Speakers

Anoka Primrose Abeyrathne

Anoka Abeyrathne is an innovator, social entrepreneur and advocate. Anoka is a Forbes 30 under 30, recipient of the Commonwealth Youth Award from Queen Elizabeth II, Sri Lanka’s first female World Economic Forum New Champion, Zonta Award for Environment recipient, Cosmopolitan 35 under 35 and a British Council International Climate Champion. She is the currently elected Environment Lead for the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Anoka is the co-founder of Growin’ Money – a social enterprise to empower women and vulnerable communities across the Global South through digital skills and pioneering Mangroveenvironmental enterprise. Her newest venture focuses on healthcare, building research and digital skills globally. Her petition supporting the Animal Welfare Bill lead to the draft bill being revived in parliament. Her work on Mangroves led to the President of Sri Lanka gazetting Mangroves as a protected species.

Tobi Adegbite

Adegbite Tobi is a social entrepreneur from Nigeria and the founder of Entojutu. Entojutu focuses on aiding African communities to transition to using earth-friendly methods. He does this through the instrumentality of a fly, the BlackSoldierFly (BSF). The fly transforms organic waste into useful resources that help rural farmers become sustainable. Entojutu has trained 167 rural farmers across 7 African communities in Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana). Entojutu has set up 5 adoption centres across these communities to empower them by nature. Tobi is passionate towards changing the narrative communities, environment, agriculture and climate change in Africa.

Tosin Ajibola

Tosin Ajibola, Co-Founder/CEO at Welkom-U, is a Computer Scientist, Tech Entrepreneur and Business Development Manager. As a recipient of the RBC Community leadership Award 2020 (University of New Brunswick), Tosin is dedicated to improving the experience & integrating Immigrants, International students and newcomers alike into new communities. He earned his Masters Degree in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of New Brunswick. He hails originally from Lagos, Nigeria. Tosin is passionate about people, leadership and success stories. He is especially inspired to help future entrepreneurs understand the problems he faced starting a company and overcome them. When he’s not working, Tosin can be found playing basketball and video games.

Natasha Akib

Natasha Akib is a digital producer who believes in individuals and communities telling their own stories. She specialises in using the skills of film production, media and marketing for purpose-driven organisations. She is responsible for developing, producing and facilitating Stories for Impact – Digital Storytellers’ educational workshops, tools and resources. Stories for Impact has supported thousands of storytellers worldwide to find, make, edit and share their own video stories using smartphones and affordable technology for fundraising, advocacy, community engagement and more.

Souad Ali

Together, Laura and Souad (and a third developer) launched CONCAT in 2021, Souad is a Full-Stack Developer, Shopify, Webflow and QA expert all-in-one. In her free time, she is also a strong advocate for encouraging more young women to join the tech sector.

Stephen Augustine

Stephen Augustine is a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and the Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Affairs and Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University. Previously he was the Curator of Ethnology for Eastern Maritimes at the Canadian Museum of Civilisation in Gatineau/Ottawa. He holds a Masters degree in Canadian Studies from Carleton University, focusing on traditional knowledge curriculum development in the education system and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Political Science from St. Thomas University.
Over the years, Mr Augustine has shared his expertise in research and traditional knowledge with many organisations, including government departments, the Assembly of First Nations, and various Indigenous communities across Canada. In his role as a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and by Elders’ training since an early age, Mr Augustine has a thorough command of traditional practices, his language, and his people’s history.

Linh Do Ngoc Bao

Ms Linh Do Ngoc Bao, based in Vietnam, has been involved in numerous extracurriculars and leadership roles throughout her career. She has been a part of her school’s Student Council since primary school, and she has recently accepted the role of Prefect and Co-Head of the Department of Social Awareness. For her work in social impact, she was invited by Learning Planet Festival 2023, co-organised by UNESCO, to partake in the global ASPIRE 2030 campaign for youth health and empowerment as a youth ambassador.

Linh’s main goal is to pursue interdisciplinary education. With an interest in humanities and social sciences, specifically psychology, Linh aspires to improve people’s mental health. She also believes social entrepreneurship is a complementary pathway to accomplish this goal, and as such co-founded the ESG School with global peers.

