors Without Borders, Wall Street Without Walls, Maker Faire Africa, Gateway Innovations Limited and BarCampGhana.

Nii has worked at Booz Allen Hamilton, Johnson & Johnson, Astra Zeneca and Cap Gemini. He got his B.S. in Management/Finance from Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University and a minor in Information Systems and Statistical Analysis. He holds a Business Process Outsourcing Master Certificate from the Wharton School.

Danya Steele - Excited about Africa

25-year-old Danya Steele is a writer, editor and change agent. At age 17, she was named one of Teen People Magazine’s “20 Teens Who Will Change The World” for her work in media and youth culture. To date, she’s spoken at Columbia University, Oxford University, Essence Magazine, on NBC’s “Our World” with Ed Gordon & Black Enterprise, and on Radio 2000 as an “SA Hero” with SABC, South Africa’s leading broadcaster.

Originally from Harlem, New York City, Danya studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Oxford University (UK). She is currently writing a book on young South African leaders who are changing the world, post-apartheid. The book kicks off a multimedia project aimed at putting a new face on Africa – one that is, for once, more empowering, positive and accurate. 

Sean Coetzee - Woodsmoke

Sean has always had a passion for Africa and the African people that stemmed from growing up in Durban, South Africa.  He came to college in the States on a tennis scholarship and started bringing back African crafts as gifts to try and get a date.  These gifts were a huge hit and a few stores in his college town started buying some of the African crafts.  Throughout Sean’s senior year he sold Kenyan crafts to retailers who couldn’t keep the products on the shelf.

This trade gave Sean the business idea to start a company that brought the heart of Africa to the US through people, products, and culture.  He called the company Woodsmoke that stands for the love, longing, and pull that Woodsmoke has on his heart. His goal was to also support the artists in Africa by donating proceeds back to support educating children in Africa.  Woodsmoke has been a huge success and Woodsmoke currently supplies retailers nationwide.

Molly Mattessich - Africa Rural Connect

Molly Mattessich manages the online communities for the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), including Africa Rural Connect and Peace Corps Connect.  Africa Rural Connect is a dynamic online collaboration space where the African Diaspora, Peace Corps Volunteers, and others discuss rural agricultural development initiatives.  NPCA is the nation’s leading 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization supporting Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Peace Corps community through networking, advocacy, and mentoring to help guide former volunteers through their continued service back home.  From 2002-2004, Molly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali.  She holds a degree in Psychology from Wellesley College.

Jepchumba - African Digital Art

Jepchumba is a digital enthusiast who works hard to combine her two loves: Digital Media and Africa. Originally from Kenya, she has lived around the world developing her interest in philosophy, art and technology. African Digital Art is her most recent project, an online collective and creative space where digital artists, enthusiasts and professionals can seek inspiration, showcase their artistry and connect with emerging artists.  African Digital Art continues to push digital boundaries by promoting and showcasing the best in African digital media and arts. 

Kit Cody - Rwanda ventures

Kit Cody is a social entrepreneur inspired by low-tech solutions to global problems. He is CEO of Rwanda Ventures, a business incubator launching transformative companies in East Africa. RV is Kit’s fourth start-up; Concrete Media was an interactive agency in New York building digital businesses for Fortune 500 companies, Bolt Media was the market-leading network of online communities for teens, and trustys.com is a localized services directory leveraging ratings and reviews (like Yellow Pages with recommendations) . He lives in Kigali with his wife, Aubrey, and their two kids, Finn and Wyatt.

Catherine Casey - Acumen Fund 

Catherine Casey is Innovation Manager at Acumen Fund (www.acumenfund.org), a non-profit venture capital fund that invests in companies that provide health, housing, water, energy, and agriculture to the poor in East Africa and South Asia. Catherine is responsible for Acumen Fund’s Influence initiatives, including building partnerships with government and leading strategic communications efforts. Catherine joined Acumen as a 2007-2008 Fellow in Kenya, seconded to the Sustainable Healthcare Foundation, which provides micro-franchise healthcare and drug distribution. During her fellowship, she worked with SHF’s CEO to improve operational efficiency and build data collection and management systems to scale the franchise network. Catherine is the former Director of CAMBA’s Refugee Professional Training Program, and has worked with social enterprises in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. She earned a B.A. with highest honors from Princeton and an MPP from Harvard, where she was a part of the inaugural class of Reynolds Fellows in Social Entrepreneurship.

Mike McKay - Baobab Health

Mike McKay aspires to be a social justice hacker (think MLK + MacGyver). He lived in Malawi from 2005 until 2009, where he was the Country Director for Baobab Health. With one million people living with HIV and fewer than 300 doctors, Malawi needed a new approach to fighting the epidemic. Mike led a team that created an open source, touchscreen-based, HIV treatment system to guide minimally trained healthcare workers through the complicated process of treating HIV. He was also the blogger that first shared the story of William "Windmill" Kamkwamba the bestselling author of "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind".

