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Chidera Ezekwesili

Associate Economist, Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative, Nigeria

Having obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Chidera Ezekwesili has gone ahead to work across various Nigerian organisations in the private sector with the aim of honing his leadership skills as well as contributing his quota to each organization’s vision.

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Chidera Individual vision is to contribute to the progress of an impact organization that provides him the opportunity to pursue a challenging career while enhancing his knowledge and thriving as a member of a team that benefit from his technical skills, values and strong interpersonal networks. His social mission is to galvanize the citizens of Nigeria to keep a clean environment as it will improve the health and wellbeing of all.

Joseph Hammond

Fellow, Center for Peace and Media Initiatives, United States

Joseph Hammond is an award-winning journalist and fellow with the Center of Media and Peace Initiatives.

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Joseph is the moderator the Commonwealth Africa Initiative and is also a member of the African Union’s iDove initiative – a grassroots youth effort to counter violent extremism on the continent. A former Cairo correspondent for Radio Free Europe during the Arab Spring, Joseph has also reported from four continents on issues ranging from the Arab Spring to the M23 rebellion in the Eastern Congo. His writing has been published by a number of publications including Economist, Al-Arabiya, Monocle, U.S News and World Report, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, International Business Times, The Diplomat, and international editions of Esquire, and Rolling Stone.

As a consultant, Joseph worked for the Politico Focus, Oxford Business Group, Global Integrity, and has also worked on international aid projects related to conflict issues. In these roles and others, he has worked in Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Bahrain, Jordan, Ghana, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere. He was a 2014-2015 Fulbright public policy fellow with the government of Malawi.  He has also completed fellowships and leadership programs with the Commonwealth of Nations, National Endowment for Democracy, Atlantic Bruecke, the Atlantic Council of the United States, Hollings Center for International Dialogue, International Centre for Journalism, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America Foundation and other institutions. He speaks enough Spanish and Arabic to discuss boxing – his favorite sport.

Nchimunya Hamukoma

Senior Researcher, The Brenthurst Foundation, South Africa

Nchimunya Hamukoma is a Researcher at the Brenthurst Foundation, a Johannesburg based think tank. An Economist and Policy Strategist, her work at the Foundation has focused on economic policy development and strategy in Ghana and Nigeria.

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She is also the head of the Foundation’s Future of African Cities project, a cross-continental study on how African cities are preparing for the upcoming demographic transition. Nchimunya previously worked as Assistant Lecturer at the Nelson Mandela School of Governance at the University of Cape Town. Whilst there, she played a significant role in developing the MPhil in Development Policy & Practice, a pan‐African Masters programme aimed at providing strategic academic development for mid‐career public sector officials from across Africa. Her additional research interests focus on the structure of energy supply industries in emerging economies, the role of infrastructure investment in shaping Africa's cities and the informal economy as a model for development.

Santiago Martinez Jaramillo

Founder, Cómo Lo Cambiarías, Executive Director, Diseña Tu País, Colombia

Santiago Martinez Jaramillo is a social entrepreneur, impacting Latin America.

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Santiago is the founder of Cómo Lo Cambiarías, an organization that has brought XXI century skills to schools in Colombia and Diseña Tu País, a creative think-do tank that is incubating innovative projects for Colombian pressing issues which was created in alliance with Stanford University.

He was selected in 2016 as a Young Leader of the Americas by President Obama and has been a delegate for United Nations scenarios and civil society fellow with IMF. Santiago is a TEDx Speaker, One Young World Ambassador, and Kairos fellow. He is passionate about the intersection of business and social impact.

Aaron Joshua Pinto

International Trade and Investment Associate, Consulate General of Canada in New York, Canada

Aaron Joshua Pinto is driven by the pursuit of potential and the intersection of public policy, global affairs, and innovation to solve community challenges. 

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Fresh off a stint in Central Asia, Aaron graduated cum laude with a Master’s in Politics and Security from the Academy of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe based in Kyrgyzstan, a post-Soviet republic. He currently works in New York City with the Province of Ontario’s International Trade and Investment Office at the Consulate General of Canada.

Years of passionate engagement in socioeconomic issues have taken Aaron from the crèches of post-Apartheid townships in Cape Town to Ukraine’s polling stations all the way to Colombia’s hilltop villages. Aaron’s avid interest in global affairs also steered him to Central and South America and Canada's Arctic where he partook in trade and development missions. He recently led the Canadian delegation’s negotiations on the future of work at the G7 Youth Summit. Aaron’s community involvement has included the development of a scheme providing nutrient dense food hampers to people below the breadline and the creation of an award-winning biodegradable mosquito net for malaria prevention in Africa.

