Episodes

Vera D. Kwakofi is a Senior News Editor, Commissioning with the BBC World Service and is responsible for the BBC’s International TV Operations in Africa. She leads teams of journalists based across Africa and in the UK who produce the multi-award-winning Africa Eye Investigations, Business, Health, Sport, Women, News Analysis and Factual and Youth content for Africa in English, French, and Swahili. Vera has more than 20 years of experience in international journalism and commissioning content ac...

Babatunde Omilola manages the African Development Bank’s multi-billion-dollar response to the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives and livelihoods throughout Africa and to help African countries strengthen their health systems, stabilize their economies, and alleviate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. A global development leader, Babatunde served as Head of Development Planning with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York and led the United Nations Inter-Agen...

Andrei Kureichik is a Belarusian playwright, director, publicist, and civil activist. As a writer and director prior to 2020, Andrei was especially beloved for his comedies and suspense thrillers. Following the contested presidential elections and brutal aftermath in Belarus in August 2020, Andrei gained an international following as a political playwright. Forced to flee the country as a member of the Coordination Council working with perceived winner Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s transition team,...

Rufaro Mudimu is a social entrepreneur that is dedicated to youth development and socio-economic transformation in Africa. Rufaro’s commitment to youth development in Africa is driven by her belief that socio-economic transformation and leadership of the continent is in its young people. She currently leads enke: Make Your Mark (enke), a leadership development organization that generates and incubates youth-led social impact and enterprise in South Africa. enke, meaning ‘ink’ in SeTswana, was st...

Sahar Albazar is an Egyptian MP and the Deputy Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Egyptian House of Representatives. She is also the President of the forum of young Parliamentarians representing more than 179 countries. Before that, she was an advisor to the Minister of Social Solidarity and a social protection consultant at the World Bank on youth employability in Egypt. In addition to her experience in the governmental sector and international organizations, she has worked at sev...

Kirsten Rulf has been working as a senior advisor for digital, technology, and innovation policy to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2019. She is Head of Division for General Digital Policy Issues and “Nerd-in-Chief” at the Federal Chancellery of Germany in Berlin. In her strategic leadership position, Kirsten is shaping Germany’s and Europe’s role in the geopolitics of tech. What does European digital sovereignty mean in a global context? How shoul...

Manasi Subramaniam is Editor-in-Chief at Penguin Random House India, where she heads the literary division’s flagship imprints: Allen Lane, Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Paperbacks, Penguin Classics. She has published some of the most exciting new voices across South Asia, including two winners of the Booker Prize, one winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and several winners and finalists of international awards including the National Book Awards, Folio, JCB, Andrew Carnegie Medal, Women’s Prize, De...

Solangel Fernández is an architect, urban designer, and urban economist with 15 years of experience. Throughout her career, she has been in charge of directing urban development and sustainable mobility initiatives as well as large infrastructure projects, especially during trying political times. In Peru, Solangel directed the urban planning offices at the municipalities of San Isidro and San Borja where she and her team developed innovative strategies to transform public spaces for the wellnes...

Zhao Zhong is the founder and director of Green Camel Bell, a grass-root environmental NGO in Northwest China. At the local level, he conducts a range of programs and projects focusing on environmental education, water pollution monitoring, and community-based eco-agriculture and sustainable development. At the national level, he promotes and researches public participation in environmental decision-making and provides training and mentorship to grassroots partners. At the global level, he bridg...

Kyriacos Koupparis is Head of Frontier Innovations at the United Nations World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator. In this role, he leads a team that explores how emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics – can be harnessed to catalyze impact within the context of humanitarian assistance and food security. Previously, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as Senior Innovation Advisor where he designed and admini...

Huong Dang is a social entrepreneur and founder of HopeBox, an NGO based in Vietnam that provides employment, training, and opportunities to victims of gender-based violence. Prior to this she worked as Director of Partnerships and Strategy of KOTO, an organization that aids and empowers at-risk and disadvantaged youth in Vietnam. From a humble beginning as a street kid, Huong made her way to Melbourne via a scholarship and was honored as Victoria’s International Student of the Year. In 2021, Hu...

James Mwangi is the Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, a global collection of impact-driven businesses that work to build a more inclusive and sustainable world where all people, everywhere, can reach their fullest potential. James joined Dalberg as a founding member in 2002, started Dalberg’s first Africa office (Johannesburg) in 2007, and subsequently served as Global Managing Partner of Dalberg’s consulting business, guiding the formalization of its structure and governance as a global ...

