MIT, Stanford and Harvard fellow

He is an investor and developer of new businesses with 20 years’ experience spanning across 32 countries in Africa gained through a number of successful tech start-ups. Eric is a leading pioneer of internet in Africa having worked in multiple countries building internet service providers (“ISP”) and ICT businesses. Some of his successful exits include iBurst in South Africa, One2Net in Uganda, BusyInternet in Ghana, etc. Eric also founded and ran the Africa ISP Association for eight years, during which the ISP industry grew by almost 120%. He then moved onto leading efforts to build submarine cables on the continent. Eric was part of a public-private partnership in Kenya that built and launched the TEAMS submarine fiber cable, the first to connect East Africa to the rest of the world. He subsequently contributed to the building of terrestrial fiber networks in Ghana and Nigeria.

Eric has been seeding and investing early stage tech ventures across the continent. In 2013, he co-founded www.angelafrica.net, an Africa wide network of angel investors, and then www.angelfairafrica.com which brings select entrepreneurs to present to potential investors. Over the 6 years of the event, $23M of investments have been made with one exit in 2019. He was an ICT Consultant for the WorldBank, Soros Foundations, UNDP, USAID, USDoJ, USDoS as well as African governments and private firms.

He authored “The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy”, co-authored the “Open Access Model”, adopted globally by the telecommunications industry, “Negotiating the Net” – the politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa and “The Internet in Ghana” with the Mosaic Group. He was invited to contribute ideas to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa.

Ian is a leading product and innovation leader with over 20 years’ worth of experience in technology, corporate venturing and start-ups. Early on in his career he worked as a project Engineer and Consultant implementing telecom, data and internet infrastructures globally for Newbridge Networks Ltd, Alcatel Ltd and Ericsson Ltd all based in the United Kingdom. During his tenure at Africanus.net in the Congo, Ian together with the team moved company performance from loss making to $6M USD per annum.

Ian also worked in MTN Ghana developing products and services for MTN Business inadvertently spawning the MTN Connect Service which is now known as MTN Global Connect, the MTN data network company spanning the African Continent. Ian founded M-Pay Ltd in Accra which is a fintech company providing payment services over a range of services such as mobile top-up, pay tv payment services, mobile money and others. Ian was instrumental as part of the team to introduce Accra Start-Up Weekend (now Techstars Global Startup Weekend) in Ghana. Recently Ian has held leading roles in a few recent start-ups advising on strategy and growth (eCampus, Kirusa and others). 

Ian is a graduate of the University of Westminster in London where he obtained an MSc in Mobile Personal & Satellite Communications. He is also an Executive MBA graduate of the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Jon is an Executive Producer who invests and co-finances film and TV productions as the founder and CEO of Southbox Entertainment for the last 15 years in the US and Africa.

Prior to his work in film, he spent ten years in venture capital and tech, building software companies to acquisition with a particular focus on data. His last startup experimented with a “new business model for the entertainment industry” by providing recording artists like Camila Cabello, Madonna, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheehan, Shakira, Rihanna, Jay-Z and other entertainers with new ways of monetizing their audience data. Prior to this Jon spent three years living in Uganda during which he founded Hive Colab and AfriLabs as well as invested in a few tech ventures.

He was the founder of Appfrica, which invested in Africa’s technology economy, D8A Group, a company that made data science solutions, and Market Atlas, which is like the Bloomberg terminal for emerging market countries. In 2015, Gosier was listed by TIME Magazine as one of “12 New Faces of Black Leadership”, as well as “Most Influential Blacks in Technology” by Business Insider in 2013 and 2014 and among the "20 Angels Worth Knowing" by Black Enterprise Magazine. Gosier was a Fellow and Senior Fellow at TED from 2009 to 2012.

Jon is an alum of Savannah College of Art and Design and the THNK School of Creative Leadership and Innovation.

Esther Dyson is an angel investor and chairman of EDventure Holdings. Her primary activity is investing in and nurturing start-ups, with a recent focus on health care, human capital and aerospace. She is fascinated by new business models, new technologies and new markets (both economically and politically).

