the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
ALARA, a new luxury retail concept store, Victoria Island, Lagos founded by Reni Folawiyo
- A.T. Kearney, global strategy and management consulting firm - The 2015 Global Retail Development Index
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Janet Nkubana, co-founder of Gahaya Links Cooperatives (Rwanda)
- Janet Nkubana co-founded Gahaya Links Cooperatives with her sister Joy Ndungutse shortly after the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994. These inspiring sisters had a vision to turn ancient basket weaving skills into a source of livelihood for thousands of rural women. Many of the women, like Janet and Joy themselves, were returning refugees or survivors of the genocide. The women started weaving baskets in exchange for food. Initially bringing together about twenty women, the sisters taught them how to weave and how to enhance their weaving skills with new design techniques. Today, Gahaya Links manages a network of over 4,000 weavers across the country, organised into around 72 cooperatives that help provide much needed income and stability. The sisters have successfully opened the business to international markets, partnering with the likes of Macy’s, Walmart, Oprah Magazine, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, and Kate Spade. Today, Gahaya Links "Peace Baskets” are sold and admired the world over.
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Bilikiss Adebiyi, founder and CEO of WeCyclers
- Bilikiss Adebiyi is a Nigerian entrepreneur and innovator, and founder and CEO of WeCyclers. This Lagos-based company is focused on giving low-income communities in developing countries a chance to capture value from waste and clean up their neighborhoods through an incentive-based recycling program. Bilikiss holds an MBA from MIT and a Masters degree from Vanderbilt University. She is a 2013 Echoing Green Fellow and WeCyclers were a Sustainia100 Company Award winner in 2014.
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- Barbara Ann Corcoran is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. As a television personality, she is a "Shark" investor on ABC's Shark Tank.
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- Juliana Rotich is a Technologist, MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow, TED Senior Fellow and currently serves as Chair of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Data Driven Development. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi Inc, a non-profit tech company, born in Africa, which specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. She leads a team that is expanding its global footprint and making crowdsourcing tools available and useful, and catalyzing entrepreneurial initiatives like iHub in Kenya. She also serves on the advisory council of Microsoft 4Afrika and Waabeh Ltd. In 2011 The World Economic Forum named Juliana 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year'.
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- Kari Warberg Block, founder and CEO of Earth-Kind, is an American inventor, serial entrepreneur and small business champion with a passion for growing people, products, ideas, and business through a sustainable approach. Her company, Earth-Kind, has the mission to preserve what’s good and prevent the rest, by providing proactive, natural alternatives to protect the spaces in which we live, work and play. Kari was named to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman Class of 2012.
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Rebecca Enonchong, founder and CEO of AppsTech
- Rebecca Enonchong is a Cameroonian born technology entrepreneur. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of AppsTech, a leading global provider of enterprise application solutions serving clients in more than 50 countries. Rebecca currently serves as a mentor/advisor to several Africa based technology startups and sits on the board of VC4Africa, the largest online community dedicated to entrepreneurs and investors building companies in Africa. She is also a director of the award winning Salesforce.com Foundation.
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Arancha González, Executive Director, International Trade Centre
- Arancha González is the recently appointed Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, the joint agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Trade Organization. Arancha is an expert in international trade and development and is passionate about using trade and aid4trade as an engine for development, growth and jobs; working to unlock the potential of SMEs. She is a leading advocate of women's economic empowerment.
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Merel Van Der Woude, Creative Director at Butterfly Works
- Merel Van Der Woude is the Creative Director at Butterfly Works, a creative and strategic partner in social innovation projects in Africa. Butterfly Works have co-created and implemented educational and communication projects in over 22 emerging economies worldwide. Over the years they have worked for NGOs, companies, governments and embassies. Merel has been a speaker and workshop facilitator and trainer for a wide range of events around innovation, education and human centred design.
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- Stephanie Ruhle is an anchor and managing editor for Bloomberg Television and editor-at-large for Bloomberg News, based in New York. She serves as co-host of "Market Makers," and regularly interviews industry titans. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Stephanie served as a Managing Director in Global Markets Senior Relationship Management at Deutsche Bank. There, she oversaw relationships for some of Deutsche Bank's largest hedge fund clients.
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Erika van der Merwe, CEO of Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association
- Erika van der Merwe is chief executive officer of the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, an organisation that promotes the venture capital and private equity profession across Southern Africa. Erika’s career has extended from economic analysis within the asset management industry to financial journalism. Her most recent position has been that of anchor at CNBC Africa’s Johannesburg bureau.