Dillon Bernard

Dillon Bernard is a digital strategist and content producer who uses digital media as a tool for transformative justice. Dillon founded Content By Us, an awareness campaign created to empower young storytellers of colour, and Youth Action Hour, a campaign producing short-form content focused on amplifying the power of young leaders across the country in collaboration with over 30 youth-focused organisations.

Meghan Brodmann

Meghan Brodmann is a CGS consultant who works firsthand with clients to support and lead social impact assessment, strategic planning, business development, and community engagement projects. She values the intersection between academia and community organisations, with a background in academic research focused on community ownership. She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Saint Mary’s University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies.

Sabrina Chakori

Sabrina holds a BSc. in Biology, an MSc. in Environmental Economics, and she is currently finishing a PhD research that explores food systems within a degrowth economy. She is an associate lecturer (University of Queensland) coordinating a course that focuses on e-tech for ecological and social well-being in food systems.
Sabrina has advocated for a more sustainable society, leading numerous collaborations in various countries, including an initiative with Queensland’s Environment Minister to introduce a law banning single-use plastic bags. In 2017, to reduce consumerism and productivism, she founded the Brisbane Tool Library, a social enterprise that encourages people to borrow various items. The Brisbane Tool Library is Australia’s first and only ‘library of things’ located within a public library – State Library of Queensland.
Sabrina is a multi-award social entrepreneur, researcher, educator and most of all, activist fully invested in building a socially just and ecologically sustainable post-growth society.

Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan is a 12th-grade student of law, international relations, and history studying in Shanghai, China. A published author and researcher of wisdom tales and history, he is multilingual and aspires to create a meaningful impact on social justice. He is the founder of The Law Association for Crimes Across History (LACAH), a social enterprise that empowers youth globally to address current social justice issues through studying history. Nathan also founded Mission Fortitude, a social enterprise that empowers youth globally to develop their own blueprints and action plans to tackle injustices. Nathan has spoken at the United Nations, Social Enterprise World Forum Brisbane 2022, and is an Ariel Foundation Young Ambassador.

Lisa Chen

Lisa is a marine biologist, conservationist, educator, and social entrepreneur with a BSc in Biology and Neuroscience. Her work has brought her to Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. She is the Founder and CEO of Marine Way, a citizen science app aim at tackling ghost fishing gear. She is actively involved in marine conservation and research, environmental education, habitant protection and waste reduction. Lisa is currently a Master of Marine Management Candidate at Dalhousie University with a research project focused on ocean literacy.

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury is a multi-award-winning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) activist from Bangladesh. Shomy is the Co-Founder of global youth-led org Awareness 360 and also a Global Changemakers Fellow. She has addressed keynotes and inspired millions across 5 continents, also receiving many recognitions for her social work of over a decade, notably the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) from President Barack Obama, the Putra Icon Award, and the Princess Diana Legacy Award.

Most recently, she has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 and highlighted as the Featured Honoree for Social Impact. She is also the first Bangladeshi citizen to sit on the 2021 Diana Legacy Award Judging Panel alongside Princess Diana’s brother Lord Spencer, and many esteemed figures.

Azima Dhanjee

Azima Dhanjee is a Child of Deaf Adult (CODA), Co-founder and CEO of ConnectHear, Board Member of the Social Enterprise World Forum C.I.C and a member of the National Youth Council (an initiative by the Prime Minister of Pakistan). She is a Diana Award winner and has been invited as a speaker on various platforms. She is an alumna of the Institute of Business Administration (Class of 2020), with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.

Azima is raised by Deaf parents and Pakistani Sign Language (PSL) is her mother tongue. Growing up, she was always concerned by how simple communication was a challenge for the Deaf due to the language barrier. The lack of awareness and accessibility led her to start ConnectHear at the age of 19 with her high school friends. ConnectHear is a social enterprise that strives for sign language accessibility and Deaf inclusion by using technology.

Alexis Di Gregorio

Alexis has helped run SThree’s Global Customer Experience programme for five years. Her unique background as an artist allows her to understand the customer’s needs and advise on best business practices. She’s a proud partner in the STEM industry and is thrilled to be a panellist for the SEWF Youth Forum. When she’s not working at SThree, you can find her exploring New York City, performing on various comedy stages, spoiling her cats, and finding the best local food.

