YOUTH SOCIAL MISSION BOARD
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South Africa/Lisbon
Brand and Innovation Strategist, Communications Maven, Foodie, and Global Citizen.
Aqeelah is passionate about building brands and businesses that positively impact people. She has worked on global brands such as The Coca-Cola Company and L'Oreal, using cultural insights to provide future-fit brand, product, and people growth strtegies. In building the Beauty Revolution startup movement in Africa, her expertise also lies in community-building and engaging Gen Z, particularly in emerging global south markets. This journey led to her appointment in 2022 to the Youth Advisory Board of The Body Shop in London.
Having recently moved from South Africa to Portugal, she is passionate about bringing Africa to the world and engaging first-hand with the fast-growing and dynamic technology sector present in Lisbon. At Nova Ideation, she brings a great connection between the resilience and
empowerment of African businesses and the access and globalization of being based in Europe. A true millennial, when Aqeelah is not consulting, you will find her at a Pilates class, trying out a new restaurant, or closely monitoring the latest trends on social media.
AQEELAH HASSIM
Ghana/Canada
Stubborn Optimist, Striving Polymath, Committed Nomad, Student of Life.
Yaw is passionate about creating meaningful positive impact in the lives of people through the businesses and brands that serve them everyday. With a strong conviction that there is a better way for businesses to operate without harming people and planet, he has been intentional in developing his career to gain extensive experience and training in multiple disciplines: engineering, brand development, marketing, innovation, humanized business strategy, operational management and transformation, sustainable impact, corporate consulting, sales, business development, foresight, systems thinking, technology, biomimicry, design thinking and counting.
He holds an Engineering degree and is currently completing a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. Over the last 10 years, he has leveraged these multiple perspectives in solving business challenges and driving both top and bottom-line growth for several global and sub-Saharan Africa organizations; such as Unilever, Danone, PZ Cussons, RCL Foods, Philips, Oliver Food Packaging and Wilmar. With experience across 15+ industries ranging from fast-moving consumer goods, advertising, retail, management consulting, technology, packaging, and SMME development. He has lived in Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, worked across 30+ countries and worked on 25+ brands and businesses.
Yaw brings a healthy balance of simplicity, rigour and implementation practicality to crafting business growth strategies; ensuring resonance and positive impact for the people being served.
YAW SARKODIE
South Africa
I’m Ciarán Whitaker, an entrepreneur, business developer, angel investor and technologist with over 2 decades of experience, almost 10 of which have been at Google.
I’m extremely passionate about empowering the lives of people living in Africa by solving problems using innovative technology. I'm a strong believer in the power of technology to transform lives, and I'm committed to helping entrepreneurs in Africa use technology to create a better future for their communities.
I have worked on a variety of projects at Google, across multiple industries, but all of which have had one common goal - to empower and grow businesses in Africa.
If you're an entrepreneur looking to create change in Africa, I would love to connect with you.
CIARÁN WHITAKER
South Africa
Kantar Consulting SA: Brand Growth Strategy Consultant
Bontle is an expert in brand-led growth and passionate about helping to solve tough brand challenges to drive commercial growth. She’s an expert in topics such as innovation, brand positioning, brand growth strategy, cultural strategy, social impact and in-market execution.
Brand experiences: Sunlight, Blue Band, Royco, Knorr, Axe, Shield/Rexona, Vodacom, Safaricom, Old Mutual, Tiger Brands, Multichoice, Cricket SA and more.
Work experience: >8yrs in brand building and brand development marketing roles at Unilever with a particular passion for her work across the multiple African markets. Has since been building her consulting experience across a variety of sectors – predominantly, financial services, telecommunications and FMCG.
In-market experience: 2 years based in Kenya leading the Unilever East Africa Savoury portfolio and Royco’s Social Mission launch.
Why join NOVA: NOVA’s purpose perfectly aligns with her personal and professional passion for Africa – by activating our collective experiences, expertise and networks, we can enable young African innovators to change the narrative in how we solve for a better Africa, our way!