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Ethel Cofie, founder of Edel Technology Consulting (Ghana)
- Ethel Cofie is a Ghanaian-born entrepreneur and founder of Edel Technology Consulting. This techpreneur is passionate about technology, female leadership and empowering women entrepreneurs. Ethel is a Mandela Fellow for President Obama’s Young African Leaders initiative(YALI), and has beenfeatured in BBC and CNN for work in technology and women leadership. She is the founder of Women in Tech Ghana, initiator of the 1st Pan African woman in tech meetup and was shortlisted for the UN GEM Tech Award for her work supporting women in ICT.
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Clare Akamanzi, Chief Operating Officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB)
- Clare Akamanzi is Chief Operating Officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). The RDB is a government institution whose vision is to transform Rwanda into a dynamic global hub for business, investment, and innovation. Prior to RDB, Clare was Deputy Director-General of the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA), a position she held from 2006-2008. She was also Rwanda’s commercial diplomat in London and a trade negotiator in Geneva for the Government of Rwanda at the World Trade Organization. Clare is an international trade and investment lawyer.
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Andrea Bohmert, partner at Knife Capital
- Andrea Bohmert is partner at Knife Capital, a Southern African growth equity fund manager and advisor focusing on innovation-driven ventures. Andrea has a successful track record in the corporate sector, as entrepreneur as well as investor. She headed up Corporate Strategy for Siemens Southern Africa followed by managing a software sales team for Dimension Data. Starting her own businesses led her into the investment space where she raised the R350m Hass Plattner Ventures Africa Fund. She is passionate about developing the startup ecosystem and is involved in numerous business incubation initiatives.
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Rania Anderson, founder of The Way Women Work and author of UNDETERRED
- Rania H. Anderson is the Founder and President of The Way Women Work, an entrepreneur, executive business coach and an angel investor. Throughout her professional life, Rania has been observing, researching, connecting with and guiding the way women work. As a leading authority on business women in developing and emerging markets Rania works with business women globally and established The Way Women Work as career and business advice site for women in developing and emerging markets. Rania is author of UNDETERRED: The Six Success Habits of Women in Emerging Economies.
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Dr. Victoria Kisyombe, founder of SELFINA (Tanzania)
- Victoria Kisyombe founded SELFINA in 2002 and pioneered micro-credit in Tanzania through micro-leasing with a focus on widows and young girls. Victoria helped women overcome many of the traditional stumbling blocks that made it difficult for them to own land and assets. SELFINA has gone on to economically empower more than 25,000 women with a total credit worth 25 billion Tanzanian Shillings (approximately $16 million US dollars). Over 200,000 lives have been impacted through the benefits accrued.
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Tara Fela-Durotoye, founder of House of Tara, Nigeria
- Tara Fela-Durotoye is a Nigerian-born lawyer turned Africa's leading beauty and makeup entrepreneur. She started House of Tara at the age of 20, from her living room, whilst an undergraduate at university back in 1998. She's since gone on to launch Nigeria's first ever bridal directory in 1999, and in 2004 she opened the country's leading beauty academy. Today, Tara has over 3,000 reps spread across Nigeria and 14 stores to her name and she is steadfastly dedicated to realising her vision of building a globally respected beauty company of African origin. Tara remains an inspirational role-model and mentor to make-up artists and aspiring beauty business owners across Africa.
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Sara Abera, founder of Muya, Ethiopia
- Sara Abera founded Muya Ethiopia in 2005 to introduce the world to the rich heritage of traditional Ethiopian weaving, whilst incorporating modern design trends. Sara also wanted to bring together and retrain Ethiopian weavers and craftsmen, so they could work in improved conditions, supplying high-end markets in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Sara employees over 120 craftsmen and women in Addis Ababa. Her socially-responsible model resulted in Muyo becoming the first Ethiopian company to obtain the coveted International Fair Trade Association membership.
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Lorna Rutto, founder of EcoPost, Kenya
- Lorna Rutto is a Kenyan eco-preneur, and the inspiring founder of EcoPost, a social enterprise created in response to the need to find alternative waste management solutions to Kenya's huge plastic waste problem. In 2009 she founded her company, which collects plastic waste and manufactures commercially viable, highly durable, and importantly environmentally friendly fencing posts, used widely across Kenya. In 2011, Lorna was recognised by the prestigious Cartier Women's Initiative Awards as their laureate for sub-Saharan Africa.
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- Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook. Her remarkable career has included stops at the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, Google and Facebook, where she's been Chief Operating Officer since 2008. Sheryl Sandberg grew up in North Miami Beach, Florida, and studied economics at Harvard. Her position as one of Silicon Valley's most successful female executives has made her a lightning rod for both praise and criticism, especially after the publication of her 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead in 2013.
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