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2ND ANNUAL

Africa Summit at Princeton

September 25 & October 2, 2020

About this Event

The Africa Summit at Princeton, a two-day student-run conference hosted at Princeton University annually, stimulates debate and dynamic discussions around the contemporary developments, challenges, and opportunities facing the African continent. By gathering renowned scholars, visionary politicians, and cutting-edge entrepreneurial minds with the passionate student bodies at Princeton and neighboring institutions, the Summit offers a unique platform to translate ideas and relationships into meaningful action.

2020 Theme: “The Future is African: Post-COVID Economic Recovery Reimagined”

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Speakers

Carlos Lopes | Keynote Speaker

Carlos Lopes is a Bissau-Guinean development economist and civil servant. He was executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commision for Africa from September 2012 to October 2016, and is a visiting fellow at the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford] and a visiting professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance of the UNiversity Of Cape Town. In 2018 he was appointed High Representative of the Commission of the African Union...

Vera Songwe | Keynote Speaker

Vera Songwe is the UN Under-Secretary-General and 9th Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), becoming the first woman to lead the institution in its 60-year history. As Executive Secretary, Songwe’s reforms, focusing on “ideas for a prosperous Africa”, have brought to the fore critical issues of macroeconomic stability, development finance, private sector growth, poverty and inequality, the digital transformation, trade and competitiveness...

Dr. Chris Greig | Speaker, Green Panel

Dr Chris Greig is the Theodora D. ’78 & William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist, Andlinger Centre for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. Prior to becoming an academic in 2011, Chris spent more than 25 years in the industry, initially as Founder and CEO of a process technology company and later, in senior executive and non-executive director roles in the resources and energy sectors...

Eunice Ajambo | Speaker, AfCFTA Panel

Eunice is the Economist and Development Coordination officer for the United Nations in Namibia (UNN). Prior to that, she was the Economic Affairs Officer with the Macroeconomics and Governance Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She led and contributed to high-level policy development and programme implementation through instruments including the flagship Economic Report on Africa; the African Governance Report; and other non-recurrent policy studies...

Antoine Kajangwe | Speaker, AfCFTA Panel

Antoine Kajangwe is a trade and investment policy professional with the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Rwanda. Antoine oversees the Ministry’s domestic and international trade and investment-related matters, intellectual property rights, consumer protection and competition laws and policies. Antoine is also the Ministry’s chief trade negotiator and a senior trade official...

Gabriel Mekbib

Gabriel Mekbib is a development professional who has worked in the microfinance, agricultural and health sectors in East Africa. Most recently, he consulted with UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building for Africa to support communications and knowledge management...

Dr. Vincent Ogutu | Speaker ,Youth Panel

Dr. Vincent Ogutu self-identifies as a teacher, a role that he says starts with treasure-hunting (identifying powerful ideas that could transform people and the world) and concludes with sharing those ideas with his audiences. He is a TEDx (Barcelona) Fellow and uses TV and social media to inspire people to live a life of purpose and impact...

Laurence Latimer | Judge, Pitch Competition

Laurence Latimer is founder of LGL Growth Consulting International, a consulting firm that helps clients identify, build, and scale new business initiatives. Prior to returning to LGLG Consulting, Laurence was head of ventures for IEX Group which operates the Investors Exchange (IEX). During his 5 year tenure at IEX, he was responsible for corporate and business development, venture investments, and the launch of 4 new businesses...

Queen Chinyere Quinn | Judge, Pitch Competition

Queen Chinyere Quinn is a Co-Founder and Partner at Kupanda Capital, an investment platform established to create, capitalize and scale pan-African companies. In this capacity, Queen has worked to provide tailored advice and support to entrepreneurs, project developers, fund managers and corporations operating in Africa. She has worked on deals in various sectors across Africa, including media, consumer and energy; and leads the platform on issues related to impact investing...

