Speaker Group: Business Leader

Sarah Whitten 2023 Speaker

“Sarah Whitten is the Regional Manager of Finance and Implementation at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). USTDA is the project preparation agency of the United States government, investing in early-stage infrastructure projects in Emerging Markets. In her capacity, Sarah works closely with financiers to secure funding for the projects supported by USTDA across… Read more »

Sara Firouzyar 2023 Speaker

Brian is a Partner at Novastar Ventures, one of the biggest and most experienced global VC fund managers in Africa. Prior to venture capital, Brian was an entrepreneur across multiple African markets including being part of the founding team that started Jumia, an award-winning African e-commerce platform, co-founding Zamsolar, a last-mile solar distribution company in… Read more »

Sandra Villars 2023 Speaker

“Sandra has worked with global top tier financial services institutions for over 20 years. She has worked with clients in South Africa & Africa, Middle East, Europe, and the US. Her main areas of focus are finance, treasury, risk, strategy, transformation and regulation. She currently coordinates Oliver Wyman’s Financial Services sustainability platform in the region…. Read more »

Samuel Chiwanda 2023 Speaker

Samuel Chiwanda, is a Founder and CEO of Click Mobile a company that focuses on Messaging, USSD, Voice, and Airtime. The company has established in 2012, is based in Malawi, and nowadays is an International firm with over 8 branches across Africa and the Middle East. Sam has managed to grow Click Mobile from running… Read more »

Sameh Farid 2023 Speaker

“Founder and President of Newgiza University, Prof. Farid was appointed as the Minister of Health, on Jan 30th, 2011, elected as Member of the Parliament in 2010, Chairman of the Education and Research Committee in the Egyptian parliament, and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Kasr Al Aini, Cairo University from 2006 till January… Read more »

Sam Sturm 2023 Speaker

“Sam leads a team that focuses on turning promising ideas into breakthrough innovations, managing Founders Factory Africa’s Venture Studio to develop new businesses from the ground up. A former teacher and aspiring filmmaker, Sam takes a design-led approach to problem solving, creating products, services, and business models that are equal parts scalable and sustainable. As… Read more »

Saad Sheikh 2023 Speaker

Saad Sheikh is a Partner and heads Enko’s SDG aligned, impact focused private credit strategy, located in the London office. Prior to joining Enko, Saad was a Principal at an Africa focused fund, where he was responsible for deal origination, structuring, and execution for their credit fund. Saad focused on various industries in Africa, including… Read more »

Ruby Nimkar 2023 Speaker

Surabhi is an experienced Financial Technology professional who has worked as a Strategy Consultant driving digital transformation for Tier 1 financial services clients across the United States, United Kingdom, and India. She led projects focused on digital wealth management initiatives targeting Millennials and Gen Z for global leaders in banking. Surabhi now works as the… Read more »

Rory Ord 2023 Speaker

Rory is a well-respected private markets practitioner with more than 18 years’ experience. He is responsible for leading the private markets team investment activities. This includes managing strategy, portfolio design and implementation for discretionary and advisory private markets allocations across all sub classes, from early stage to private equity, mezzanine and infrastructure type investments.

Roland Laljee 2023 Speaker

Mr. Roland Laljee is an experienced marketer with over 15 years of experience in marketing, PR and cooperate relations. Having started his career in the public sector he moved on to work extensively in the private sector until this year joining the Seychelles Investment Board. He has experience in working in the manufacturing and beverages… Read more »