Glenn Foster

Glenn Foster has been out on the frontlines since the news of George Floyd’s death first became public. He first gained recognition for his work as the founder of The Freedom Neighborhood, which was featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and PBS Newshour for their unorthodox methods of protesting and advocating for the removal of a controversial statue at Emancipation Park in Washington D.C.
Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, Glenn has advocated in planning civil disobedience events with no police involvement, refusal to give in to passive reforms, and doing more than the traditional forms of protest in pursuit of liberation for all Black people and cross-cultural solidarity among other marginalised communities. He currently attends Harvard University and resides in the Washington, D.C., area.

Melat Gebregiorgis

Melat Gebregiorgis is a passionate and supportive youth working at Social Enterprise Ethiopia, where she contributes to the creation of an inclusive economy for social entrepreneurs. Melat loves helping others develop and reach their full potential and volunteers in different spaces to do so.

Namrita Ghani

Namrita Ghani is a student based in London, England. She is a teen who strongly believes in social business objectives and strives to raise more awareness of them.
During Summer 2022, Namrita interned at Grameen Bank, founded by Professor Yunus. Here, she discovered the world of social business and microfinance. After returning to school, she founded and started a social business club, to help spread and promote its objectives. During Summer 2023, Namrita plans on interning at BRAC in Bangladesh.
In the future, she thrives to promote social entrepreneurship in the youth – especially in places of poverty.

Ela Gokcigdem

Ela Gokcigdem is a current sophomore studying Business and Environmental Sustainability at Babson College. She has founded three ventures throughout her entrepreneurial journey: ePearl Technologies, MyEcoEdu, and The Avsa Project. As an avid climate activist, she serves as the Deputy Director of Finance for the youth-led climate organisation. This Is Zero Hour. She is also a member of the World Economic Forum, Boston Global Shapers Hub, and EarthEcho International’s Youth Leadership Council.

Julie Greijn

After studying interior, graphic and product design, Julie travelled the world. During this time, she got to know many different cultures and needs. This, in combination with her background in design, kept her creating. On her way, she got in touch with the initiative Precious Plastic, a worldwide community based around open-source technology to recycle plastic waste, where she spent the following years developing this initiative.

From then on, Fair Enough was created. Bit by bit, Fair Enough is being shaped into a recipe to turn pollution into something new through small-scale systems. Fair Enough provides the tools to make a social and ecological impact on a small scale by designing products made out of locally collected plastic waste to fulfil needs in the area.

Alice Yijou Hung

Young Female Entrepreneur For the Ocean Tech. I am Alice, the founder of MicroPC. I am focusing on Microplastics and Ocean Education. I set up a social enterprise when I was 22 years old. My company did a lot of ocean cleanup and ocean education. We have our invented machine to help the environment. I am also the Youth Advisory Committee in Taiwan and assist the government with youth affairs, especially Female startups and Social enterprises.

Serisha Iyar

Serisha is a South African-Canadian who draws from the teachings of the anti-Apartheid movement alongside liberation and womanist theologies, and is committed to practising anti-oppression, global decolonisation, anti-racism and providing intersectional analysis. She serves as the Executive Director of Leading in Colour and sits on the Board of The Solidarity Library. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Political Science & World Religions and fellowships with The Mosaic Institute and Amnesty International. Serisha was the first Canadian Frontliner with the We Are Family Foundation and, most recently, named an Ontario Community Changemaker with 8 80 Cities.

Laura Jardine Paterson

Laura is the Founder and CEO of CONCAT – the first web design and development company to be led solely by talented refugee and female developers and designers.

Manroop Kalsi

Manroop is a 16-year-old currently exploring emerging technologies such as Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence to work towards solving some of the world’s biggest problems. She is presently working with Effective Altruism Toronto as a researcher and simultaneously working towards increasing community involvement.

Naomi Kamer

“We are not defending nature, we are nature defending itself” ???? ????
Naomi Kamer from Social Enterprise NL takes inspiration from this quote from native Brazilian women, she says it inspires her in how to take action for a transition towards a sustainable and inclusive economy; it requires a different way of thinking to go beyond symptom-control and create deep, lasting change. Naomi believes social entrepreneurs are pioneers in ‘doing different’ with this purpose and she is excited to be part of a network of people building towards a better future for all.