Mariéme Jamme - Spot One Global Solutions

Born in Senegal, West Africa, Mariéme Jamme is a London-based philanthropist, CEO and social entrepreneur with a passionate commitment to helping empower her fellow Africans through education and social entrepreneurship. She is currently the CEO of SpotOne Global Solutions, a successful company that helps IT organizations (Editors and Software Vendors) gain a foothold in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

She recently founded iConscience.co.uk, a think tank that brings together business experts and like-minded individuals in a friendly atmosphere to brainstorm ethical scenarios for sustainable business, social, technological and environmental development in Africa. Mariéme is also an international speaker, and co-founder of Africa Gathering, the first platform in London that allows people to share ideas about Africa.

She has forged a world-wide reputation as an advocate for education and health on the African continent. She has spoken at various conferences around the world about Africa, poverty, and women in Africa, sustainable development, education and new technologies. Mariéme uses her knowledge of African dialects and languages to facilitate communication between governments, investors, businesses and communities in Africa.

She advises and supports many women and children’s charities such as the NSPCC, Oxfam, Plan International, the White Ribbon Alliance, the Gates Foundation, the Acumen Fund, Weforest, Cancer Research, the Hunger Project and the Children’s Society.

Prior to leading the SpotOne team, Mariéme worked as an asset manager at Citibank, JP Morgan and Lloyds TSB and in various software companies such as Primavera INC (now Oracle), Microsoft and CA. Since then, she has worked closely with businesses, investors and governments in Africa to encourage accountability and help them increase investment in education, agriculture, infrastructure and new technologies.

Her current work includes advising the UK Home Office on how to help members of the African diaspora transfer their knowledge and skills to their countries of origin and acting as a mentor and events organizer on the government’s behalf.

Mariéme is a mother of one child.

 Josef Scarantino - African Tech Network

Josef Scarantino has held an interest in Africa for nearly 15 years ranging from technology to international human rights law. He got his start by designing websites pro bono for African nonprofit organizations in need of an online presence. In 2005, he volunteered to set up solar-powered satellite Internet café’s in Southern Sudan while handling logistics and training between Uganda and Kenya. Shortly after, he served as a board member on New Sudan Generation and the South Sudan Institute of Democracy of Peace. Today, his interests revolve around building up capacity among African technologists to better compete in a global market. Most recently he founded webstartAfrica and the African Tech Network initiative to give African technologists a platform to market themselves online and to foster community. Josef currently lives in Alexandria, VA.

Bridget McHenry – White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood

Bridget McHenry is a public health professional who is committed to social justice and women’s equity. This has led her to work for the past five years with the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, a global network of activists committed to ensuring that women receive adequate health care services during and after pregnancy for themselves and the vulnerable newborns. Bridget and the other members of the White Ribbon Alliance recognize that the high rates of maternal death in Africa – as in many other parts of the world - stem from deeper issues, such as poverty, women’s disempowerment, government corruption and mismanagement, poor infrastructure, etc. The White Ribbon Alliance is committed to addressing these issues to make a difference for women from the cities to the must rural areas. Much of the work of the White Ribbon Alliance focuses on ensuring that the voices of women from around the world are heard – in their communities, by their governments and in global decision-making forums.

Bridget served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1999-2001, living in a rural village in Togo, and has since worked in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and South Africa. Bridget holds a BA from Oberlin College and a Masters in Public Health from George Washington University.

Paul Sika - Creative Entrepreneur

Dubbed a multimedia prodigy by the New York Times, and featured on KanYe West's blog alongside Louis Vuitton and Nike, 24 year old Photographer and Creative Director, Paul Sika has been an ongoing surprise on the international web and art scene since April 2009.

After dazzling a growing section of the world population with his photography of Africa, which represents onto the visual medium the vibrancy and colors that make the continent famous the world over, Paul Sika makes another outing this year month for month.

Indeed, the young man who was cited alongside Arise Magazine, Fela on Broadway and Maker Faire Africa, as a member of the African creative class to watch for 2010, is releasing "At The Heart of Me...", his self published book.

Not only are the contents being highly appreciated by media and non media gatekeepers such as TV Presenter Patricia Amira and Google Francophone Africa Director Tidjane Deme, another particularity of this anticipated book is the process of the production and sale. Believing in his art piece and leveraging the web from his remote house in Africa, Paul Sika has been masterminding the creation and distribution of the book from his chamber.

An idea factory, an imagineer, a daydreamer and a positive creative entrepreneur, Paul Sika is grateful for the opportunity to speak at Africa Gathering in Washington D.C. where he wishes to meet people he can connect with, people he can learn from and people he can work with such as investors, creatives and marketers in order to buildthe creative kingdom he envisions.

His website www.paulsika.com