Pardon Makumbe | Judge, Pitch Competition

Mr. Pardon Makumbe is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CRE Venture Capital. CRE invests in category-defining early stage technology-driven companies that are levered to Africa. CRE is widely recognized as a pioneer and market leader in Africa’s technology and venture capital ecosystem...

Rebecca Mqamelo | Speaker, Youth Panel

Rebecca Mqamelo is a student, writer and advocate for a reimagined global economy through sustainable currency design. She grew up in a small town in South Africa and challenges what it means to be a "global African", having lived in ten countries over the past three years while obtaining her degree in economics and data science...

Kamil Ali-Jackson, Esq | Judge, Pitch Competition

Kamil Ali-Jackson, Esquire, is a co-founder of Aclaris and has served as Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary since its inception in 2012. Kamil has more than 35 years of experience in the legal and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, from 2011 to 2020, she served as Chief Legal Officer of Nexeption, Inc. and its affiliates...

Leo Williams | Judge, Pitch Competition

Leo Williams is the Executive Director of Williams & Associates Investments Limited, an investment advisory firm that seeks to attract capital to businesses in Jamaica and the Caribbean region. The firm assisted in the conceptualization and capitalization of the first REIT in the Caribbean that now trades on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, being Kingston Properties Limited...

Pierre Guislain | Speaker, AfCFTA Panel

Pierre Guislain, a Belgian national, provides advisory services on private sector development, infrastructure, ICT and related matters in Emerging Markets. Prior, he was the Vice-President of Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation at the African Development Bank Group; his areas of responsibility at the Bank also included the financial sector, trade, urban development and information and communication technologies...

Dr Jennifer Widner | Chair, Youth Panel

Jennifer Widner is Professor of Politics & International Affairs at Princeton University. She directs Innovations for Successful Societies, a research program that supports practitioners who aim to build more effective, more accountable government. Before joining the Princeton faculty in 2004-5, Professor Widner taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan. She is author of several books and monographs...

Veda Sunasese | Speaker, Youth Panel

Veda Sunassee has spent 9+ years in several roles with the African Leadership (AL) Group, first as an Entrepreneurial Leadership Faculty at the African Leadership Academy before later serving as the Founding Dean of the African Leadership University, Rwanda for 2 years. In his role, he built a team of 30+, grew the campus to 600 students. The African Leadership University was listed as the Most Innovative Company in Africa (34th globally) by FastCompany in 2019...

Ambassador Seyni Nafo | Chair, Green Panel

Ambassador Nafo has made significant contributions to Africa, and the developing world, in the fields of climate change, renewable energy and sustainable development. In 2015, on behalf of the AGN, In 2015, Amb. Nafo initiated the African Adaptation Initiative (AAI), a continental initiative that aims to strengthen adaptation to climate impacts, with endorsement of the AU Assembly...

Jinmi Oluanuga | Speaker, Youth Panel

Jinmi is a Connectivity Program Manager at Facebook, connecting the next billion people to the Internet in the Middle East and Africa through Express Wi-Fi. Before joining Facebook, he delivered the groundbreaking $300m Main One submarine cable to Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. A former National Deputy Coordinator for the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Jinmi published Nigeria's first ever National Broadband Plan and continues strong advocacy for Policy and Regulatory support and action...

Prof Yacob Mulugetta | Speaker, Green Panel

Yacob Mulugetta is a Professor of Energy and Development Policy at the University College London; and held an academic post at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, UK. He is a founding member of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) based in Ethiopia where he worked as Senior Climate & Energy Specialist (2010-2013). He has 25 years of research, teaching and advisory experience specialising on the links between energy infrastructure provision and human welfare...

Dr Janice Golding | Speaker, Green Panel

Janice Golding serves the United Nations Development Programme as its Focal Point for Nature, Climate and Energy in South Africa. Given South Africa being an upper Middle Income African Country, her role is focussed on niche support to the Government of South Africa on environmental governance, clean energy access and nature-based solutions to enable shifts in structural inequality, poverty and unemployment...

Panel and Event Announcements

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