Themes
Platforms for advancing access to education
New models of teacher preparation and development
Platforms for advancing access to education
New models of teacher preparation and development
CEO, Teach for Nigeria
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Folawe Omikunle is a social entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience spanning Education, Development, Non-profit Management, Fundraising and Sustainability.Her degrees in International Law and diplomacy, Diplomatic studies and Montessori Education from Babcock University, Nigeria, University of Westminster and Modern Montessori International, United Kingdom prepared her to be a catalyst for change as she has revolutionised the education non- profit sector in Nigeria. She possesses Executive Certifications from Lagos Business School, Nigeria and Harvard University.
Folawe Omikunle is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Teach For Nigeria, a non-profit organization that is focused on addressing educational inequity by recruiting university graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in Nigeria's most under-served schools. Through her hard work, dedication and resilience, Teach For Nigeria was adjudged the Best Education Innovation of the Year at the 2018 Arclight Award. As a visionary leader, Folawe has served in various leadership capacities including being the Executive Secretary, Association of Private Educators in Nigeria. Folawe has served the nation and the world at large in various capacities, including Head, Basic Education Committee of the Human Capital Development Commission, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG); Committee Member, Education Transformation Committee, Ministry of Education, Lagos and Board member, Vocational Training Center of the Blind Society, Nigeria. She also sits on the Advisory Council of Teach For All, Africa and Network Advisory Committee, Teach For All. In 2016, Folawe was listed on the PowerList as one of the ten most influential Nigerians under 40 by YNaija. In 2018, She was listed as one of the 100 most inspiring Nigerian women by Leading Ladies Africa. She won the HER Network Education Woman of the Year award and the Arclight Foundation Woman of the year in education award. In 2020, in commemoration of Nigeria’s 60th Independence Day celebration, Folawe was listed as one of the 60 most inspiring and impactful women in Nigeria. |
 Founder, TRACE and True Africa Africa University
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Claude Grunitzky is the founder of TRACE, a fast-growing media company which was successfully sold to a French investor group in 2010, and TRUE Africa, a media tech platform championing young African voices all over the world. In 2017, TRUE Africa was funded by Google’s Digital News Initiative. Grunitzky was raised between Lomé, Togo; Washington, DC; Paris; London and New York. Growing up, Grunitzky was exposed to many different cultures. These foreign interactions shaped his transcultural philosophy and informed the creative energy of his media ventures. A graduate of London University and MIT, where he received an MBA as a Sloan Fellow, Grunitzky is also a trustee at MASS MoCA, a leading contemporary art museum in Massachusetts, and at Humanity in Action, a foundation that works internationally to build global leadership, defend democracy, protect minorities and improve human rights. Grunitzky is currently launching, in partnership with MIT, TRUE Africa University, an ambitious higher education project aiming to accelerate the continent’s development by enabling and empowering African youth.
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Executive Director, Shule Direct
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Born and raised in Tanzania, Faraja is a resourceful social entrepreneur and Executive Director of Shule Direct and is passionate about developing cutting edge social and educational programs that empower youth and children. What inspires her most is working collaboratively in the social development and educational industry to develop and deliver innovative resources and solutions that prepare children and youth for a sustainable future. With over 15 years experience in engaging young people, she has dedicated her professional career and personal life to empowering them to achieve their full potential. In 2013, she established Shule Direct, a thriving organisation providing comprehensive web and mobile educational platforms offering learning content across multiple subjects to over a million in and out of school youth. The enterprise now hosts Tanzania’s 1 st start up incubator for young women entrepreneurs for their personal and professional development and developing a digital platform for young entrepreneurs to learn, network and grow their businesses.
She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Expert Network after serving on the Global Future Council for Education, Gender and Work. Faraja is a Teaching and Learning Thematic Lead for the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI) where she focuses on teachers’ pre and in service professional development. An education enthusiast, she has also served on the Board of Ubongo Learning, READ and a technical adviser for Institutions for Inclusive Development that helps Tanzanian institutions innovate and scale systemic solutions to big development problems. This year, the World Economic Forum has appointed her as a Young Global Leader Class of 2020. Prior to that she has been recognized as a Leading Woman in Technology in Africa award for her work with Shule Direct, Tanzania Leadership Awards’ Hall of Fame Woman of the Year Award and a System Innovator award by Segal Family Foundation for systemic change in digital learning in Secondary School education in Tanzania. Africa Youth Awards has named Faraja among 100 Most Influential Young Africans. An avid reader who has authored two youth empowerment books written in Kiswahili, Tanzania’s national language, to reach underserved young people and catalyze their dreams. Faraja is a qualified Lawyer with an LLB and LLM (Master of Laws) in Human Rights and Migration. |
 CEO, Lead for Ghana
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Daniel Dotie is the CEO of Lead For Ghana, Daniel curates and manages the LFG brand, and gathers the necessary global and local resources to ensure that the organization realizes it's full potential. Before he co-founded LFG, Daniel worked at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New York. Daniel studied biomedical engineering at Cornell University with a keen interest in nanotechnology. Daniel’s Cornell education was made possible by the Lester B. KnightScholarship for bright low-income students with a keen interest in engineering and business. The impact of the scholarship went beyond the financial freedom to pursue his passions, and Daniel was compelled and motivated to explore ways he could positively impact others in the way that the scholarship opportunity opened up doors for him. This led him to help establish a 30,000-book capacity library in his home country, Ghana.
Daniel received his graduate degree from Cornell University, and his undergraduate degree from Arcadia University, where he majored in chemistry and minored in economics and physics. He is also a product of Achimota School, a place he credits for the change in his academic trajectory. |
 Moderator
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Shari Loessberg is a Senior Lecturer in Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Loessberg is an experienced entrepreneur in established and emerging markets. She has particular experience in emerging market venture capital fund formation, entrepreneurship in emerging economies, and the evolving issues and standards of corporate governance in the United States and abroad. In the United States, she founded and runs Big World, a strategy firm focused on new ventures in new markets. She also co-founded Zeta Networks, an optical networking firm built on technology developed at MIT. In addition, Loessberg spent five years in Moscow, where she was a partner, director, and general counsel of Brunswick (now Brunswick UBS), a startup investment firm in the brutally entrepreneurial Russian equity market.
Loessberg is a director-designate of Parkhead Group Ltd., a startup investment firm in the Vietnamese equity market; a director of National Financial Partners; chairman of the board of the International Institute of Boston; and chairman of the board of overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Loessberg holds an AB from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Texas. |