Description
Conference On Entrepreneurship And Economic Development In Africa
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Edwin Laurent, Commonwealth Secretariat
Edwin Laurent is Head of Trade and Regional Cooperation at the
Commonwealth Secretariat. He has served in Saint Lucia? s Ministry of
Finance and as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and
Tourism. He has held a number of diplomatic postings including Permanent
representative to the WTO, the FAO, the OPCW, and Ambassador to France,
Germany and to Belgium. He was the first Eastern Caribbean States
Ambassador to the EU and later the Windward Islands? Governments
Special Envoy to the EU on bananas. Whilst in Brussels, he chaired various
ACP Ambassadorial bodies, including the Committee on Trade and
Commodities and was the lead Ambassadorial negotiator and spokesman on
certain subjects. He was educated at the Universities of the West Indies,
Manchester and the Johns Hopkins? School of Advanced International
Studies in Washington D.C
Dr John Hancock, WTO
John Hancock works at the World Trade Organization in Geneva,
Switzerland, where he has served as senior policy adviser to the Director-
General, representative to the IMF and World Bank, and head of investment
issues. He also co-ordinated the WTO's Aid-for-Trade initiative, and was
secretary of the 2006 Task Force on the subject. Prior to the WTO, John was
senior adviser to Canada's trade minister. He has also been a guest lecturer
at Cambridge University, IMD, and the University of St Gallen. He holds a
PhD in economic history from Cambridge, and has written and spoken
frequently on international issues.
Abigail Noble, World Economic Forum
Head, Latin America and Africa at Swabs Foundation & World Economic
Forum. Abigail began her career in management consulting, advising Fortune
500 companies on corporate strategy with Deloitte Consulting and conducting
economic policy analysis for governments while at the Brattle Group. She has
worked with governments in West and East Africa on rural economic
development with the United Nations. More recently, she helped launch
across 13 countries in Latin America the Pioneers of Prosperity program, an
entrepreneurship awards competition designed to advance competitiveness
and social impact. She has worked on the investment facilitation for social
impact organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, through her work at Social
Equity Venture Funds (SEVEN), New Profit Inc. and Fidelity Investments, as
well as her volunteer work with microfinance organizations in Peru, Haiti and
India. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study democracy and
economic development in Uruguay. She received her B.A. in Economics from
Tufts University and her Master’s in International Development (MPA/ID) from
the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Gibril Faal, AFFORD & GK Partners
Gibril Faal is currently a director of GK Partners – a UK-based company that
advises socially responsible businesses on ethical business models, social
enterprise, legal structures, ethical and Islamic finance, corporate
responsibility etc. He is a board member of the EC-UN Joint Migration &
Development Initiative based in Brussels and chairman of the African
Foundation for Development (AFFORD) – a charity which works to extend
and enhance the role Diasporans play in African development. He is also the
founder of RemitAid™ – a programme to transform remittances into a
sustainable form of international development finance using tax reliefs and
other macroeconomic policies.
Nick Rouse, FMFM, Standard Bank
Nick became Managing Director in May 2005 having worked for Barclays
Bank for 33 years. His involvement with EAIF dates from the Fund's inception
and he has been a member of the Credit Committee and Non-Executive
Director since 2002. Nick had worked in Africa with Barclays for the 7 years
preceding his appointment, initially running Barclays Corporate Business in
East Africa and more recently as Head of Credit Risk for Africa and the Middle
East.
William So, China Unicom Africa
Mr So commenced his career with China Netcom Group, a Chinese State-
Owned Enterprise, in 2000 as the Head of International Operations. The
company later merged with part of China Telecom, and later with China
Unicom, thereby becoming one of the largest full telecom service providers in
China. He held strategic management positions at the company headquarters
in Beijing until 2007, when he was transferred to Hong Kong as the CEO for
Asian and Middle East operations. In 2008, Mr So came to London as
President of China Unicom (Europe) to oversee the group's operations in both
Europe and Africa.
