South Africa

Alexandra is the Founder of Viridian, an innovation agency that designs and delivers early-stage entrepreneur and investor programmes, research, and strategy. She is also an angel investor and startup advocate and is passionate about building a vibrant, sustainable, high-growth entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture across Africa to drive economic growth and job creation. She is deeply… read more »

Entrepreneur, management consultant, and enterprise development specialist Lerato Mdluli has supported the growth of entrepreneurs for over a decade in several sub-Saharan countries. Her background has given her experience in and insight into the business support environment, both as an entrepreneur and as a business support provider, and the personal development and growth needs of… read more »

Bryan Crosswhite is the CEO and Founder of XRGlobal and has worked in Education for over 15 years in the Emerging Markets. Bryan has implemented XR Projects ranging from Pilot Training for the US Airforce to Agricultural Training in Africa. Bryan has a background as an Instructional Systems Designer and Unity developer. Bryan resides in… read more »

Budzanani is currently Acting Chief Executive Officer at the Botswana Innovation Hub, and serves as Executive Director, Innovation and Technology, where he oversees innovation support programmes and technology entrepreneurship development, facilitating R&D, innovation, and technology funding/commercialisation. Previously held positions include Research Fellow at the University of Botswana (ORI); Regional Coordinator, Global Monitoring for Food Security… read more »

Ralph is a patent attorney and partner at Von Seidels. His expertise includes patent prosecution, litigation and technology licensing for a broad range of clients. His particular focus is in the ICT, software and electronics industries where he has extensive experience in developing and managing large patent portfolios. His clients range from start-ups and universities… read more »

Motlhabane has experience working with high growth technology businesses. He has worked in a multi-national startup accelerator supporting venture design and legal structuring for tech businesses readying them for investments and international expansion. To this, he helped design and launch an SDG Focused accelerator programme for technology to advance the SDGs. He currently serves on… read more »

Comes out of a strong management background, having held senior positions in government institutions specializing in economic policy and negotiations. An Honors (Economics) graduate, with vast international working experience in England and Switzerland. In these roles, he served as a diplomat for 8 years representing South Africa as a negotiator in the World Trade Organization,… read more »

Fabian joined Naspers on 1 March 2020 as Head of Naspers Foundry. Before this, he was Head of Coinvestments at South Suez Capital responsible for the firm’s Africa private equity co-investment programme. During his six years with the firm, Fabian oversaw due diligence investigation on more than 100 potential investments and closed more than a… read more »

Sandy Rheeder is the CIO of Mukuru, one of Africa’s largest remittances-focussed fintech and an enabler of safe, affordable and reliable financial services to underserved communities. She joined the company just over 3 years ago after 16 years in IT consulting for a wide range of Financial Services companies. Sandy graduated from Rhodes University in… read more »

Mike Handcock is a remarkable individual with the unique ability to take hand-selected entrepreneurs from their current state to their desired state. As the Chairman and Founder of the Circle of Excellence Group, Mike has built a brand and reputation as a highly respected business professional, mentor and maverick who is well travelled to over… read more »

Thuli Mthethwa is the Founder & CEO of Memeza Shout, a Social Enterprise that aims to support crime prevention, as she herself was a repeat victim of crime and GBV. Thuli is a software developer turned Social Innovator and Entrepreneur. Over the past 9 years, through Thuli’s leadership, she has led her team and organisation… read more »

Kikolo is an experienced Programme Manager at African Forestry (AF) with a history of working in the natural resources and environmental sector. His work emphasises lobbying and advocacy for an enabling business environment in commercial forestry. Currently, he is working on building the resilience of commercial forestry startups in Tanzania. Kikolo is skilled in research,… read more »

Sebulon David is working on education information systems to digitise processes in Africa. He founded Glowdom, an EdTech company with the purpose of connecting Africa and making a difference. Sebulon wants Glowdom to become a clear alternative of any company operating within and outside Namibia while taking advantage of technological developments to do its business…. read more »

Clare Kanja is a MasterCard Foundation Scholar at the African Leadership University, pursuing a BSc. in Computer Science. She is passionate about Technology, particularly the field of Data Science and aims to be a thought-leader in the same and community development. She strives to find an intersection between the two through her career and passion… read more »

Ben’s business expertise extends over a period of 10 years along with more than 8000 hours of individual/team coaching and facilitation experience. He has engaged with executive and senior leadership teams from C-suite downwards in organisations across diverse industries and more recently, has led to an international Leadership programme for a global company covering Africa,… read more »