Yasmina Khababi

Yasmina Khababi is the founder of the social and sustainable start-up Freshtable. With a background in business, politics, food and public administration, Yasmina has a broad knowledge and ability to tackle different societal issues. With that knowledge, she founded the first and only socially inclusive and sustainable meal delivery service in the Netherlands, with a broad menu of delicious halal and vegan world cuisine meals. Freshtable believes you can do good while eating good. Every meal contributes to the journey towards an inclusive, equal and sustainable world. By hiring high skilled former refugees and providing them with different educational programmes through the Fresh Academy, Freshtable aims to bridge the gap in society.

Kenneth Kwok

It is time for a global youth-led #STEMxSDG movement! KIDsforSDGs is Asia’s leading not-for-profit community of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) advocates across primary schools, secondary schools and universities. The founding team oversees businesses or social enterprises engaged with the World Economic Forum, UN Global Compact, UN Women, World Humanitarian Forum, Catalyst 2030 and more organisations. Through scholarship and mentorship for youth co-curated programs such as UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia Pacific Programme, Young Changemaker Incubator and more, KIDsforSDGs supports 300+ Gen-Z’ers to develop their SDG-oriented projects and initiatives.

Mikey Leung

Mikey gets more done in 5 years than other people do in 10 lifetimes. He attributes that to being born in the year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, but his team at Digital Storytellers think he owes it to coffee. With over 15 years of study in the practice of digital wizardry, Mikey has worked as a web designer, radio journalist and travel writer before finally finding his spiritual home in the moving image. When he’s not behind the camera, he’s out advocating for impact storytelling and helping clients achieve their storytelling goals. He also does a killer rendition of ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ on guitar and vocals.

Pablo Luengo

I am a first-year medical student at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Aside from medicine, I also have a passion for entrepreneurship and developing solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, primarily through science and research. I am the founder of Living Energy, and I have also contributed to several research projects. I am the co-founder of another social enterprise, Nowd, which aims to give financial education and access to healthcare resources to women in West Africa.

Chelsey MacNeil

Chelsey is the President and CEO of Common Good Solutions, an Atlantic Canadian community interest company working to strengthen the impact sector to transform the way we think about the intersections of equity, social and economic well-being across business, non-profit, and public institutions.

Chelsey is a strong community leader and brings a unique entrepreneurial perspective to systems change work. Chelsey is committed to strengthening the capacity of communities, individuals, and institutions to create strong and sustainable solutions to complex problems. Prior to joining Common Good Solutions, Chelsey worked with Choices for Youth, where she led the creation of a portfolio of social enterprises – purpose built to support education and employment outcomes for youth, while contributing to policy change in income support reform, social procurement, and community economic development. Chelsey has been recognized nationally as a transformative young female leader and her contributions to the development of impact companies and the ecosystems that support them.

Active in the community, Chelsey is the Chairperson the YWCA of St. John’s, deeply connected with rural economic development in the Bonavista region (NL) and led the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador Social Enterprise and Innovation Coalition. She holds an MBA, B.Ed. in Post-Secondary Education and a double major in Music and Arts Administration from Bishop’s University.

Marlen Mendoza

Marlén Mendoza is an independent policy consultant and has worked with various non-profits in Washington, DC – Center for Law and Social Policy, The Forum for Youth Investment, and the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. She provides research, support, and analysis on various issues related to the youth of colour, youth in poverty, young adult mental health, and disconnected youth. Marlen is also a youth engagement and partnership consultant and actively seeks to bring youth and young adults to the policy table and decision-making process.

Mirabelle Morah

Fascinated by the power of digital media and storytelling, Mirabelle Morah is the Founder of BlankPaperz Media and also the Community & Communications Manager at the Social Enterprise World Forum. Through BlankPaperz, Mirabelle and her team began Z’axis Magazine to encourage young, African social entrepreneurs in 2020. And in 2021, also started the BlankPaperz GC Fund to support the education-based needs of individuals and organisations in Nigeria. So far, 4 organisations and 6 individuals have benefited from the funds in support of school tuition and training fees.