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Geetha Tharmaratnam, Aureos Capital
Geetha is a Principal - Investments & ESG. She joined Aureos in London in
July, 2008. Geetha is the Global Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)
Manager for Aureos Capital, coordinating the management of ESG issues
through the lifecycle of the investments. In addition, she manages the Africa
Health Fund Technical Assistance Facility, which provides funding to portfolio
companies for capacity building projects and projects which enhance access
to health goods and services for low income people. Geetha is passionate
about private sector development in Africa and loves to travel. She joined
Aureos because she believes that to change the world, to help bring
development to our nations, you need to work with a team that is similarly
motivated.
Dr Steward Iyala, CATFLD & South Bank University
Dr. Iyala Tam Stewart has considerable experience in teaching, research,
accountancy and administration. Iyala has taught in Universities in Nigeria
and the U.K.; and has held managerial positions in the private and public
sectors. Dr Stewart is a Chartered Accountant, an Educationist and holds a
PhD degree in Corporate Governance. He is actively involved in research at
the Centre for Research in Accounting, Finance and Governance, London
South Bank University. His research and consulting interests are in
Accounting, Governance, Finance, Trade, Tourism, Small Business
Management, Energy Economics, & Development Studies.
Linda Kalimba Gihana, Rwanda High Commission
Linda Kalimba Gihana is the First Councillor at the Rwandan High
Commission, in charge of all international relations between the UK and
Rwanda.
Wanja Michuki, Kenya High Commission
Wanja Michuki, the principal counsel for trade and economic affairs at
the Kenya High Commission in London overseeing all trade and investment
activities between UK and Kenya.
Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia High Commission
Hirut Zemene, currently the minister Counsellor for trade and Investment at
the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK, coordinating and overseeing all trade and
investment promotion activities between UK and Republic of Ethiopia.
Kevin Korgba, ETK Consulting
Kevin is a self-starter with a strong combination of excellent education,
corporate work experience and an insatiable knack for setting up and
developing businesses that share a single underlying principle – African
development! Having worked on three different continents in the areas of IT,
finance, education and consultancy, Kevin has a broad idea of the workings of
the corporate and business environment. He set up his first company at the
age of 20 dealing in marketing and sale of petroleum products to corporate
bodies as well as individuals. He has since gone on to set up ETK Nigeria Ltd,
an education consulting company set up to help bridge the gap between UK
universities and Nigerians keen to study in the UK, a charity educating
children in Africa called The BIG Foundation, which has currently awarded full
scholarships to 10 children now in their third year of school, and most recently
set up ETK Consulting UK with his business partner. He holds a BA (Hons) in
Business Administration from the University of East London, an MSc in Global
Banking & Finance from the European Business School London and an MBA
from Webster Graduate School, London. Kevin is also an avid sportsman,
amassing 13 trophies from his martial arts days and loves to keep fit by
running and working out.
Eugene Nizeyimana, Sub-Saharan Consulting Group
Eugene is the Chief Operating Officer for Sub-Saharan Consulting Group.
Prior to his appointment, worked as a business development advisor for UK &
Africa at Innovation Intelligent Group. He is an entrepreneur with more than
10 years working experience from both private and public sectors including
NGOs. He spent several years working in various posts, diverse institutions
and companies in UK. Besides being born and brought up in Africa, has
developed extensive economic development knowledge about the continent
in various capacities in addition to his passion.
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Sarah Teacher, Africa Innovation Prize
Sarah Teacher works as director at Africa Innovation Prize and a trustee at
Avonbrook Projects Abroad which she joined in 2009. Sarah is a graduate
from Oxford and Cambridge University taking an MPhil in Development
Studies. Prior to her studies, she was Director for Next Generation
Philanthropy at the Institute for Philanthropy, working to promote effective
giving in the UK and internationally. She has coordinated various Enterprise
training programmes to graduate students at the universities in Rwanda over
the past 2 year and passionate about university entrepreneurship
development in Africa.
David Smith, British Africa Business Association (BABA)
David Smith MCAM, is the chairman of BABA, a marketing specialist, David
also brings his experience from working with, as well as his memberships of
The World Trade Centre - Chicago, The Commonwealth Business Council,
The Chicago land Chamber of Commerce, The Federation of Small
Businesses, Business Network International, Business Link (UK), and the
Association of Bi-National Chambers, in Florida.
