Events

Stella Opoku-Owusu

Stella Opoku-Owusu – Africa-Gives Stella Opoku-Owusu is an Engagement and Capacity Consultant at AFFORD, coordinating the Africa-Gives initiative. Stella has over 10 years experience of capacity building and fundraising and is actively committed to diaspora development in Africa. As a young diaspora professional working with AFFORD in 2003, she produced AFFORD’s ground-breaking research on young Africans in the UK - ‘Shaping Africa’s Future: Do young Africans in the Diaspora share the dreams of NEPAD/AU in 2011, Stella spent five months contributing her time and resources to developing a grassroots organisation in the slums of Kibera in Kenya. She is a trustee of UK-based international charity Star4Africa.

Shingai Shoniwa

Shingai Shoniwa – Noisettes

Shoniwa is the vocalist for the rock band the Noisettes and was born to parents who emigrated from Zimbabwe. She studied at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon. It was there she met Dan Smith, with whom she went on to form the Noisettes. Shoniwa has been dubbed “the living, breathing manifestation of the rock & roll spirit” by Rolling Stone magazine. She has worked with Annie Lennox and sang alongside Madonna, Gladys Knight and Celine Dion on the track AIDS awareness track, Sing. Shoniwa has raised funds for many charitable concerns, performing with Dizzee Rascal at a sell out charity concert at the Albert Hall. She joined Amnesty International’s Make Some Noise, raising awareness of the conflict in Darfur.

Herman Chinery-Hesse

Herman Chinery-Hesse – SOFTtribe

Herman Chinery-Hesse is the founder of the SOFTtribe, the largest software company in Ghana. Fifteen years ago Herman decided to abandon his comfortable life in the United Kingdom to prove to sceptical friends what he had always maintained - that his native Ghana was a land of opportunity waiting for entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas. With no start-up capital and little in the form of personal savings, no infrastructure, and no equipment other than his old personal computer, Herman had to rely on the only resources available to him: his determination and creative talent for writing software programs. The company now employs around 70 people and has a client base of more than 250 organisations, including major multinationals; it is also a Microsoft development partner in the region. SOFTtribe has won a number of awards including the Millennium Excellence Awards for IT in 2005. Herman holds a number of directorships and is an Assessor of the Commercial Court, Ghana.

Jacqueline Shaw

Jacqueline Shaw – Africa Fashion Guide

Africa Fashion Guide is the brainchild of Jacqueline Shaw a professional fashion designer for Puma. Jacqueline is an eco-entrepreneur with a big heart for Africa, fashion and international development. Jacqueline created the social enterprise Africa Fashion Guide as part of her MA in Ethical Fashion with the focus to promote the African fashion and textile industry to the greater global textile industry. It is a one stop shop and platform for fashion professionals, students, retailers, magazines, bloggers and all those interested in African fashion and textiles. It links African designers, craftspeople, manufacturers and textile designers with UK and EU fashion design companies and consumer markets, as well as with retailers worldwide.

Hon Chuka Umunna

Hon Chuka Umunna – Shadow Secretary of State, Business, Innovation & Skills

Chuka Umunna was elected as Member of Parliament for Streatham in May 2010. Chuka studied Law at the University of Manchester and the University of Burgundy, followed by Nottingham Law School, and work as an employment law solicitor. In June 2010, he was elected to serve on the Treasury Select Committee and in October 2010 was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Labour leader Ed Miliband. In May 2011, Chuka was appointed as Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise in Labour’s Shadow Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) team, led by John Denham. In October 2011, Chuka was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State BIS, replacing John Denham. In this role, Chuka leads the Opposition Shadow BIS team on a wide range of issues including business, enterprise, science and universities. Chuka is a board member of Generation Next, a not for profit social enterprise providing activities for young people in London.