Dina Sherif, Executive Director Legatum Center and Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management

Dina Sherif  has over twenty years of international and regional experience in integrated sustainable development, corporate sustainability management (including corporate governance, inclusion and diversity, philanthropic activities and environmental risk management), youth civic engagement, strategic philanthropy, program design, impact assessments, social entrepreneurship, youth unemployment and women’s economic inclusion.  Dina holds a Masters of Public Administration and Management from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MA in Economic Development Studies from the American University in Cairo, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the American University in Cairo.Dina is particularly interested in the role of the private sector in sustainable development. To that end, she has been an avid supporter of social entrepreneurship as a pathway to solving some of the MENA region’s most pressing challenges. She did this through her own social enterprise, Ahead of the Curve, which was founded in 2012. Dina is also a Senior Advisor to Ashoka, providing support to their Global Venture/Fellowship Support arm and helping them reimagine new ways to identify the world’s leading social innovators.

Dina formerly held the endowed Willard Brown Chair for International Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where was also Founding Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. During the time she held the Brown Chair, Dina also taught classes on social entrepreneurship and business ethics making use of experiential and entrepreneurial teaching pedagogies.  Prior to the above, Dina helped establish the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at AUC.
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Dina has been lead author of several publications including the book From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy and key reports such as the 2015 UNDP Business Solutions Report and the first of its kind 7 country study on trends in responsible business practice in the Arab region.

Audrey Cheng, Founder, former CEO and Current Board Member at Moringa School

Audrey Cheng is the founder, former CEO and current board member of Moringa School, which was started to transform higher education in Africa. During her 7 years leading Moringa School, Audrey built and led a team of over 100 people to train over 4000 students in Sub Saharan Africa with an average 85% job placement rate. Moringa raised capital from partners like DOB Equity, DEG and Mastercard Foundation, launched 3 high-quality, proven courses and engaged with over 100 employers. Moringa was named one of Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Africa and selected under Financial Times and IFC's "Achievement in Sustainable Development, with a focus on Education, Knowledge and Skills". Moringa’s aim is to train over 200,000 knowledge workers through market-driven education by 2030.
Audrey is currently investing in education companies and advising education funds across Africa. She also launched a venture-debt fund (LendHer Capital) to invest in local, female-led and -owned businesses in East Africa.

Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, and Chief Innovation Officer for the Government of Sierra Leone

Dr. David Moinina Senger is the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, and the Chief Innovation Officer for the Government of Sierra Leone. Hon. Minister Dr. David Moinina Sengeh provides strategic and policy leadership for both the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI). Hon. Dr. Sengeh is a biomechatronics engineer and data scientist who holds several patents and is widely published across the education, healthcare, AI and policy domains. He is an afrobeat music rapper, and clothing designer. 

Sophie Sy, Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur

Sophie Sy is a Senegalese fashion designer and entrepreneur based in Dakar, Senegal. Sy spent her formative years between Dakar, Nairobi, and the U.S.A., studying economics at the New School University then later following her dream to study fashion design at one of the world’s leading fashion schools, Parsons, The New School for Design. In 2015, she was selected by Vogue Italia in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative to showcase her collection at Milan Fashion Week, meeting the likes of Anna Wintour and cementing her reputation as one of Africa’s leading young designers. Through her namesake brand Sophie Zinga, Sy has dressed celebrities like world renowned actor, Lupita Nyong'o and in 2019, she launched BAAX a brand and fashion incubator space focused on providing opportunities to young designers through collaboration and working with local artisans by developing in-house local textiles and products. Sophie is the founder of The Dakar Design Hub, a multidisciplinary design space that focuses on providing quality education and services to aspiring designers and professionals in Africa. Her lifelong mission remains to create opportunities and add value to the creative industries in Africa. Sy is also an investor and member of the Women's Investment Club Senegal. 

Veda Sunassee, CEO of the African Leadership University

Veda Sunassee has spent over a decade in several roles within the African Leadership (AL) Group. He has been part of the founding teams of several entities within the group, starting at the African Leadership Academy in 2010. An educator at heart, he has helped develop and design the leadership model central to the mandate of the AL Group - to develop 2 million African leaders by 2035. Veda helped set up the African Leadership College (ALC) in Mauritius in 2015 before later serving as the Founding Dean of the African Leadership University (ALU), Rwanda, from 2017. During a sabbatical that he took in 2019, Veda co-founded NiaDelta, a Leadership and Education consulting firm that advises corporate C-suites as well as education leaders. Veda is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of ALC & ALU, overseeing operations across both the Mauritius and Rwanda campuses while steering the institution's new 5-year strategy to become a ‘distributed university’ across the world. 
Veda is also an international moderator and emcee and hosts the podcast In The Room, in which he interviews global leaders and changemakers like Ban Ki-Moon, Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi, Ben Rhodes, David Bradford, and Graca Machel. Veda hails from the small island of Mauritius and is a graduate of Princeton University. In 2018, he was selected among the inaugural Obama Leaders.

Krista Davidson, Executive Head at Injini

Krista Davidson is the Executive Head at Injini, Africa’s EdTech Accelerator & Think Tank, and part of the Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi). Krista leads the team at Injini, focusing on the organisation’s business development and strategic direction. She has spent her career working in and with social impact enterprises and has a particular passion for tech startups using their innovations to positively impact accessibility and quality of education, healthcare and financial services for vulnerable and under-resourced communities.