Adeola Ade-Ojo, a trailblazer putting Africa on the global luxury fashion map

February 7, 2021 Melanie Hawken

Deola Sagoe Limited, the premier authentic African based luxury products provider

Adeola Ade-Ojo is a Nigerian born fashion designer who is popularly known by her design name, Deola Sagoe. Whilst studying Business Administration at the University of Miami, Florida in the mid 1980’s, Deola fell in love with fashion. On graduating in 1987, she returned to Nigeria ostensibly to begin a Masters degree in Finance. Deola’s Mother had been running tailoring operations called Odua Creations which was known for producing meticulously embroidered traditional menswear. In 1989, Deola joined her Mother with a view of expanding the label’s repertoire to encompass more contemporary designs for the ever developing, cosmopolitan Nigerian society. The following year, Deola began designing under her then married name Deola Sagoe, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Abai Schulze, Africa’s champion of economic empowerment for artisans

January 31, 2021 Melanie Hawken

ZAAF, a luxury handcrafted leather and accessories brand creating economic opportunities for Africa’s artisans

Abai Schulze is the Founder and Creative Director of ZAAF, a collection of premium leather goods and accessories handcrafted by artisans across Africa. Her life journey has taken her from an orphanage in Addis Ababa to the United States and the rest of the world. Abai is committed to using her academic background in economics and fine arts from her alma mater George Washington University to create unique and practical expressions of beauty. Abai founded ZAAF in 2014 with the goal of creating economic empowerment to African artisans and a new perspective and standard of global luxury. Her vision is to create unique products people love and want to buy, as this is the most sustainable of approaching economic development.

Dr Ola Brown, an impact driven entrepreneur changing Africa’s healthcare narrative

January 24, 2021 Melanie Hawken

Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company, investing across Africa’s healthcare and wellness value chain.

Dr Ola Brown is the founder of the Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company (FDHIC). The Group invests and operates across the healthcare and wellness value chain in hospital/clinic construction & refurbishment, diagnostics and equipment, health facility management, pharmaceutical retail, drug manufacturing, air ambulance services & logistics and consulting/healthcare technology.

Monica Musonda, Zambia’s nutritious food manufacturing visionary

January 17, 2021 Melanie Hawken

Java Foods, a food-processing market leader in affordable nutrition

Corporate Lawyer turned entrepreneur, Monica Musonda is the Founder of Java Foods, a Zambian based food-processing company that provides affordable nutrition to the Southern African market. Monica currently serves as non-executive director on a number of boards including Airtel Networks Zambia Plc & Zambia Breweries (where she is chair). She is the recipient of the 2017 African Agribusiness Entrepreneur of the Year award, a 2013 Young Global Leader (World Economic Forum) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. Forbes Magazine and Africa Investor named her as one of the leading Young Power Women in Business in Africa in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Chioma Ukonu, a social entrepreneur turning waste into impact in Nigeria

January 10, 2021 Melanie Hawken

RecyclePoints, a waste recycling social enterprise changing lives and the environment

Chioma Ukonu is an award-winning social entrepreneur with over a decade of hands-on experience and international exposure in environmental sustainability, women empowerment, youth employment, business leadership, circular economy, government and community engagement. She is currently the Co-Founder/COO of RecyclePoints, Nigeria’s foremost waste recycling and social benefit venture that motives post-consumers to recycle by creating value from their everyday waste. Chioma, who is well known for her strong business acumen, has received business training from various prestigious institutions around the world including the Said Business School, Oxford University in the United Kingdom; Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, USA; and Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University Lagos in Nigeria. Chioma has built RecyclePoints, which started from her kitchen, to a major stakeholder in waste management in Africa, creating over 230 green jobs and recycling over 100,000kg of waste monthly, whilst sustaining RecyclePoints as the social currency that converts waste to wealth.

Siwela Sweetness Masoga, a South African wine producer creating quality accessible wines

January 3, 2021 Melanie Hawken

Siwela Wines, a new generation, trail-blazing female black-owned wine business.