She has 30 years of industry experience and is an investor in Facebook, Linkedin, Evernote, 23andMe, Meetup, Eventful, Voxiva among others in the US, Zingaya, Valkee, Patients Know Best, WPP Group among others in Europe and recently in Rasello in Tanzani as well as Nomanini in South Africa. From October 2008 to March of 2009, she lived in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, training as a backup cosmonaut. Apart from this brief sabbatical, she is an active board member for XCor Aerospace, Yandex, Sunlight Foundation, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, etc.

Some of her exits are Brightmail (acquired by Symantec), Boxbe (acquired by eDataSource), del.icio.us (acquired by Yahoo!), Dopplr (acquired by Nokia), Dotomi (acquired by ValueClick), Dulance (acquired by Google), Fathom Technology (sold to Epam Systems), Flickr (acquired by Yahoo!), Graphisoft (sold to Nemetschek), Medico (acquired by Everyday Health), Medspace (now part of WebMD), Medstory (acquired by Microsoft), MetaCarta (acquired by Nokia), Netbeans (sold to Sun Micro), ParaGraph International (sold to Silicon graphics), Plazes (acquired by Nokia), Postini (acquired by Google), RealTravel (sold to Uptake), Vizu (acquired by Nielsen).

Mawuli Ababio is an Investment Banker with over 25 years’ experience in structuring private equity and project financing transactions in Africa.

He began his career in 1984 as an analyst with SIFIDA Investment Company, Switzerland (now BNP Paribas SIFIDA) with responsibility for the company’s investments in North, East and Southern Africa. He joined the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in 1991 to help set up its private sector department. In 1994 he was approached by the UK Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) to manage the Ghana Venture Capital Fund Ltd (GVCF), Ghana’s first ever SME equity fund. Under his management, GVCF was fully invested and realized at least three exits via GSE listing, an IPO and a trade sale. The Fund was subsequently converted into Aureos Capital as part of CDC’s restructuring.

In 2000 he left CDC to co found Faith Brothers Ltd, Ghana, as an investment and corporate advisory partnership and as Chief Executive, successfully led the acquisition of Citi Savings and Loans Ltd. a leading micro-finance company in Ghana. This company was subsequently converted into Intercontinental Bank Ghana Limited and eventually acquired by Access Bank plc of Nigeria. He went on to serve as Consultant to PwC France on several EU funded projects to set up dedicated venture capital and infrastructure funds in West Africa. Between 2007-10, Mawuli was based in Johannesburg as Managing Director of the Africa Venture Capital Association (AVCA), the industry body for African Private Equity. During his tenure, AVCA established firm working relationships with the South African Venture Capital Association (SAVCA) and the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA). During that same period, he acquired Beacon Insurance Company, a small Ghanaian composite insurer which was recapitalized and eventually sold in 2010 to the Saham Group of Morocco.

Mr Ababio has previously served on the Boards of several listed and unlisted companies (including two banks). He is currently Director and Partner of PCP Capital Partners, Mauritius, Non-Executive Chairman of Bullion Investment Group, Ghana, Director, Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Director, Abosso Goldfields Limited, Director, Leasafric (Gh) Ltd, and a Director of the Swiss-Ghana Chamber of Commerce.

Mawuli holds BA and MA degrees in Economics and International Business from the Universities of Keele and Reading, UK respectively. He is fluent in both English and French.

Sheila Reindorf is the Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau SA a Multi-Family Office located in Geneva, Switzerland which is a neutral competence center for On/Off-shore structuring solutions specializing in providing wealth management and estate-planning, as well as all manners of fiduciary services for ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) and families in Africa.

Prior to setting up The Bureau in 2012, Sheila occupied the following functions:

1. Consultancy services in wealth management and structuring, mergers and acquisitions, coordination of external professionals for investment and portfolio management, estate planning, family business management and advisory services; from 2011-2012;

2. Former Vice-President and member of the Senior Management, Clariden Leu Bank AG, Switzerland (fully-owned subsidiary of the Credit Suisse Group), from 2007-2010;

3. Holds various advisory positions and board directorship in ten companies (sectors- IT, Mining, Oil & Gas, Telephony, Sustainable Development, Consultancies) in Africa and Europe; from 2006 to date;

4. Chief Coordinator & Operations, International Sales-Fortis BGL Group, Geneva, Switzerland; from 2000-2007

5. Relationship and Account Manager, Private Banking with Banque Scandinave (Suisse) SA, ABN Amro (Suisse) SA, Banque Leumi (Suisse) SA; from 1997-2000;

Mr. Spears is a Managing Partner at Skytree Capital Partners and specializes in real estate transactions and impact investing.  Mr. Spears focuses on sourcing, evaluating, structuring and monitoring real estate investments for the firm.

