One Africa One Voice

Carl Manlan

Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa – Dubai
VP: Inclusive Impact and Sustainability

Carl Manlan is Vice President, Inclusive Impact and Sustainability for Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

His focus is on enabling community impact with local, regional and global partners, co-creating partnerships that support Small and Medium Businesses, Individuals and households to thrive in the CEMEA region.

Prior to Visa, Carl served as the Chief Operating Officer at Ecobank Foundation where he led the bank’s social impact work in 33 markets in Africa. Before Ecobank Foundation, Carl held various leadership roles at the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Economic Commission for Africa, The Global Fund and UNDP. Carl holds an undergraduate degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Cape Town and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Mo Ibrahim Foundation Fellow and an Aspen Institute New Voices Senior Fellow.

Giovanni Tula

Enel Green Power – Italy
Head of Sustainability

Giovanni’s interest in Environment and People showed up at the age of 7, when his dream was to invent a non-polluting and costless water-powered engine. In line with these values and interests, he graduated in environmental engineering and for the past 20 years has held leadership positions in environmental management, health and safety, engineering, innovation and sustainability in several multinational companies.

Being a scuba diver, he likes traveling to discover the beauties of the seas and learning from different cultures. But above all he likes to make good use of his time, with family and friends, because “happiness is real only when shared”.

Karen Basiye

Safaricom – Kenya
Director of Sustainable Business and Social Impact

Karen Basiye is Director of Sustainable Business and Social Impact at Safaricom. She is a keen Sustainability Practitioner and a Corporate Environment Manager with 15 years’ experience.

Over the years she has worked at the National Environment Management Authority and Safaricom where she developed competencies in Leadership, Governance, Strategic Thinking, Sustainability Reporting (both Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), Social Policy, Corporate Environmental Management, Environmental Management Systems including ISO certification and Environmental policies, Environment Risk Management, Environmental Compliance Assessment, Energy and Climate change policies, Strategies for Sustainable Development, Integrated Product Policies, Sustainable Consumption and Production and integration of Sustainable Development Goals into company strategies.

Karen holds a Joint Master of Environmental Science, Policy and Management degree from Lund University (Sweden), University of Manchester (UK), Central European University (Hungary) and University of the Aegean (Greece) www.mespom.eu and a Bachelor of Environment Science degree from Kenyatta University.

Currently at Safaricom, Karen leads the Sustainability Vision and ambition for the company. She is passionate about the interplay between People, Purpose and Profits.

She has served at various University Councils, seats on the Governing Council of KEPSA as the Vice chair of the Environment Sector Board and is a Strategic Advisor on various Boards. She has been recognised as an SDG Pioneer by the Global Compact Kenya.

Edem Adzogenu

AfroChampions – Ghana
Co-founder

Dr. Edem Adzogenu is an accomplished investment facilitator, government affairs and international crisis management specialist for global investors and businesses across Africa and Asia. He has facilitated investment of millions of dollars into community-friendly mining, environmental remediation, large-scale technology platforms and health faclities across Africa and beyond.

Dr. Adzogenu’s work straddles the public, private and civic sectors, with an emphasis on innovation, economic development, pan-African integration and social transformation.  His global advisory experience ranges from advising African Heads of State, Fortune 500 companies, G7 countries and African regional institutions, to helping resolve disputes over investments in war-threatened regions.

Dr Adzogenu has also been at the forefront of ground-breaking initiatives to promote public-private partnerships and a stronger role for the African private sector in regional and continental integration. Under his leadership, AfroChampions, an organisation he co-founded, has grown into an influential regional public-private partnership platform that partners the African Union and several regional institutions to drive African integration and transformation.

Working with some of Africa’s foremost thinkers and leaders, he guided the adoption by African Heads of State of the “Trillion Dollar Private Sector AfCFTA Investment & Financing Framework (TDF)” in support of AfCFTA Implementation.

Lacina Koné

Smart Africa – Rwanda
Director General and CEO

Mr. Lacina Koné, is the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Smart Africa having joined the organisation in March 2019.

He oversees the process of defining and advancing Africa’s digital agenda and has overseen the development of continental blueprints for Africa on Digital Identity, ICT Start-ups and Innovation Ecosystems, Smart Villages and the definition of Africa’s Smart Broadband 2025 Strategy in addition to advancing additional key continental initiatives. In recognition for this work, Mr. Koné has been recognized in 2021 as 12th among the 50 personalities advancing Africa’s digital transformation.

Prior to that, Mr. Koné was the advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire (2017-2018), in charge of Digital Transformation and Public Reforms, and was also the advisor to the President from 2011-2017. Mr. Koné is a professional of ICT industry with over 25 years experience in the telecommunications, satellite and intelligent transport system.

Mr. Koné is a graduate of three continents. United Arab Emirates, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering, in the UK, it has validated its Polytechnique rank at the University of Brunel, and the United States, his MBA from George Washington University.

He also sits on the advisory boards of Benya Capital in Egypt and Townlabour Technologies in the USA.

Sanda Ojiambo

United Nations Global Compact – USA
CEO & Assistant Secretary General

Sanda Ojiambo is the Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact.

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change.

With more than 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.

Ms. Ojiambo brings 20 years of experience to lead the UN Global Compact. She has served as Head of Sustainable Business and Social Impact, Safaricom Plc, Kenya since 2010. Ms. Ojiambo was also the Senior Manager of Safaricom and MPESA Foundations, Kenya from 2008 to 2010, during which she led the implementation of several public-private partnership initiatives between Safaricom and UN organisations.

Throughout her career, she has cultivated and managed relationships with key business entities and civil society organizations, including her capacity development work in Somalia with UNDP and CARE International.

Ms. Ojiambo holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, USA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Development from McGill University, Canada.