Rita Spada, World Trade Centre London
Rita spade, Chief Executive of World Trade Centre London, MD, Director and
Non-Executive, entrepreneurial and strategic with a strong commercial and
international business network, highly innovative with a proven record in
driving rapid change in complex situations, business turnaround, maximising
revenues and profitability through strategic change management, innovative
marketing, including digital ( multichannel), new business ,product
development and operational excellence. Over the past has had position
managing multinational organisations including Business Result UK, HBS,
MNT Africa, Multichoice Africa Ltd, ESKOM, Deloitte, Shell and Haskins.
Dr Chege Githiora, SOAS Africa Study Centre
Dr Chege Githiora, Chairman of the Centre of African Studies at SOAS, a
professor linguistics, translator, and short story writer. He was born and raised
in Kenya. He lived in Mexico for six years before proceeding to the U.S. In
1999 he graduated with his doctorate in Linguistics from Michigan State
University. He taught Swahili at El Colegio de Mexico and at Boston
University from 1998 to 2000 before taking up his current position at
the University Of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
where he is the senior lecturer of Swahili.
Ida Horner, Ethnic Supplies
Ida is an advocate and social entrepreneur focusing on African women's
financial independence and Poverty alleviation. Her company Ethnic
Supplies supports women in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania and Madagascar by sourcing handmade handicrafts and fashion
accessories from suppliers that support women to be financially independent
or directly from established women's groups in rural locations. In addition she
helps companies to source products in Africa through ethical means by
connecting them to the relatives suppliers/producers in Africa and government
officials if necessary. She is an excellent networker focused on the promotion
of women owned businesses.
Adam Green, This is Africa, Financial Times
Adam Green, Senior Reporter at the Financial Times magazine 'This is
Africa', a bimonthly publication. My writing has also been published in China
Post, New Internationalist, the Middle East Institute, Foreign Policy in Focus,
and IPS (all views in this blog are my own). I have published one novel called
Satsuma Sun Mover, published by Lazy Gramophone Press and long-listed
for the Dylan Thomas Prize for Young Writers. It has pictures by Carl Slater
and it isn't too long. I also have a band called Blue Swerver whose album 'The
Art of Collapsing' is freely available on the internet and Spotify
doc_595992051.pdf
Conference On Entrepreneurship And Economic Development In Africa
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Edwin Laurent, Commonwealth Secretariat
Edwin Laurent is Head of Trade and Regional Cooperation at the
Commonwealth Secretariat. He has served in Saint Lucia? s Ministry of
Finance and as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and
Tourism. He has held a number of diplomatic postings including Permanent
representative to the WTO, the FAO, the OPCW, and Ambassador to France,
Germany and to Belgium. He was the first Eastern Caribbean States
Ambassador to the EU and later the Windward Islands? Governments
Special Envoy to the EU on bananas. Whilst in Brussels, he chaired various
ACP Ambassadorial bodies, including the Committee on Trade and
Commodities and was the lead Ambassadorial negotiator and spokesman on
certain subjects. He was educated at the Universities of the West Indies,
Manchester and the Johns Hopkins? School of Advanced International
Studies in Washington D.C
Dr John Hancock, WTO
John Hancock works at the World Trade Organization in Geneva,
Switzerland, where he has served as senior policy adviser to the Director-
General, representative to the IMF and World Bank, and head of investment
issues. He also co-ordinated the WTO's Aid-for-Trade initiative, and was
secretary of the 2006 Task Force on the subject. Prior to the WTO, John was
senior adviser to Canada's trade minister. He has also been a guest lecturer
at Cambridge University, IMD, and the University of St Gallen. He holds a
PhD in economic history from Cambridge, and has written and spoken
frequently on international issues.