He also crafted an index using open-source data that gauges regional security fluxes for early warning, and is now working out a method to ensure secure aid transfers to the poor using blockchain. Aaron was elected as a City Youth Councillor, has written on security issues as a NATO Canada Fellow, and negotiated and spoken at high-level fora, including those of the United Nations, Commonwealth and the CTBTO. He was appointed as Canada’s Youth Ambassador to the OSCE, is a Regional Focal Point for Economic Growth, Jobs and the Future of Work at the United Nations Group for Children and Youth, and is also a member of Canada’s Volunteer Awards National Advisory Committee.

Maria Lourdes Landivar

National Senator, Honorable Senate of Bolivia, Bolivia

Maria Lourdes Landivar is a National Senator representing the Department of Santa Cruz for the legislative period 2015-2020 and Secretary of Political Training in Santa Cruz de la Sierra of Demócratas, the main political opposition force in Bolivia.

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She is also Vice Chairwoman of the International Young Democrat Union (IYDU), a global alliance of centre-right political youth organizations with 127 members from more than 81 different nations, it is the youth wing of the International Democrat Union.

Nadia Makara

Water Engineering Consultant, GIZ Endev, United States

Nadia Makara is a Water Engineering Consultant. Her interests in water engineering and management developed through my experiences with poor water infrastructure and water supply mismanagement while living with family in Jamaica as well as my work in the US, Latin America, and Africa via Engineers Without Borders-USA, internships and engineering consultancies.

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Now a civil engineer-in-training and having graduated with an MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford, She is passionate about using my engineering knowledge to solve water infrastructure and management issues. She is currently working in Ethiopia as a water engineering consultant focusing on water supply for rural communities and health care institutions.

Davi Miller

Partnerships Manager, Facebook, United States

Davi Miller is a Partner Manager at Facebook where he consults both global and local entities on how to make meaningful connections with the 2.2 billion people on Facebook's platforms.

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In 2019, Davi will be joining Medium, a start-up focused on building a platform where ideas are rewarded based on the value they provide to readers, not the fleeting attention they can attract for advertisers.

Prior to Facebook and Medium, Davi worked in both investment banking and the publishing space. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Middlebury College where he specialized in Middle Eastern Comparative Politics and is a Management Leadership of Tomorrow Fellow. In his spare time, Davi enjoys learning about esoteric current events. This passion led him to found Vantage, a content creation and distribution company that focuses on spreading awareness and raising funds for often misunderstood or little discussed social, political and economic challenges in countries outside of the United States.

Silindile Nanzile Mlilo

Project Manager, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Silindile Nanzile Mlilo is a PhD candidate for a Doctor of Philosophy in Migration and Displacement at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of Witwatersrand.

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She has earned a Bachelor of Social Work, and an MA in Human Rights from the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, respectively. She followed this by completing a two-year mobility Erasmus Mundus MA in Advanced Development in Social Work, from the University of Lincoln, Aalborg University, Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Politicas, Universidade De Lisboa and Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense. Her MA thesis was a qualitative study focusing on the welfare support for migrant youth in Paris suburbs, particularly how their needs and views are ignored in ‘culture-blind’ policies in France. Silindile is passionate about research focused on migrants and refugees and working around issues of youth development.

Her passion and commitment to gender, youth and equality is very strong and draws from her professional experience in Botswana, South Africa and India. She has been involved in several voluntary positions where she has offered her research skills on refugee issues and engaged in community development projects aimed at empowering youth and children from underprivileged backgrounds. Her current research interests include exploring the concepts of identity, belonging and the meaning of citizenship in contexts where indigeneity and ethnicity is at the foundation of national discourse and practice.

Olisaeloka (P.J.) Okocha

Managing partner, Co-founder, PS Nutraceuticals International Ltd, Nigeria

PJ Okocha is a highly energetic Economist, with core knowledge of developmental policies and implementation, and hands-on experience as an executive in the Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Financial and Maritime industries.

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With a strong global network of contacts within the financial, infrastructure, agriculture, energy, transportation and technologies industries and invaluable experience with business start-ups and management, he serves as the Managing Partner and Co-founder of PS Nutraceuticals International Ltd, a pioneering agricultural technology company specializing in three core technologies: aeroponics, hydroponics and aquaponics.

He is also the founding partner and managing director of Star Delta Energy Services Ltd, an independent indigenous integrated oil and gas company. The prime focus of Star Delta since its inception is to become a global player in the in the oil and gas industry, and in the process foster Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the Niger Delta region, for its development. Star Delta has developed and introduced the Host Community Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) mode of operation. This initiative promotes the involvement of the Niger Delta oil and gas producing Host Communities in the development 
and management of its resources. PJ Okocha has a master’s degree in management from The University of Edinburgh and a degree in economics from The University of Chicago.

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