Ann Nderitu

Ann Nderitu is an experienced coach with nine years of experience in human resource administration, gender and programme implementation for youth and women-led projects. Ann has supported implementing programmes addressing youth leadership, training, and development in social entrepreneurship, gender, ICT, sustainability, and women’s empowerment. She is an exceptional coach and is actively engaged and committed to supporting youth and women in sustainable economic development. Ann graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Economics and has an Executive Certificate in Human Resource Management from Kenya’s College of Human Resource Management. Ann currently serves as the Alumni and YouthLAB Coordinator at Digital Opportunity Trust.

Poppy Newley-Bayliss

I joined Ecologeco because I wanted to make a positive environmental difference. Studying Environmental Science at University has allowed me to use my knowledge and apply it directly to the project where we aim to create a financially viable seaweed supplement to add to ruminants existing diet. I was a vegan for two years previously due to wanting to live a more sustainable lifestyle. However, it is a very restrictive diet and more challenging to maintain health without prior planning. This is why I love the idea of creating low-methane dairy and meat products, allowing consumers to continue with their usual diet whilst also knowing they are living a more sustainable life.

James Okina

After a horrific experience as an adolescent when his parents separated, James Okina turned to the streets for a sense of belonging. Inspired by an unprecedented turnaround, at age 15, James founded Street Priests Incorporated. This social enterprise is transforming street children’s lives through a youth-led movement.

Street Priests currently operates the only community center in Nigeria that provides all-round developmental support to children on the streets daily. Over 11,000 children and counting have benefited from this program. He currently serves as Strategic Advisor to the SAP/UNICEF partnership to bring digital skills to over 1.5 million students in India, Turkey, and Vietnam and a Young People’s action Team Member for Generation Unlimited. James is also the founder of Erupt Art and holds a B.sc in Social Entrepreneurship as a Watson Scholar.

Egao Ozawa

Egao Ozawa is a youth leader of Young Pioneers Forum. His upbringing as a young expeditionist was an encompassing experience that shaped him into the confident, outgoing and globally-minded individual he is today.

Growing up studying across three different continents, Egao learned valuable skills such as adapting to new environments and forging new relationships, as well as taking responsibility for himself at a young age. His passion for learning about different cultures and languages grew as he lived in different parts of the world, which gave him a deep appreciation for diversity.

Egao is very committed to creating social impact and sustainability through research and entrepreneurship, as he believes science and finance are key to driving long-term systems change.

Nine van der Poel

Nine is the programme manager at Social Enterprise NL, the driving force behind social entrepreneurship in the Netherlands. Nine has been working at Social Enterprise NL for almost two years now and wants to continue working with inspiring social entrepreneurs for the rest of her life and make as much impact as she can. During her work, she is in frequent contact with various social entrepreneurs, which gives her a lot of knowledge about their needs. She is happy to use this knowledge to create an interesting programme for SEWF 2021.

Sarah Roberts

During her time completing her Bachelor’s degree in management, Sarah quickly turned towards social entrepreneurship as a way to make change. Now, Sarah is a young changemaker, making grassroots waves with her organisation, the New Venture Marketplace, which supports local entrepreneurs through innovative events. Sarah is also a recognised ChangemakerXChange member, and Whitney Barham Award winner.

Greta Rossi

Greta is a changemaker involved in multiple not-for-profit initiatives. She is the co-founder of Recipes for Wellbeing and ChangemakerXchange and the lead facilitator for the WISE Emerging Leaders programme. Greta holds a BA (Hons) in International Relations and is a qualified coach, facilitator, and fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). She has hosted workshops, events, and summits in over 20 countries collaborating with organisations such as Ashoka, Climate-KIC, and Google. Greta also enjoys sharing her ideas with the wider public and has written several blog posts as well as delivered talks at stages like TEDxBologna2016, TEDxPwCMilan2017, The Women Power Summit 2018, the Social Innovation Summit 2019, and the European Social Economy Summit 2020.