Over the last two years, Mr. Spears has evaluated over 200 alternative investment opportunities. Mr. Spears is an expert in private and public market finance vehicles including public companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REIT”), which can be used to finance alternative investments. A committed social equity advocate, Mr. Spears is one of the Skytree management team members that is advising the City of Oakland on its $3M social equity loan program. Mr. Spears is an alternative asset professional with a particular expertise in impact investing, private equity, mergers and acquisitions and real estate. 

Over a 30-year career, Mr. Spears has worked on over 150 transactions and investment that range from $1M to well over $10B in size.  He has led the due diligence effort on over 50 fund and co-investment opportunities and has generated top quartile performance on behalf of his clients.  Mr. Spears has advised on over $47B in transactions, including approximately $30B in 80 private equity fund investments and co-investments and $17B in 75 M&A related financings.  As a dedicated impact investor, Mr. Spears is committed to deploying capital to achieve top quartile returns while providing significant positive economic and social impact.

Mr. Spears was a Vice President and co-managed Hamilton Lane’s Golden State Investment Fund (“GSIF”), a $550M private equity separate account fund-of-fund/co-investment fund managed exclusively on behalf of CalPERS, the largest U.S. public pension.  With over $300B of private equity assets under advisement, Hamilton Lane is one of the largest private equity fund-of-fund advisory firms in the U.S.  Mr. Spears is also a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.

Mr. Spears received his JD from Yale (corporate law), MBA from Stanford Business School (corporate finance) and his BA from Brown University (economics and urban studies).

Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill has extensive experience in both the local and international public and private sectors.

She is an Independent Non-Executive Director on the boards of AngloGold Ashanti and Mercedes Benz South Africa (MBSA), and chairs the Social, Ethics and Sustainability board Sub-Committees of both companies. She is also a member of the MTN Foundation and was appointed the Chairperson of Council of the Nelson Mandela University in October 2017. Nozipho chairs the Interim Board of the newly registered UN Global Compact Local Network in South Africa and a board member of Shared Value Africa Initiative (SVAI). She serves on the boards of 2 NGOs, Phenduka Literacy project and Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy to end violence against women. She was the Acting Chief of Staff of UN Women from Jan 2014 to March 2015 and special adviser to UN Women in SA and New York until the end of 2016.

Before serving as a Director of Companies, Nozipho was appointed to the MTN Group as head of Corporate Affairs and Spokesperson and served on multiple boards of operations in the MTN footprint. Prior to MTN she was the South African Ambassador to Switzerland, Lichtenstein and the Holy See, and the Deputy Director General of Human Capital Management in the South African Department of Foreign Affairs (now DIRCO).

She served for 12 years as a member of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and among other publications on race and gender justice, recently contributed a chapter in a Manchester University Press publication (2017) entitled Fifty Years of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination- A Living instrument. Besides her passion for working on issues related to human rights and social justice, Nozipho is active in advancing good corporate governance, ethical conduct and sustainable development, including the promotion of the 2030 Global Goals in all the institutions on which boards she serves.

She has BA, English & Philosophy, MA Applied Linguistics, Diploma Human Resources Management and Certificate in Education

Ethan Zuckerman is an entrepreneur and academic currently serving as director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and an Associate Professor of the Practice at the MIT Media Lab.

His research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the role of technology in international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists. He is the author of Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection (W. W. Norton, 2013). Ethan has 20 years of industry experience and served on the board of the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and the Open Society Foundation Information Program.

With Rebecca MacKinnon, Zuckerman co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices. It showcases news and opinions from citizen media in more than 150 nations and 30 languages, publishing editions in 20 languages. Through Global Voices and through the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he served as a researcher and fellow for eight years

Zuckerman is active in efforts to promote freedom of expression and fight censorship in online spaces. Ethan chairs Global Voices' global board of directors.

