For this Saturday’s episode of Black Genius, we’re excited to have in the Genius Chair Okendo Lewis-Gayle!!! Lewis-Gayle is the Founder and Chairman of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, and author of ‘Harambeans’, which chronicles the struggles and triumphs of Diaspora returnees building scalable ventures in Africa. He is also Founding Partner of the Harambeans Prosperity Fund.
Harambe has spawned a series of tech-enabled ventures such as Andela, Yoco and Flutterwave, generating over 3000 jobs, and raising over $500m from Google Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Alibaba.
A global citizen in the truest sense, Okendo was born in Costa Rica, raised in Italy and educated in Taiwan and the US. He speaks and reads Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, French and Greek. A friend to many global leaders, Okendo was once responsible for introducing then Senator Barack Obama to his graduating class with a speech that inspired relief in Obama that such a leader and orator would not be running for president just yet.
Okendo is a graduate of Harvard University, the Inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence at Schwarzman College in Beijing and has served as Africa Advisor to the Vatican, Rhodes Trust, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
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