Africa-Europe Foundation

Samir is not only a French entrepreneur but also an author and a tech reporter. Passionate about all things digital, he founded EMERGING Valley as an international summit on African innovation to connect tech start-ups with investors, thinkers and decision-makers across continents. He also leads StartupBRICS, a company that provides insights on entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Samir is a former chronicler on African tech entrepreneurs for Le Monde and has also featured in the Huffington Post, Le Point and Les Echos. His book, Startup Lions, chronicles his experience travelling the African continent in search of the most interesting and innovative tech start-ups. With French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative “Summit of the Two Shores of the Mediterranean”, Samir was amongst 10 selected to make proposals to relaunch European and Mediterranean cooperation.

Amrote Abdella spearheads Microsoft’s investments in Africa across 54 countries, enabling and accelerating digital transformation opportunities. Abdella has worked with the World Economic Forum as an Associate Director for Africa, served as a Financial Analyst at the World Bank, and was involved with the Global Hunger Project. Here, Abdella oversaw projects across eight countries in the continent and worked in driving financial inclusion. She has been named one of Africa’s Top 100 young business leaders and was recognised by Jeune Afrique in 2019 as a top 50 influential leader shaping digital evolution and supporting start-ups in the African continent.

Ibrahim Abubakar is a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London and director of its Institute for Global Health, focusing on the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of infections including tuberculosis, hepatitis and HIV. Abubakar was elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2020 in recognition of his research in infectious disease epidemiology and migration and health. Abubakar is also the chair of the Welcome Trust Population Health Expert Review Group on Population Health and the Lancet Migration Initiative: global collaboration to advance migration health.

Abdelmalek Alaoui is an editorialist, author and founder of the Guépard Consulting Group, a firm specialised in strategic communications for CEOs and governments. Prior to that, Alaoui founded Global Intelligence Partners, a pan-African consultancy firm specialised in strategic analysis and business intelligence. A regular policy analyst for the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, Alaoui also contributes to Forbes on US policy, North African affairs, and international relations. Alaoui is the author of award winning book “Economic Intelligence and Secret Wars in Morocco” and “Le Temps du Continent”, which won the Turgot Prize for the best French-speaking economics book in France.

Dr. Amuasi leads the Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) and is also a lecturer at the Global Health Department of the School of Public Health, KNUST. Amuasi’s work currently involves field epidemiologic studies on malaria, snakebite and other neglected tropical diseases, as well as addressing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. He is also coordinating research on the clinical characterization of COVID-19 in Africa and is the Principal Investigator for some studies on COVID-19 in Ghana, including a phase III clinical trial.

Debisi Araba is a public policy and strategy specialist, currently managing AGRF, the premier catalytic, multi-partner platform for food and agriculture transformation in Africa. Araba is also a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel, which strives to secure food and nutritional security in Africa. Previously, Araba was the Africa Director at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), where he led strategy and business development for the continent. He also served as a Senior Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria.

Tom Arnold is an active member of the Champions Network for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, the Global Panel for Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and the Malabo Montpellier Panel. Arnold previously served as the Chair of the European Commission Task Force on Rural Africa. He was also an Administrator with the EU Commission for ten years, serving in Brussels and Africa. Arnold is currently the Chair of the Irish 2030 Agri-Food Strategy Committee.

Gilles Babinet is a French multi-entrepreneur and a digital visionary. A proven leader in digital excellence, he is the Vice-President of the French National Digital Council and represented France in the Digital Champions group at the European Commission until 2018. Collaborating with the think tank Institut Montaigne on digital competitiveness, digital inclusion, big data, and IoT, Babinet is a professor of Public Policies & Digital at SciencesPo Paris. Babinet’s latest book published in 2020 entitled, “Refondre les politiques publiques avec le numérique“, focuses on how government and public services should embrace the digital revolution.

Ousmane Badiane, Distinguished Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists, recipient of the Africa Food Prize in 2015 and member of the World Academy of Sciences, is the founder and Executive Chairperson of AKADEMIYA2063. He has over 30 years of experience, as academic and a practitioner, in international development. As the Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute, he was instrumental in developing and guiding the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). As Lead Specialist for Food and Agricultural Policy at the World Bank, he served as advisor to the Vice President for Africa and originated projects with funding ranging from US$5 million to US$150 million. Between research and development finance, Dr. Badiane taught Economics of Development in Africa at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies for many years.

Peter Balázs is the founder of the Center of European Neighborhood Studies (CENS) and its Director for 15 years. Balázs has served as Hungary’s Ambassador to Denmark, Germany and the European Union. He was also the first Hungarian European Commissioner in 2004. He served in three different Hungarian governments as State Secretary for Industry and Trade, State Secretary for European Affairs, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Most recently, he was appointed the European Coordinator of Transport by the European Commission.

Bagoré is an entrepreneur. After his baccalaureate in Senegal, he went to Belgium to study veterinary medicine. He worked as veterinarian in Europe for two years after which he spent one year working in a Mauritanian NGO. In 2006, he founded “La Laiterie du Berger” with the purpose to build up the Senegalese dairy value chain, and link traditional milk producers with the cities’ growing demand for dairy products. In 10 years, the company became the second largest player in fresh dairy products, and the first certified B Corp in Sénégal. Bagoré considers social entrepreneurship as a new efficient tool to face social and economic development challenges in a sustainable way, in Africa.

Cristina Bescos has more than 15 years’ experience in research and management of large international innovation projects in e-Health. Bescos has worked in public research institutions such as the European Space Agency, and in the private sector for Hewlett Packard, Telefonica I+D and Philips. Bescos joined EIT Health from Royal Philips, where she was the European Programme Manager. She has also held several representative positions at the European level in industrial bodies, standardisation committees, expert forums, and innovation projects in the area of ageing and chronic care management.

Alexander Betts is a Professor of Forced and International Affairs at the University of Oxford, where is also the Associate Head of the Social Sciences and a Senior Fellow in Politics at Brasenose College. His research examines the political economy of refugee assistance, with a focus on Africa. Alexander also currently leads the IKEA Foundation-funded Refugee Economies Programme, which undertakes participatory research on the economic lives of refugees in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. Prior to this, he served as director of the Refugees Studies Centre. Alexander has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian and is the author of “The Wealth of Refugees: How Displaced People Can Build Economies”, which explores policy solutions for the contemporary global refugee crisis.

Agnes Binagwaho is the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity, an initiative of Partners in Health. Binagwaho previously worked in various high-level government positions, serving first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary, and lastly as the Minister of Health for five years. Binagwaho serves as Senior Advisor to the Director General of the WHO, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, and Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE.

Brian Bosire is a Kenyan innovator, thinker, and entrepreneur with a passion for emerging technologies. With a special focus on agriculture, water and sanitiation, his goal is to use tech solve the most pressing challenges in Africa. He founded UjuziKilimo to develop data-driven technologies to help African farmers practise precision farming and access quality, actionable data for improved productivity. He is also the founder of Hydrologistics Africa (HydroIQ), which improves water distribution and consumption using sensors and data analytics. Bosire has won numerous global awards and recognitions for his contributions to digital technologies in Africa including Africa Pioneer in Agritech by Forbes.