In 2000, Ethan founded Geekcorps, a non-profit technology volunteer corps. Geekcorps pairs skilled volunteers from US and European high tech companies with businesses in emerging nations for one to four month volunteer tours. Volunteers have served in 14 nations, including Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Rwanda, Armenia and Jordan, completing over a hundred projects. Geekcorps became a division of the International Executive Service Corps in 2001, where Ethan served as a vice president from 2001-4. Prior to founding Geekcorps, Ethan helped found Tripod, an early pioneer in the web community space. Ethan served as Tripod's first staff geek, and later as VP of Business Development and VP of Research and Development. After Tripod's acquisition by Lycos in 1998, Ethan served as General Manager of the Angelfire.com division and as a member of the Lycos mergers and acquisitions team.

In 1993, Ethan graduated from Williams College with a BA in Philosophy. In 1993-4, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Legon, Ghana and the National Theatre of Ghana, studying ethnomusicology and percussion.

Andile Ngcaba is chairman, founder and majority shareholder of the investment group Convergence Partners a private equity firm that invests in the Telecom, Media and Technology sector in Africa.

Through the firm, Ngcaba is also involved in significant new communications infrastructure projects across Africa including Seacom (the first undersea fibre optic cable system serving Africa's East Coast) which was ready for service on 23 July 2009, the first private sector satellite in Africa (Intelsat New Dawn) which was launched on 22 April 2011, a joint venture to bring high capacity, long-haul terrestrial fibre to South Africa (FibreCo) and recently a new joint venture with Google to invest in CSquared, a broadband infrastructure company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

He has participated on ICT decision-making forums and has influenced the formation of various African forums and organisations responsible for shaping the ICT sector at National, Continental and Global levels through his activities on various bodies including the ITU, ICANN and the African Union. In his international organisational activities, Andile served on the Board and High-level Panel (serving as the business sector chair) responsible for the outcomes of the Netmundial multi-stakeholder conference on Internet governance, hosted by the Brazilian government in April 2014. He also serves on the council of The National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University appointed him as an Adjunct Professor of the University, affiliated to the faculty of science.

Ngcaba was previously an activist aligned with the African National Congress during the struggle against apartheid, and thereafter the Director General of Communications in the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994. He left Government in 2003 to pursue a career in the private sector.

Musi is founder of MSM Property Fund an asset manager and private equity firm that offers clients a service harnessing the change occurring on the African continent through a reliable and sturdy asset class.

Musi started his career as an investment banker (Investec) and then moved onto becoming a stockbroker at Investec Wealth & Investment (Johannesburg) trading equities, derivatives and performed portfolio management services. He became a Portfolio/Fund Manager where he managed a fund with R2.5b (AUM). Musi was awarded Equity Dealer of the year for 2014 in South Africa (ABSIP – Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals). Musi has sourced, executed and managed investment into nine businesses at varying growth stages from seed to venture to growth capital and has exited three of these businesses.

He has a master’s in science (MSc) and post graduate diploma in management (PDM) from the University of Witwatersrand.

Sewu-Steve Tawia is an investment professional and adviser with over 20 years of professional experience in angel, VC and PE funds in Europe and Africa.

Throughout his professional career he has invested in 250+ SMEs in 26 sub-Saharan African countries in agric, renewable energy and technology. Through his advisory firm Asime Partners he advises development finance institutions (AfDB, EIB, etc.), governments (Ghana, Kenya), donors (DFID, SIDA etc.) and businesses on capital raising, investment structuring and programs to create financial return and social impact through SMEs on the continent.

Sewu-Steve has managed more than US$ 350m of investments and projects across multi-cultural teams, in multiple geographies and facilitated over US$100m in investments in Africa and catalyzed over US$50m in investments into SMEs. He's a former employee of the European Investment Bank group (EIF) in Luxembourg, ACDI-VOCA (AV Ventures), BearingPoint, Capco and AECF, across various investment leadership roles.

He is an alumnus of London Business School, Audencia Business School, and has an executive leadership certificate from Stanford GSB. He holds a number of professional charters: CAIA (alternative investments), CIFE (Islamic finance), Prince 2 (project management) and Toastmaster.