Shila Ukumbini Salim

Shila Salim is the Team Lead of the Youth Sustainable Development Kilifi Chapter in Kenya. This youth-led organisation creates a safe, empowering, and enabling environment for sustainable development through four thematic areas of gender, health, social accountability, peace and security. Shila was instrumental in the launch of a campaign called #VolunteerAgainstCovid19 to mobilise the Kilifi community in COVID-19 response efforts targeting motorbike riders as behaviour change ambassadors to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the county of Kilifi, Kenya, as well as to share prevention tips and mental health and resilience support during this pandemic by developing key COVID-19 targeted material such as posters, infographics, social media activation posts as well as videos to illustrate important COVID-19 messages and radio activation programmes in the local community radio station. Her campaign has already reached 15,000 people in Kilifi, and her goal is to reach 100,000 more community members.

Mateo Salvatto

Mateo Salvatto is a 24-year-old entrepreneur from Argentina. Creator and CEO of Asteroid, a social tech company that helps over 400,000 disabled people for free. Mateo is also an International Robotics Champion, and MIT Innovator Under 35.

Lokesh Sambhwani

Lokesh is one of the Co-Founders of Recube – a social enterprise that creates innovative packaging systems to tackle wastage. He has been an integral part of multiple social initiatives before starting his journey with Recube. He helped over 25+ Villages get access to clean and safe drinking water, installed solar lighting in places where people had not seen the light before and provided young entrepreneurs with seed capital to start their businesses. Lokesh also headed the Rotaract Movement – A Not for Profit Youth Wing of Rotary Club in Mumbai and led a team of 500 people to great success. With a Bachelor in Management Studies (Commerce) from H.R. College, His journey with Recube and his four friends at the age of 21. In 3 months, they have eliminated over 10MN single-use disposables from entering the landfill and are now focused on making sustainability convenient and affordable for everyone.

Tegan Samija

Tegan is the Communications Lead at Social Shifters, where she’s passionate about helping people around the world start and grow their social change ideas. When not creating new content and tools for Social Shifters, she’s working on initiatives related to SDG 13.

Matthias Scheffelmeier

Matthias Scheffelmeier is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of ChangemakerXchange, a global collaborative community of 800 young innovators and changemakers from across the world. ChangemakerXchange envisions a world where everyone is part of inclusive communities in which people connect deeply and co-create positive action to serve the wellbeing of people and planet. He also was until recently and for more than 11 years a Partner at Ashoka Germany, Co-Founder of Ashoka in Turkey and a Member of Ashoka Europe’s regional leadership team. Beyond that, he’s been contributing to the social impact eco-system in Germany and Europe as Founding Board Member of the Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland (SEND), as a small scale impact investor, with a focus on ventures tackling climate change and as a Global Board Member at MasterPeace, a global grassroots non-profit and non-governmental peace movement.

Gerlinde Schmidt

Gerlinde works as a project manager at Euclid Network (EN)- the European Network for Social Enterprises. At EN she is responsible for the implementation of some of EN’s EU-funded projects and co-leads the implementation of Social Tides powered by INCO with the support of Google.org, and leads EN’s work on inclusion and diversity. Another aspect of her work is to support EN members across Europe in accessing EU funding, through frequent webinars, a helpdesk and consortium-building activities.

Gerlinde is a co-founder of an impact-driven project herself and has a strong passion and background in (disability) inclusion, social work, human rights and project management. Besides her work at EN, she is also part of the Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development.

Mohammad Shehadat

Mohammad is 25 years old, from Syria, a Social Activist and the founder of Expatriate Student Affairs; an online organisation that helps refugee students in Jordan develop skills and complete their education by supporting and guiding them. Mohammad has worked with several international organisations, such as a Youth facilitator at the Norwegian Refugee Council, a Mentor at the Paper-Airplanes organisation, a Livelihoods facilitator at the Lutheran World Federation, and a community committee member CARE International. He is interested in promoting peacebuilding through quality education for young people to play positive roles and believes in education for change.

Babajide Sosan

Sosan Babajide is a computer scientist with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Babcock university Nigeria and a master’s in Big Data Analytics from Sheffield Hallam University. Prior to His Msc at Sheffield Hallam, he worked as the functional lead of a system integrations unit at Appzone group, a fintech company in Nigeria for 4 years. It was also during this time that he joined a team of developers to build an automation platform, a low-code environment for building business processes. He believes technology should be accessible to all, which is why he founded a company called Purple Stack for helping SMEs automate their processes and have a chance at competing with large enterprises in the market.

