Keynote Speakers
Dr Ehud Gachugu
Project Director, Ajira Digital Program (KEPSA)
Dr Ehud Gachugu
Project Director, Ajira Digital Program (KEPSA)
Dr Ehud Gachugu is an expert on Youth Employment and Skills Development with over 20 years of professional and technical experience in youth employment programs in Kenya and abroad. He is currently, the Project Director of the Ajira Digital Program at Kenya Private Sector Alliance, a Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs project that is funded by Mastercard Foundation.
Dr Ehud also provided technical oversight of KEPSA’s youth employment work that spans areas like digital economy, TVET Development, Entrepreneurship, labour intermediation services, and embedded research and extension.
Prior to this Ehud worked for a USAID Kenya Youth Employment and Skills Project implemented by Research Triangle Institute, and the World Bank Kenya Youth Empowerment project implemented by KEPSA. He also worked as an Executive Director of Eastleigh Community Centre which is an NGO that supports livelihood development and job creation for youth in Nairobi. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Nairobi.
Jaswinder (Jas) Bedi, EBS, MBS
Chairman - Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency
Jaswinder (Jas) Bedi, EBS, MBS
Chairman - Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency
Jas is a textile graduate (1984) and has attended numerous executive business courses at Harvard Business School, IMD and IIM. His business acumen has been recognized by the Government of Kenya whereby HE President Mwai Kibaki decorated Jas with a medal, Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) in 2012. Further in 2016 Jas was nominated as a finalist in the Africa CEO forum awards and subsequently awarded Sikh CEO of the year. Thereafter in 2017, HE President Uhuru Kenyatta decorated Jas with a medal, Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS).
Jas is currently the:
- Chairman of Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA).
- Board Member of Industrial & Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) & Chair of the logistics masterplan of KTLN in the coordination of KPC, KPA & KRC.
- Vice Chairman of Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA).
- Vice Chairman of East African Business Council (EABC).
- Managing Director of Bedi Investments Limited.
- Executive Director of Fine Spinners Uganda Limited.
- Member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO).
- Member of the UNDP African Influencers for Development Super Group.
Jas has previously served as:
- Chairman, African Cotton & Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) 2005-2019.
- Chairman, Export Promotion Council (EPC) 2016-2019.
- President of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) 2016-2018.
- Chairman, Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) 2010 -2012.
- Director, Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) 1996 -2010
- Chairman, Kenya Apparel Manufacturers Exporters Association 2003 -2010.
- Director, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) 2018 -2021.
- Governor, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) 2010 -2015.
- Vice Chairman, East African Business Council (EABC) 2012 –2014.
- Managing Director, Orbit Chemicals Industries Limited 2003 –2005.
- Director, Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) 2006 –2012.
- Director, Export Promotion Council (EPC) 2003 -2006.
- Board member of the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) 1996 -1998.
Jas has been tirelessly involved in developing export market opportunities, particularly in trading bocks such as EAC, COMESA, SADC, AfCTA, USA and the European Union. Besides lobbying in the aforementioned trading blocs, Jas continues to open new markets for Kenyan exports such as China to help diversify Kenya’s export basket with a clear vision of Brand Kenya, Export Kenyan & Build Kenya.
Dr Linda Davis
Founder and CEO of Giraffe Bioenergy
Dr Linda Davis
Founder and CEO of Giraffe Bioenergy
Dr Linda Davis is the Founder and CEO of Giraffe Bioenergy, an organization catalysing rural bioeconomies producing food and clean, safe and affordable cooking fuel in Kenya. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in senior-level positions within the renewable energy sector, including cassava ethanol and solar energy production systems.
Dr Davis led the Partnership on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER), a US Department of State initiative that promoted the central role of women in clean energy entrepreneurship across 18 countries. Dr Davis earned her undergraduate degree in Food Science and Technology at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. She completed her PhD in Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Western Sydney. She also holds certificates in Project Management, Finance and Accounting.
Juliani
Hip-hop Artist and SIB-K’s Sustainability Ambassador
Juliani
Hip-hop Artist and SIB-K’s Sustainability Ambassador
Juliani is an award-winning renowned hip-hop artist, entrepreneur, ambassador, and speaker. He believes in the innate ability of every person to find their own solution. He enables that magic to happen, through art.