Abigail Noble, World Economic Forum
Head, Latin America and Africa at Swabs Foundation & World Economic
Forum. Abigail began her career in management consulting, advising Fortune
500 companies on corporate strategy with Deloitte Consulting and conducting
economic policy analysis for governments while at the Brattle Group. She has
worked with governments in West and East Africa on rural economic
development with the United Nations. More recently, she helped launch
across 13 countries in Latin America the Pioneers of Prosperity program, an
entrepreneurship awards competition designed to advance competitiveness
and social impact. She has worked on the investment facilitation for social
impact organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, through her work at Social
Equity Venture Funds (SEVEN), New Profit Inc. and Fidelity Investments, as
well as her volunteer work with microfinance organizations in Peru, Haiti and
India. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study democracy and
economic development in Uruguay. She received her B.A. in Economics from
Tufts University and her Master’s in International Development (MPA/ID) from
the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Gibril Faal, AFFORD & GK Partners
Gibril Faal is currently a director of GK Partners – a UK-based company that
advises socially responsible businesses on ethical business models, social
enterprise, legal structures, ethical and Islamic finance, corporate
responsibility etc. He is a board member of the EC-UN Joint Migration &
Development Initiative based in Brussels and chairman of the African
Foundation for Development (AFFORD) – a charity which works to extend
and enhance the role Diasporans play in African development. He is also the
founder of RemitAid™ – a programme to transform remittances into a
sustainable form of international development finance using tax reliefs and
other macroeconomic policies.
Nick Rouse, FMFM, Standard Bank
Nick became Managing Director in May 2005 having worked for Barclays
Bank for 33 years. His involvement with EAIF dates from the Fund's inception
and he has been a member of the Credit Committee and Non-Executive
Director since 2002. Nick had worked in Africa with Barclays for the 7 years
preceding his appointment, initially running Barclays Corporate Business in
East Africa and more recently as Head of Credit Risk for Africa and the Middle
East.
William So, China Unicom Africa
Mr So commenced his career with China Netcom Group, a Chinese State-
Owned Enterprise, in 2000 as the Head of International Operations. The
company later merged with part of China Telecom, and later with China
Unicom, thereby becoming one of the largest full telecom service providers in
China. He held strategic management positions at the company headquarters
in Beijing until 2007, when he was transferred to Hong Kong as the CEO for
Asian and Middle East operations. In 2008, Mr So came to London as
President of China Unicom (Europe) to oversee the group's operations in both
Europe and Africa.
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Geetha Tharmaratnam, Aureos Capital
Geetha is a Principal - Investments & ESG. She joined Aureos in London in
July, 2008. Geetha is the Global Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)
Manager for Aureos Capital, coordinating the management of ESG issues
through the lifecycle of the investments. In addition, she manages the Africa
Health Fund Technical Assistance Facility, which provides funding to portfolio
companies for capacity building projects and projects which enhance access
to health goods and services for low income people. Geetha is passionate
about private sector development in Africa and loves to travel. She joined
Aureos because she believes that to change the world, to help bring
development to our nations, you need to work with a team that is similarly
motivated.
Dr Steward Iyala, CATFLD & South Bank University
Dr. Iyala Tam Stewart has considerable experience in teaching, research,
accountancy and administration. Iyala has taught in Universities in Nigeria
and the U.K.; and has held managerial positions in the private and public
sectors. Dr Stewart is a Chartered Accountant, an Educationist and holds a
PhD degree in Corporate Governance. He is actively involved in research at
the Centre for Research in Accounting, Finance and Governance, London
South Bank University. His research and consulting interests are in
Accounting, Governance, Finance, Trade, Tourism, Small Business
Management, Energy Economics, & Development Studies.
Linda Kalimba Gihana, Rwanda High Commission
Linda Kalimba Gihana is the First Councillor at the Rwandan High
Commission, in charge of all international relations between the UK and
Rwanda.
Wanja Michuki, Kenya High Commission
Wanja Michuki, the principal counsel for trade and economic affairs at
the Kenya High Commission in London overseeing all trade and investment
activities between UK and Kenya.
Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia High Commission
Hirut Zemene, currently the minister Counsellor for trade and Investment at
the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK, coordinating and overseeing all trade and
investment promotion activities between UK and Republic of Ethiopia.
Kevin Korgba, ETK Consulting
Kevin is a self-starter with a strong combination of excellent education,
corporate work experience and an insatiable knack for setting up and
developing businesses that share a single underlying principle – African
development! Having worked on three different continents in the areas of IT,
finance, education and consultancy, Kevin has a broad idea of the workings of
the corporate and business environment. He set up his first company at the
age of 20 dealing in marketing and sale of petroleum products to corporate
bodies as well as individuals. He has since gone on to set up ETK Nigeria Ltd,
an education consulting company set up to help bridge the gap between UK
universities and Nigerians keen to study in the UK, a charity educating
children in Africa called The BIG Foundation, which has currently awarded full
scholarships to 10 children now in their third year of school, and most recently
set up ETK Consulting UK with his business partner. He holds a BA (Hons) in
Business Administration from the University of East London, an MSc in Global
Banking & Finance from the European Business School London and an MBA
from Webster Graduate School, London. Kevin is also an avid sportsman,
amassing 13 trophies from his martial arts days and loves to keep fit by
running and working out.
