Susan Davis is a connector of people, dots, and opportunities. She has three decades of leadership roles in both the for-profit and non-profit worlds. She is a Practitioner in Residence at the Institute of Leadership and Social Impact at Georgia Tech, where she co-designs and co-teaches a course on effective and responsible social innovation. She won an award from Australian AID for her donor accountability scorecard concept, which intended to foster a culture of accountability and transparency through virtuous competition amongst donors to perform and disclose the results of post-implementation evaluations.

Susan has evaluated or supported international development activities in 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has advised hundreds of donors, impact investors, and changemakers on effective and equitable development. She has spoken about accelerating learning from what works – and more importantly, what doesn’t – to improve impact at several international conferences, webinars, and on podcasts.

Most recently, she was the Director of Equitable Giving at the Segal Family Foundation, a social impact funder and advisor that champions African visionaries. Previous roles include Chief of Party for the USAID Global Waters Communication and Knowledge Management program; the Global Coordinator for Agenda for Change, leading the development of a shared vision for collaborative systems strengthening efforts across 14 organizations in more than 40 countries; and founder and Executive Director of Improve International, a not-for-profit research and consulting firm that sought to identify root causes of failure and urge WASH sector actors to learn from and respond to these lessons.

She has a Master's in Public Health from The George Washington University and a BS in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Aline Varre has been a stalwart advocate for cross-sector partnerships and impactful initiatives throughout Africa and its diaspora networks. Her focus on sustainable economic development, especially in challenging regions like Nigeria's Niger Delta, is grounded in her human-centered approach and systemic design thinking. In her work, Aline has intentionally prioritized the cultivation of diverse stakeholder networks —communities, NGOs, government bodies, aid organizations, investors, and corporations—to achieve lasting social impact and sustainable progress. As Director of Strategy and Business Development at The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND Foundation), Aline spearheads efforts to engage global and local partners for the implementation of innovative finance strategies for economic development and peacebuilding. She excels in fostering collaboration, communicating complex ideas effectively, and engaging diverse audiences.

Beyond her professional achievements, Aline is known for her dynamic performance arts acumen and fluency in several languages, including French, Wolof, Spanish, and Portuguese Creole. With a BA in International Communications-Media Studies from the American University of Paris and 25 years of experience in the creative economy, Aline brings a wealth of knowledge and cross-sector fluency in ecosystems building, data and measurement, impact investment strategies, technology transformation and change management.

Mrs. Thelma Ekiyor-Solanke brings over 23 years of dedicated experience in the development Philanthropy and Impact Investing sectors. She is the current pioneer Chairperson of the first-ever Nigeria Office for Philanthropy & Impact Investing (NPO)- a private sector led coordinating Office, domiciled in the Office of the Vice President. In 2021 - 2022, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, USA named Mrs. Ekiyor-Solanke as one of the top 10 Black Women working Philanthropy and Impact Investing globally and she received the “Black Women Give Back” global Honourees Award. Mrs. Ekiyor-Solanke is the co-Founder/Chair of SME.NG. She also served as its Managing Partner. She is the Co- Founder/Chairperson of Afrigrants, a social enterprise.

Board Memberships and Committees:
● Chair, Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
● Member, National Advisory Board on Impact Investing in Nigeria (NABII).
● Member, Gender Advisory Board – African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA).
● Co-Chair, Black Philanthropy Month-Africa.
● Chair, Cranfield University African-Caribbean Business Forum.

Mrs. Ekiyor-Solanke is currently completing a Doctorate in Entrepreneurship at Cranfield University, UK. She holds an MBA (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) from Imperial College London, UK, a Law Degree (LLB Honours) from the University of Buckingham, UK, and she is a Stanford University (USA) Fellow.