De Kock, Lorren
Project Manager for the Circular Plastics Economy Programme at WWF South Africa
De Kock, Lorren
Project Manager for the Circular Plastics Economy Programme at WWF South Africa
Lorren is the project manager for the Circular Plastics Economy programme at WWF South Africa. This programme takes a systemic view, with a focus on industry and government, to transition the currently wasteful linear plastics system to a circular economy with environmental as well as socio-economic benefits. Lorren has contributed to setting up a collective platform – the SA Plastics Pact, has conducted research with partners and is working on various projects in the national and regional policy space to accelerate the required shift.
She has a background in Industrial and Systems engineering with over 20 years of experience in the private and NGO sector and a Masters’s degree in Environmental engineering specialising in Life Cycle Assessment from the University of Cape Town.
Ludovica d’Andria di Montelungo
Artisan Fashion, Nairobi
Ludovica d’Andria di Montelungo
Artisan Fashion, Nairobi
Ludovica grew up in Italy and graduated in Economics and Business Management in Milan, pursuing from the beginning a career in fashion. She spent 10 years working and travelling between Milan, Paris, New York and London leading multiple projects ranging from Design, Merchandising and Sales to Planning and Operations. She decided to move to Kenya in 2021 to combine her work experience with her passion for sustainable development, and she currently works as a strategist for a social and ethical fashion brand in Nairobi.
She also consults for start-ups across Africa and she is a visiting lecturer at the Politecnico di Milano University, teaching how fashion can be used to accelerate economic development in emerging countries whilst generating social and environmental impact: using fashion as a source of good.
Janet Chemitei
Threading Change Africa Regional Coordinator
Janet Chemitei
Threading Change Africa Regional Coordinator
Chemitei is an Environmental Planning and Management graduate with a passion for sustainable fashion and landscape restoration. She is a climate and social justice activist from Kenya, and also advocates for mental health and body positivity. Her interest in fashion started when she was young watching runway shows and design competitions. Chemitei's commitment to sustainability began in 2017 when she watched the True Cost movie and even went ahead to contest for Miss Environment in her home county Elgeyo Marakwet and won.
She expresses her love for fashion and the environment through actively volunteering in environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and GLFx Nairobi, and learning how she can impact change in her community. She incorporates her love for crochet in upcycling projects and loves storytelling through writing.
Andrew Amadi
CEO of the Kenya Renewable Energy Association
Andrew Amadi
CEO of the Kenya Renewable Energy Association
Andrew Amadi is a chemical engineer by training and has worked in the energy sector for over 24 years. In this period, he has been able to engage with all types of renewable energy as well as having worked in the petroleum sector. Since 2007, he has been on the front line in the response to climate change. His personal and professional commitment is aligned with achieving resilience and prosperity in the face of climate change. The way he has gone about this is by dedicating himself towards finding renewable and energy-efficiency solutions in Africa and beyond.
He has achieved this by working exclusively in the environment, renewable energy and energy efficiency-related sectors since 2007 including carrying out energy audits, being able to set up an Energy Service Company (ESCOs), and taking part in the development and implementation of energy efficiency projects. He was instrumental in setting up the Association of Energy Professionals Eastern Africa and has actively participated in the development of sustainable energy policy for public and private sector organizations.
He was part of the team that developed guidelines and policy recommendations for integrating energy efficiency in all Africa Union and European Union Energy Partnership. He has also worked in the water sector and strongly believes that there is an urgency to develop solutions that will make potable water available, reliable and of good quality, especially as the population grows in Africa and the impact of climate change takes effect that will affect the energy, water and food nexus.
As the CEO of the Kenya Renewable Energy Association, he is committed professionally to developing and promoting the use of renewable energy in order to be able to achieve universal access and a growth projection for Africa that is driven entirely by renewable energy.
Nadia Ashraf
ECDPM Policy Officer
Nadia Ashraf
ECDPM Policy Officer
Nadia Ashraf is a policy officer in ECDPM's economic recovery and transformation, climate action and green transition teams. Her work focuses on the greening of value chains, in particular the external implications of the circular economy transition in the EU and its member states. Before joining ECDPM, Nadia worked at the Prime Minister’s Office in Pakistan monitoring and facilitating renewable energy projects. Nadia holds a master's degree in public policy from King’s College London.