Siwela Sweetness Masoga is a biotechnologist, wine maker, and founder of Siwela Wines, a South African wine company focusing on the production of quality accessible wines. Siwela also runs a wine academy focusing on education and training within the wine and hospitality industry. Siwela Wines is currently amongst the few youth female black-owned wine businesses in South Africa and was launched in 2018.

Joycee Awosika, an award-winning wellness and luxury spa brand-builder

December 27, 2020 Melanie Hawken

ORÍKÌ Group, Nigeria’s unique luxury spa chain and farm-to-skin product range.

Joycee Awosika is an award-winning entrepreneur, energy economist and speaker. She has a history of running companies, mainly ORÍKÌ, the first and only all natural farm to skin brand to operate a fast-growing premium product and wellness spa brand in conjunction. Launched in 2015 and today employing 37 people, ORÍKÌ has developed 6 spas in four years and distributes products globally. Joycee’s work has been featured in several global publications including: CNBC, The Huffington Post, Ebony Magazine, The Guardian. She has built a reputation for her expertise in creating structure for businesses and homes and provides, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and templates through her platform, SOAR. SOAR is growing into a leading structure and strategy and development consultancy that works closely with small and medium enterprises and individuals to help them scale by leveraging systems and structure. She is avidly passionate about impacting SMEs to be sustainable and scalable realizing that they form the backbone of the economy.

Eunice Andrade, an award-winning communications leader and brand influencer

December 20, 2020 Melanie Hawken

EA Comunicacao e Servicos, a powerful communications advisory service for Mozambique’s businesses and brands

Eunice Andrade is the founder of EA Comunicacao e Servicos. She is an experienced entrepreneur and multi award-winning business leader across the African continent. Her business is focused on branding, company advisory and public relations. She founded the company 22 years ago and now employs more than 10 people, many of them women. She has more than 25 years of experience in the area of public relations and company consultancy. Currently, she is a Brand Ambassador for Betway Mozambique, Jaba Mozambique, and is also a social activist and influencer for Wateraid in the fight against COVID-19. She bring a wealth of experience and expertise in the fields of marketing and public relations.

Mimi Shodeinde, a British Nigerian artist and designer pushing creative boundaries

December 13, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Miminat Designs, a groundbreaking interior architecture and design business reimagining form and function

Mimi Shodeinde is a British Nigerian artist, designer and entrepreneur, born and raised in London, Mimi’s passion for art was developed at a young age. Winning awards for her artwork she went on to complete her degree in Interior Architecture at Edinburgh. She has worked and collaborated on a wide range of projects both nationally and internationally, from interior architectural projects, furniture design, lighting and product design spanning The UK, Europe, The Middle East and West Africa. Mimi’s drafting and painting skills together with her artist’s eye allow her to break down the relationship between form and function where art and design intersect. She draws on her diverse influences and background to manipulate the use of space through both form and placement defying categorization. Her style is fluid, sophisticated and functional but seeks to imbue each project with a personality of its own.

Dr Dorcas Muthoni, a technology leader and innovator on the African continent

December 6, 2020 Melanie Hawken

OpenBusiness Africa, a business transforming African enterprises through technology

Dr. Dorcas Muthoni is an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and founder of OpenBusiness Africa and OPENWORLD. She started her software business at the age of 24 and today it employs 50 people. She is greatly passionate about the transformation of African enterprises through technology. Dorcas is also the founder of the regional organization AfChix, a mentorship and capacity building initiative for women in computing across Africa. Globally, she has been involved and honored in technology leadership by the Internet Society (ISOC) as an Internet Hall Of Fame Global Connector, World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL), AnitaB Institute as a Change Agent Award Winner and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Spain as an Honoris Causa.

Catherine Mahugu, a change-maker revolutionizing Kenya’s coffee value chain

November 29, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Chiswara, reinventing the coffee supply chain through technology to benefit Kenya’s coffee farmers

Catherine Mahugu is a globally acclaimed entrepreneur. She is a software engineer by profession and change-maker by passion. Catherine is a certified human-centred design expert, a skill she acquired at Stanford University. Currently, she is the founder of Chiswara, a tech-enabled specialty coffee company launched in 2018 that offers an equitable coffee experience for both local farmers and global consumers. Partners committed to the company's growth and impact include Alibaba, UNCTAD, and IFC.

