Our Team
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

TWUM DJIN
Stripe

JOSH GHAIM, Ph.D.
Founder and Managing Partner – IgniteGB Inc.
Co-Founder and CEO - Small World Brands Inc

NDEYE MAKALOU
Commercial Director, Roche

ALMAZ NEGASH
Founder of ADN & Executive Director

INNOCENT SHUMBA
Partner, Ernst & Young, San Jose

DUNCAN GOLDIE-SCOT
Musoni Kenya, Ltd

AGNIESZKA WINKLER
Founder, Winkler Group
OUR ADN STAFF

ALMAZ NEGASH
Founder of ADN & Executive Director

DANIEL HARTZ
Envoy, Inc

MEGAN HUNSBERGER
Program and Digital Media Manager

DEBRA PACIO
Content Developer & Storyteller

YINKA DJIN
Information Technology Associate

CAROLINE OCAMPO
Public Information Officer
Caroline will be leading African Diaspora Network public affairs and communications department. She comes with more than thirty-year experience in developing marketing and media plans for NGOs, humanitarian agencies, higher education institutions, and corporations. Caroline has received several marketing awards including the prestigious International Retail marketing award for Philippine Tourism, Trade, and Duty Free.
Caroline is the founder of strategic multicultural communications consultancies CKO+ Media and Global MediaX.OUR EMERITUS BOARD

DR. MUSIMBI KANYORO
ADN Founding Board & Co-Chair, President & CEO of Global Fund for Women

DR. LIESL RIDDLE
Associate Professor of Int’l Business and Int’l Affairs, George Washington University

PROF. MAMMO MUCHIE
Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria

CHRIS FOLAYAN
Founder MallforAfrica & MallfortheWorld

LAURA HUBBARD
PhD, Center for African Studies, Stanford University

HUGH MOLOTSI
Investor, Founder and CEO, Ujama
OUR EXECUTIVE ADVISORY COUNCIL

KEDEST TESFAGIORGIS
Kedest Tesfagiorgis leads the Global Partnerships & Grand Challenges team within the Discovery & Translational Sciences group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Kedest is deeply committed to building collaborative, inclusive, long-term partnerships that address the biggest challenges in health and development. Her career has been rooted in the conviction that, as a global community in pursuit of equity, we go faster and further by working together.
Born to Eritrean parents and raised in Ethiopia in a large family, she grew up in a time of civil war and famine—and launched her career in health and development as her country began making historic progress, achieving every single health-related Millennium Development Goal.
Kedest’s team is focused on ensuring that innovation champions closest to the problems that need solving are empowered to work on them. Over the past decade, her work has centered on facilitating partnerships with scientists and science funders, primarily through Grand Challenges, a program launched in 2003 to encourage innovators to take risks to solve the hardest health problems affecting those most in need. Kedest has helped grow Grand Challenges into a global network, supporting partners in India, across Africa, and elsewhere to create their own innovation programs. In addition to continuing to run the Grand Challenges platform together with a growing set of partners, she also convenes advocates, funders, policymakers, and thought leaders to create a global innovation ecosystem that consistently delivers impact.
Kedest is responsible for the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, the foundation’s flagship platform for accelerating science for impact. She has attended all but one of the 16 annual meetings on five continents so far. Beyond her work within the foundation, she serves as an advisor to people seeking to build effective coalitions and networks, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

DR. MARTIN RUSSEL

ABBEY OMOKHODION
Senior Finance Director IOTG, Intel Corporation

DR. MICHAEL MOSCHEROSCH
Director R&D, Fellow, Social Innovation, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.

DR JOSEPHINE FUBARA

YOHANNES ASSEFA
Board of Directors, Ethiopia Diaspora Trust Fund