Vincent Otieno Odhiambo is the Regional Director for Ashoka in East Africa, based in Nairobi Kenya. He is a seasoned visionary and transformative leader with an impressive track record spanning two decades. He has cumulative work experience in different sectors including social and humanitarian services, public and private sectors, international development, and the social impact sector. His leadership journey has taken him through various levels of leadership, from local community initiatives to national, regional, continental, and global engagements. Vincent’s expertise lies in driving organizational development, transformative, cross-sectoral collaborations, and social impact. Vincent has excelled at designing and implementing tailored interventions to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations, promoting collaborative workplace culture, facilitating change management, and providing guidance on leadership development. His leadership style is collaborative and characterized by a forward-thinking approach that inspires change, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Vincent is an alumnus of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and United States International University (USIU), Africa. He is also a member of the Association for Faculty Enrichment in Learning and Teaching (AFELT) where he sits in a sub-committee exploring mindset and attitude change needed in Education to adapt to the changing world. He is the Board Chairman of Lightup Impact, an NGO building a movement of over 100 young grassroots leaders across East Africa advocating for equality in health, gender, and opportunities. Until recently, he was one of the strategic advisors to INASP (International Network for Advancing Science and Policy). He has served as the Board Chair for Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environment Internationale-Kenya Chapter. He was also a founding director of a consultancy called Beyond Transformation which worked with private sector leaders to create and champion development models that combine positive social impact with market-facing enterprises.

Vincent is a firm believer in ecosystemic, transformative partnerships and collaborative impact as a critical path towards finding sustainable systems change solutions to drive social transformation and a firm believer of an everyone a changemaker world.

Bankole Oloruntoba is the CEO of the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center www.nigeriacic.org, a Climate Technology Partnership program of the World Bank with the help of the Government of Nigeria focusing on the growth of a viable green economy in Nigeria. The NCIC has, since its inception, incubated over 60 green ventures and seed funded 24 ventures in total of $240,000 USD and developed knowledge on the emerging Nigeria Green Economy, the center has worked with several partners to create growth structures in Nigeria including solving scale challenges including Coca-Cola Foundation, AllOn, EDC/PAU, FC4S Lagos and GIZ etc implementing Green Economy startups and SME economic scale projects worth over $3million USD.

Bankole is currently the Honorary Consul to Finland in Lagos, Nigeria and has a first degree (BSc. Economics) from ABU Zaria, an executive certificate in Building Brands from the Lagos Business School (LBS) and an MBA from Businesschool Netherlands (BSN). He is a social and business tactics engagement specialist with a deep background in entrepreneurship development, business development and innovation management. Bankole started the Abuja startup Ecosystem and has supported the setup of over 15 innovation hubs in Nigeria. Bankole has shown strength in the identification and building of strategic work/business partnership in Innovation ecosystem development.

As a thought leader in Digital and Climate focused Start-ups and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development in Nigeria/West Africa, Bankole sits on the board and advises several organizations, governments, dozens of Hubs and Businesses in Nigeria and West Africa. He brings a wealth of experience in Green Innovation Programmes Design, financing and Sustainability Management, Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (IDE) Development, Startup Business Development and Ecosystem Advisory.

Bankole is an engaging Speaker, Convergence Coordinator and a fantastic listener.

Twitter: @BankoleToba
LinkedIn: https://ng.linkedin.com/in/bankoleoloruntoba

Susan has evaluated or supported international development activities in 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has advised hundreds of donors, impact investors, and changemakers on effective and equitable development. She has spoken about accelerating learning from what works – and more importantly, what doesn’t – to improve impact at several international conferences, webinars, and on podcasts.

Most recently, she was the Director of Equitable Giving at the Segal Family Foundation, a social impact funder and advisor that champions African visionaries. Previous roles include Chief of Party for the USAID Global Waters Communication and Knowledge Management program; the Global Coordinator for Agenda for Change, leading the development of a shared vision for collaborative systems strengthening efforts across 14 organizations in more than 40 countries; and founder and Executive Director of Improve International, a not-for-profit research and consulting firm that sought to identify root causes of failure and urge WASH sector actors to learn from and respond to these lessons.

She has a Master's in Public Health from The George Washington University and a BS in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.