Orr Hirschauge is a journalist and news executive. He currently works as Chief Digital Officer at Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Israel Hayom. He was the first Israeli to join The Wall Street Journal as a technology staff reporter and the first executive editor of CTech, a now well-established Israeli English-language technology news site. His work on the juxtaposition of surveillance technologies and regional geopolitics is cited in policy papers and best-selling books. In 2016, Orr led an ...

Nora Al-Jindi is a passionate educator with over a decade of experience in the field of business academia. She is an advocate for the integration of technology in education to better prepare graduates when joining the workforce. She is currently the Marketing Program Chair at Dar Al-Hekma University in Saudi Arabia. In her efforts to bridge the gap between theory and practice, she interacts closely with the Business Community to promote the practical side of marketing, allowing students to appl...

Srikumar Misra is an entrepreneur who founded Milk Mantra, a responsible new age dairy foods business in India that is redefining how systems thinking and technology can transform the agri-foods value chain and also impact the lives of millions via ethical sourcing. Milk Mantra has received several global awards for its path breaking work in innovation & impactful capitalism, and Srikumar’s work has been consistently covered in several case studies in global business schools and has also feature...

Laura Alonso has an extensive and unique cross-sector career promoting democracy, transparency, and citizen participation. She has previously held positions as Head of the Anti-corruption Office in Argentina, twice elected member of the National Congress, and CEO of the domestic chapter of Transparency International. Because of her leadership in integrity and anti-corruption policies, Argentina reached its highest score in the Index of Transparency International in 2020. Laura co-chaired the G2...

Muthanna Khriesat is Chief Operating Officer of Questscope, an international non-governmental organization committed to social development through youth empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa region. Muthanna oversees institutional partnerships locally in Jordan, regionally in MENA, and internationally. In Jordan he guides collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Social Development and the Department of Public Security. He is responsible for strategic planning and development ...

Elinda Labropoulou is an award-winning multi-platform storyteller. She is an internationally published writer, senior broadcaster, and presenter with extensive reporting from global hotspots for leading media including CNN, The Washington Post, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Deutsche Welle. Working for CNN out of Greece, she has produced, directed, and presented news and analysis on the country’s financial crisis, the rise of political extremism, and the ongoing global refugee crisis. Her extensive resea...

Udo Jude Ilo works to expand the space for social innovation and champions the use of entertainment as a tool for shaping narratives, supporting new voices, and engaging with the youth population in Africa. As the Nigerian representative of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, his focus has been about creativity and finding new tools for democracy promotion. Udo supports civic mobilization and media campaigns on political participation, natural resources management, and rule of law. By b...

Korto Reeves is currently the global Head of Women’s Rights in ActionAid International, a social justice federation in 43 countries. Over the last 13 years, she has worked with the organization in several positions, including Country Director in Liberia from 2010 to 2016. She has 20 years of professional experience working across Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and with USAID and UNDP. She is an African feminist and strategic civil society leader in Liberia and on the continent. A signif...

Ömür Kula Çapan is a well-known creative strategist and experience designer in Turkey who successfully managed pioneering companies like Tribal WW and R/GA Istanbul, leading the digital transformation of Turkey’s biggest brands and companies, and helped build Turkey’s first and most successful digital-only bank, Enpara. She is also a sought-after keynote speaker, columnist, and a guest lecturer for many universities. Alongside her successful career in the business world, her true passion lies i...

Rayhan Asat is an Uyghur human rights attorney. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former anti-corruption attorney at a major U.S. law firm, Rayhan specializes in international human rights law and compliance with best business practices. Her legal and policy work centers around enforcing international human rights norms, civil liberties, curtailing forced labor, and promoting corporate accountability. She advised the World Bank and OECD to design Human-Centered Business Integrity Principles. ...

Abdi Ismail has been working in the humanitarian field for 12 years in various management capacity with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Currently, he is the Head of Mission for ICRC in Aden, Yemen, where he leads the protection and humanitarian assistance response in Southern Yemen and is in charge of managing the security of ICRC staff, assets, and operations in a very volatile security environment. Abdi’s interests are understanding current conflicts and their broader sec...

Musa Mahmodi talks about life in Afghanistan under the Taliban, why he became a lawyer, his work as Executive Director of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and the peace process in his country.