Kene Turner

Kene specialises in the Development and Implementation of community-based programmes geared towards the economic development of under-resourced communities. Kene is also a business education training specialist with 15+ years of experience in business education services’ design, delivery, and administration. He also has experience working with academic institutions and business entities, focusing on business education, workforce development, and community development, both in New York and Los Angeles. Kene has helped NFTE’s Los Angeles region expand its program offerings in the past several years while providing leadership and innovation. Kene has also successfully trained and supported educators internationally in areas such as China, India, and Hiroshima, Japan. These and other efforts have helped keep Kene’s passion centred around the importance of entrepreneurship as a solution to economic development in disadvantaged communities.

Joshua van den Hurk

Joshua van den Hurk, a is passionate environmentalist and founder of the Dutch social enterprise Bamboovement. Driven by a desire to harmonise humanity’s relationship with nature, Bamboovement creates innovative plastic-free personal care products. By offering eco-friendly alternatives, Joshua aims to inspire positive change and empower individuals to lead more sustainable lives daily.

Margot Van Soest

Margot is a Client Development and Engagement Director at SThree. Margot has been working in the recruitment industry for over 17 years in different sectors and across other countries within Europe. Margot began her career as a recruitment consultant, moving into a client development role and now uses her vast knowledge of the recruitment sector to attract and retaining talent for SThree.

Maria Theresa Villatoro

Maria Theresa Villatoro is an educator, activist, and social entrepreneur working at the intersection of human development and design. She is the founder of STEM IN A BOX, a youth-led initiative enabling students in at-risk communities to assemble robots from electric waste in Latin America and Africa. Maria is a Master’s candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder ATLAS Institute, where she is pursuing a specialisation in Technology and Design for Social Impact.

Beth Wambui Mwangi

Beth Wambui Mwangi is the founder and CEO of MyWagePay Ltd., a Kenyan financial wellness company. Beth is an entrepreneur, a solutions provider and a trailblazer in the Kenyan Fintech scene, being one of the few female startup founders in the country. She was ranked among the Top 10 leaders under Westerwelle Foundation’s Young Founders Programme in 2022 and was named an AfricaBerlin Network (ABN) Ambassador in June to facilitate the connection of startup ecosystems across Africa and Berlin.

Beth founded MyWagePay Ltd. which has been awarded a Digital Credit Provider (DCP) License by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The Fintech company which was founded in November 2020 offers financial wellness services to corporate employees in the form of financial education and earned wage access.

Tineke Weld

Tineke Weld (she/her) is a Trainer at Common Good Solutions, a social enterprise service provider and Nova Scotia’s first Community Interest Company. Tineke is passionate about community-led initiatives, facilitating challenging conversations, and climate justice!

In her work at CGS, Tineke is a training facilitator, with her most recent project focused on delivering programming for young entrepreneurs. She is also currently acting as a Launchpad Coach for the Social Shiters Global Innovation Challenge, supporting young changemakers across the globe as they start and build their purpose-led businesses.

Kiera Wilkins

Since joining Social Enterprise Academy in 2019, Kiera has worked with 14 SEA Hubs across the globe to provide transformational learning and development opportunities to social entrepreneurs. Intrinsic to the Academy is the belief that the people stepping forward to affect social change need support. SEA programmes enable learners to learn together, at all stages of personal and organisational growth. Kiera’s role as International Community Coordinator is largely to build on the collective strength of the SEA global network, through bringing this community of change makers together to share and learn in return.

In 2019, Kiera graduated from Central European University in Budapest with a Masters in Women’s and Gender History and has since contributed to projects that examine transnational political movements of the early 20th century.

Piper Yu

Piper Yu is a rising junior at the British School Manila in the Philippines. She is the Deputy Secretary-General of East and Southeast Asia at MUN Impact. She has participated in MUN for over five years, often allowing it to play a central role in her business, ZARABICA, and activism to improve the lives of Filipino Youth. She is an artist at heart and is passionate about building more intentional communities to share with others.

Samya Zia

Samya Zia is CEO of Zia Technology LLC and an app, website, and video game creator. She created a financial literacy educational programme/video game embedded into multiple high schools and middle schools in the South Florida area. All while being a student at Florida International University studying International Business.