Adama Amanda Ndiaye – is a Senegalese fashion designer. She also goes by the name Adama Paris, which is also the name of the label she owns and operates. Her pieces, which are manufactured in Morocco, can be found internationally, including in New York City, Tokyo, London and Paris.
Ndiaye created the Dakar Fashion Week exhibition. By 2012, the tenth year of the show, it attracted thirty designers from nine countries in Africa and Asia, with audience members coming from around the world, and had an operating budget of more than CFA 80 million (about US$150,000).She has also organized Black Fashion Week events in Prague, Czech Republic, and Bahia, Brazil.
Her designs are inspired by cities and globalism. In an interview with Vogue Italia, she stated, “Much of my inspiration come from the big cities… My aim was and still is sharing with all modern women one fashion without borders.
Fred Swaniker – is a Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and leadership development expert. He has launched five organizations that aim at developing leaders, primarily in Africa. He is the chairman and founder of the African Leadership Academy, an institution located outside Johannesburg in South Africa that aims to develop 6,000 transformative leaders for Africa over a 50-year period. He is also the founder of African Leadership Network, Global Leadership Adventures, and Africa Advisory Group.
Toyosi Akerele Ogunsiji – Founder/ CEO of RISE Networks, an African Social Enterprise whose purpose is to build a generation of Nigerian Leaders who are empowered with requisite knowledge and skills for their economic independence and exemplary performance in Business and Governance systems. Since 2007 , RISE Networks has organized some of the largest Country Wide Youth Empowerment Programmes that have directly engaged about 2 million young people with at least 5percent of them empowered to make relevant and measurable impact in their communities using the Lessons delivered through Entrepreneurs and Leaders within Public and Private Sectors . Educated in Civil Law, Media Entreprise, Public Relations, Digital Marketing Strategy, Project Management, Competitive Strategy amongst many others from various Institutions around the World including University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, Toyosi who is a champion of Youth Inclusion & Education Innovation, has participated as Speaker and Facilitator in over 100 Events, locally and internationally, is a Member of a number of Professional Institutions and is a recipient of Awards and recognitions across Africa. As a Development Strategist, an Author and a Social Entrepreneur, Toyosi, who has received commendation from US First Lady Michelle Obama as one of Africa’s leading inspirations for Young Women believes that Mentoring is a catalyst for equipping entrepreneurs in preparation for Market Dominance and Effective Leadership in Nigeria and Africa. In December 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine & AFK Insider as Top 20 youngest Power Women in Africa and also listed on the 2015 Honours List of Genevieve Magazine’s Top 21 most Outstanding Nigerian Women.