Open Mic Africa @ MIT (OMA@MIT) is a conversational series about Africa’s rising innovation sector featuring tech entrepreneurs from the continent. This interactive, five-part program runs from February to May and will draw on guest CEOs, founders, and industry leads to delve into core facets of Africa’s innovation landscape. Topics will include financial inclusion, supply chain logistics, startup VC funding, and African e-commerce on and off the continent.

Jake Bright, Contributor TechCrunch

Jake Bright is a writer, award winning author, and strategic advisor in New York. He publishes and consults on global business, politics, and technology with an expertise on Africa. Bright also writes select features on topics such as culture, motorsport, and outdoor sports. His articles have received "Best Business Column" distinction by The Week and span features for The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Fortune, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, U.S. News & World Report, World Economic Forum, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg. Bright is a frequent commentator on media outlets and speaker at venues such as TEDx, the World Affairs Council, and Council on Foreign Relations. He has co-produced high level forums with partners including Newsweek, PwC, TechCrunch, Facebook, and the Carlyle Group. His first book, The Next Africa, won an Axiom Best Business Book Award. Jake began his career in the U.S. Department of Commerce and on White House staff as a speechwriter and chief aide to senior international economic advisors. He then worked as a bank officer in international finance. Bright earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and graduate degree from Columbia University. He is an avid fan of music, motorcycles, and outdoor sports. He competes  in running, open water swimming, and alpine skiing. Jake was born and raised in Northern Michigan.

Abai Schulze, Founder and Creative Director, ZAAF

Abai Schulze is the Founder and Creative Director of ZAAF. Her life journey has taken her from an orphanage in Addis Ababa to the United States, all over the world, and back to Ethiopia. She is part of a new wave of creative entrepreneurs who are redefining “brand Ethiopia” with her company, ZAAF, which produces premium leather goods and accessories all handcrafted by highly skilled artisans in Ethiopia. ZAAF was conceived with the goal of creating new economic opportunities by leveraging local resources, and its creativity has been recognized in various ways, ranging from appearing on runways at New York Fashion Week, to being featured in Elle, Vogue, and Forbes. Abai Schulze was the recipient of the 2014 UNESCO Tremplin Prize for Entrepreneurship. In 2018, ZAAF was nominated by Conscious Magazine for the Independent Handbag Designer Awards “Most Socially Responsible” handbag.

Chris Folayan, Founder & CEO Mall for Africa

Chris Folayan is a successful serial entrepreneur, board advisor, mentor, and speaker with over 25 years of C-suite level experience in marketing, technology, startups, and corporate acquisitions. Born and raised in Nigeria, Chris founded his first venture at age 7: recycled tires, which he ran for 2.5 years. He migrated to the U.S to attend college in the heart of Silicon Valley. Coming from Nigeria right into the technology boom era amazed by the growth of the internet, Chris decided to teach himself various programming, design and software languages which he used as a foundation to catapult himself into various high-level advisory roles in Fortune 500 companies. By age 19, he was working on his first patent, while pursuing a BA degree in marketing. After graduating from San Jose State University, he founded and sold several companies globally, while establishing new companies in Africa, USA, Middle East and Asia. Before Chris founded his current venture, the award-winning Mall for Africa and Mall for the World platforms, Chris was the Founder and CEO of OCFX Inc, a multi-million dollar globally recognized silicon valley based award-winning software agency, serving and consulting clients such as SONY, LSI, Cisco, HP, EPSON, TYCO, Accenture, CapitalOne, EMC, the USA Government, and many others in over 60 countries. Chris has a learn as you grow, out of the box thinking philosophy that drives strategy and business growth. 

Olugbenga Agboola, CEO Flutterwave

Olugbenga Agboola is a Senior Entrepreneur with 14 years of experience in building scalable financial technology firms. He is the CEO of Flutterwave; a post Series A payments technology company headquartered in San Francisco with operations and offices across Africa and Europe. Flutterwave was launched in 2016 with the goal to build digital payments infrastructure for Africa and enable businesses receive or make any payments across Africa and globally. Since inception, Flutterwave has processed over $2.6B across all product platforms and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the "Best Technology Platform" as awarded by The Asian Banker, the "Top 100 Fintech Firms" among others.
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Prior to cofounding Flutterwave, Olugbenga contributed to the development of fintech solutions at several tech companies and financial institutions such as PayPal, Standard Bank, among others. He is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits under his belt. He is a software engineer with a with a Master Degree in Information Technology Security & Behavioral Engineering and an MBA.