Adenike Ogunlesi, Africa’s foremost children’s fashion and retail entrepreneur

November 22, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Ruff ’n’ Tumble, a trailblazing premium children’s clothing brand on the African continent

Adenike Ogunlesi, who has been redefining and blazing the trail in the children’s fashion industry with over 35 years’ experience in the Fashion and Retail Business, is the founder and Creative Director of Africa’s leading Premium children’s clothing brand, Ruff ‘n’ Tumble. Ruff ‘n’ Tumble has shared happiness with over a million children and families across the globe, because she dared to dream and pursue her vision fearlessly.

Mapholo Ratau, a champion of South African culture through design

November 15, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Mapholo Ratau, a South African entrepreneur creating a contemporary, clothing and accessories brand.

Entrepreneur Mapholo Ratau knows how to spot a gap in the marketplace, and for her, that gap was creating high quality, contemporary clothing and accessory designs that are a celebration of South African culture. Her solution was to create a premium brand and range of clothing and accessories that are unmistakably her own.

Natalie and Kim Ellis, innovators in sustainable, ethical product design in South Africa

November 8, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Introducing The Joinery, creating solutions to environmental and community issues through design.

The global problem of how to deal with the mountain of plastic waste which is created every day is one that requires increasingly innovative and sustainable solutions. In South Africa, two pioneering sisters, Natalie and Kim Ellis, founders of The Joinery, are part of a vanguard of innovating entrepreneurs who are focused on building sustainable and ethical businesses that turn plastic waste into products not problems.

Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho, an information technology pioneer bridging the digital divide

October 17, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Future Software Resources Ltd (Futuresoft), a Nigerian technology provider scaling African enterprise.

Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho is a seasoned Information Technology professional with over 15 years of industry experience in Africa’s largest emerging economy. She has a deep purpose and focus on bridging the digital divide and transforming Africa by harnessing the benefits of digital. At home in technology from childhood, Nkemdilim is walking in her fathers’ footsteps as a second-generation Nigerian Information Technology expert.

Dr. Hend El Sherbini, a leader in the provision of best-in-class diagnostic services

October 11, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Meet IDH Integrated Diagnostics Holdings, a leading consumer diagnostic healthcare company in Africa and the Middle East

Dr. Hend El Sherbini holds the position of CEO of IDH-Integrated Diagnostics Holdings, a leading consumer diagnostic healthcare company in Africa and the Middle East with operations in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Nigeria. Dr. El Sherbini's experience is not only limited to her position as CEO, but she is also a professor of clinical pathology at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University and currently sits on the board of American Society of Clinical Pathology (Egypt) and consults on the international certification process. She received her MBBCh, Masters in Clinical and Chemical Pathology, PhD in Immunology from BBC by Cairo University, and an Executive MBA from London Business School.

Lorna Scott, the pioneer of Africa’s craft gin industry

October 4, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Meet Inverroche, a luxury gin brand celebrating the Cape’s unique botanicals.

Lorna Scott is the CEO and founder of Inverroche Distillery in South Africa. Lorna has had many roles in her career, she once was an air hostess, then became the marketing and sales manager of a food service corporation, later to become the operations director of the same company. Lorna then changed her career path by becoming the deputy mayor of the Hessequa municipality which covers the region of Still Bay. Although her background was marketing, during her time as Deputy Mayor Lorna became involved in sustainable development. One of her main objectives was to develop the region as a tourist destination and create employment amongst the local community.

Kofo Akinkugbe, a Nigerian innovator and technology market leader

September 27, 2020 Melanie Hawken

Secure ID, Africa’s market leader in smart card technology and digital security.

Kofo Akinkugbe is a Nigerian innovator and technology market leader. This remarkable woman entrepreneur founded a company that today is recognised globally as a market leader in Africa's smart card technology and digital security industry.

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