Key Note Speakers

Shaloo Garg- Microsoft StartUps 

Shaloo Garg is currently Managing Director, Silicon Valley, Southwest region for Microsoft for Startups. She brings a combination of strong startup, enterprise, strategic partnership and corporate development experience. Previously, Shaloo was at Oracle at Global Oracle Innovation where she lead the Global Customer Connect practice of commercializing revenue opportunities for startups into the enterprise client base and partner ecosystem. She has also lead go-to-market for Oracle’s cloud business and was part of the M&A team that acquired Peoplesoft, Siebel, Retek etc. Prior to joining Oracle, she was in a couple of early stage startups. Shaloo is passionate about education and is a “Champion of Innovation” at UN Women where she is spinning up virtual Innovation Labs with Universities leveraging emerging technologies to encourage digital literacy in developing countries for young girls who do not have access to education. Shaloo strongly believes that technology’s best user case ever is using its power to impact wider social issues like hunger, poverty, STEM education, clean water, energy, sustainable cities etc in developing and under-developed countries She is an MBA from Delhi University and has done specialization in Innovation and Design Thinking from Stanford d.School. Words to live by:
“In life, there are no mistakes... only lessons” - Vic Johnson.

Del Christensen- Chief of Global Business Development Bay Area Council

Del Christensen is Chief of Global Business Development for the Bay Area Council. Del joined the Council in 2008 and was initially responsible for membership development and membership services and also had leadership roles in the areas of cloud computing and cybersecurity. Currently, he oversees the Council’s trade and investment efforts in Shanghai, directing the development of Bay Area business in China through our office in the Yangpu District of Shanghai. Del brings over 20 years of extraordinary success in sales, business development and team leadership working for several Fortune 500 companies, including Providian Financial and Wachovia Bank.

Speakers 

 Thelma Ekiyor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelma-ekiyor-34a484120

Ms. Thelma Ekiyor has over 19 years’ experience working in the development sector, as a donor, philanthropic advisor, non-profit practitioner, social entrepreneur, gender expert and researcher. She has experience working in 22 African countries. Ms. Ekiyor is the pioneering Managing Partner & CEO of SME.NG – Nigeria’s Impact Investment Platform. She is the Co-Founder/Chairperson of Afrigrants Resources and also served as its pioneering CEO. At Afrigrants, she led the establishment of “Market Women’s Quick Cash” – A financial inclusion solution to provide micro-loans to women in disadvantaged communities. The solution has reached thousands of women in the disadvantaged poor communities in Northern Nigeria. It has made it easier for women to receive financial literacy training, business mentoring and access low-interest loans. Ms. Ekiyor is also is Founder & Co-Convener of The Funding Space – a mentoring, training and access to finance platform for social entrepreneurs in Africa. She also led the conceptualization of “The Ebi Fund” – an impact fund for women entrepreneurs. Annually the Funding Space convenes social entrepreneurs impact investors and donors from across the world learn, meet and support indigenous social entrepreneurs changing African communities. Prior to establishing Afrigrants, Ms. Ekiyor was the pioneer CEO of TY Danjuma Foundation, and grew an endowment of $100 million. Prior to that, she served as the Pioneering Executive Director at the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), based in Ghana, established by the George Soros Foundation. She was also the first Female Director at the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), where she established a women’s network, which supported over 3,000 women across West Africa. Ms. Ekiyor also served as the Senior Manager at the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she advised and built the capacity of African governments and civil society in post-conflict reconstruction countries. Ms. Ekiyor holds an MBA (Entrepreneurship & Innovation) from Imperial College London, UK; a Law Degree (LLB Honours) from University of Buckingham UK. She is also a Fellow of Stanford University, USA. She is an Alumnus of the African Women’s Leadership Institute and has received several awards for her contributions to women in Africa. Ms. Ekiyor has served as Strategic Policy Adviser to UN Women Nigeria. She is currently a Board Member on ALL ON, the renewable energy impact fund in West Africa established by Shell. She has also served on the Boards of acclaimed organisations such as the Global Centre on R2P in New York. She is also past Chair of the Global Civil Society Coalition
 of Responsibility to Protect.

Philip Southwell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-southwell-ba-fca-3266b211

Philip is a Board Member of SME.NG. He is a partner of Chapel Hill Denham and has a 25-year career in investment banking and principal investing with Deutsche Bank & Bank of America Merrill Lynch, mostly focused on emerging markets in Asia, Middle East, Central Europe and also in Africa where he has been operating continuously since 1998. Philip has advised on and financed many of Africa’s largest M&A and capital markets transaction. He has deep management and operational experience and has led complex, regulated businesses in many African and Emerging Markets and was CEO of an Emerging Market Merchant Bank, Exotix Partners and of EFG-Hermes’ GCC business. Philip co-founded the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund and the Nigeria Real Estate Investment Trust in Nigeria.

Host
Denise Williams
https://www.linkedin.com/in/denise-williams-0b501311

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sv-ned-inc-9305a070

 Denise Ajayi Williams is the President and Cofounder of Silicon Valley- Nigerian Economic Development Inc. (SV-NED). SV-NED Inc. is responsible for officially inviting and welcoming the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo, Minister of Defense, Mansur Dan Ali, and cultural leader His Imperial Majesty, Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II to Silicon Valley. SV-NED is also responsible for the successful completion of two Immersion Training & Certification Programs with a graduating class of 120 people all from Nigeria. On June 23-29th 2019, the SVNED was selected and invited by the Bay Area Council on the 2019 Cross Border Tour to China. Leading to SV-NED developing Accelerators in 3 Continents: North America, Asia, and Africa within 3 years. Williams serves on the board of 3 companies, including SV-NED Inc., Global Connection for Women Foundation, and Sky Clinic Connect.