Eugene Nizeyimana, Sub-Saharan Consulting Group
Eugene is the Chief Operating Officer for Sub-Saharan Consulting Group.
Prior to his appointment, worked as a business development advisor for UK &
Africa at Innovation Intelligent Group. He is an entrepreneur with more than
10 years working experience from both private and public sectors including
NGOs. He spent several years working in various posts, diverse institutions
and companies in UK. Besides being born and brought up in Africa, has
developed extensive economic development knowledge about the continent
in various capacities in addition to his passion.
CONFERENCE ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Speaker’s Biography
Sarah Teacher, Africa Innovation Prize
Sarah Teacher works as director at Africa Innovation Prize and a trustee at
Avonbrook Projects Abroad which she joined in 2009. Sarah is a graduate
from Oxford and Cambridge University taking an MPhil in Development
Studies. Prior to her studies, she was Director for Next Generation
Philanthropy at the Institute for Philanthropy, working to promote effective
giving in the UK and internationally. She has coordinated various Enterprise
training programmes to graduate students at the universities in Rwanda over
the past 2 year and passionate about university entrepreneurship
development in Africa.
David Smith, British Africa Business Association (BABA)
David Smith MCAM, is the chairman of BABA, a marketing specialist, David
also brings his experience from working with, as well as his memberships of
The World Trade Centre - Chicago, The Commonwealth Business Council,
The Chicago land Chamber of Commerce, The Federation of Small
Businesses, Business Network International, Business Link (UK), and the
Association of Bi-National Chambers, in Florida.
Rita Spada, World Trade Centre London
Rita spade, Chief Executive of World Trade Centre London, MD, Director and
Non-Executive, entrepreneurial and strategic with a strong commercial and
international business network, highly innovative with a proven record in
driving rapid change in complex situations, business turnaround, maximising
revenues and profitability through strategic change management, innovative
marketing, including digital ( multichannel), new business ,product
development and operational excellence. Over the past has had position
managing multinational organisations including Business Result UK, HBS,
MNT Africa, Multichoice Africa Ltd, ESKOM, Deloitte, Shell and Haskins.
Dr Chege Githiora, SOAS Africa Study Centre
Dr Chege Githiora, Chairman of the Centre of African Studies at SOAS, a
professor linguistics, translator, and short story writer. He was born and raised
in Kenya. He lived in Mexico for six years before proceeding to the U.S. In
1999 he graduated with his doctorate in Linguistics from Michigan State
University. He taught Swahili at El Colegio de Mexico and at Boston
University from 1998 to 2000 before taking up his current position at
the University Of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
where he is the senior lecturer of Swahili.
Ida Horner, Ethnic Supplies
Ida is an advocate and social entrepreneur focusing on African women's
financial independence and Poverty alleviation. Her company Ethnic
Supplies supports women in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania and Madagascar by sourcing handmade handicrafts and fashion
accessories from suppliers that support women to be financially independent
or directly from established women's groups in rural locations. In addition she
helps companies to source products in Africa through ethical means by
connecting them to the relatives suppliers/producers in Africa and government
officials if necessary. She is an excellent networker focused on the promotion
of women owned businesses.
Adam Green, This is Africa, Financial Times
Adam Green, Senior Reporter at the Financial Times magazine 'This is
Africa', a bimonthly publication. My writing has also been published in China
Post, New Internationalist, the Middle East Institute, Foreign Policy in Focus,
and IPS (all views in this blog are my own). I have published one novel called
Satsuma Sun Mover, published by Lazy Gramophone Press and long-listed
for the Dylan Thomas Prize for Young Writers. It has pictures by Carl Slater
and it isn't too long. I also have a band called Blue Swerver whose album 'The
Art of Collapsing' is freely available on the internet and Spotify
doc_595992051.pdf