We often discuss the future of work as if it will unfold on its own. The truth is, we are shaping it through the choices we make now—in how to invest, hire, train, and educate. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing to accelerate these choices, and is an opportunity design a future for inclusion and resilience. Africa, the world’s youngest continent—and soon, its largest workforce—has promising, and sometimes surprising, answers. With the African continent at the cusp of great change, it is also emerging as a crucible of innovation. What are some of its leading systems-shapers doing to build the largest and most inclusive workforce? What global lessons does it hold? Join a discussion with these Afro-global innovators to find out.
This session was curated in partnership with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.
Sharmi Surianarain serves as the Chief Impact Officer for Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa. Sharmi is a fierce advocate for opportunity and social justice for young people and women across the African continent, and is a keen analyst and thinker on the future of work. Sharmi leads on Harambee's impact and systems change agendas, including our key funder partnerships, research and learning agenda, and our data science and pathway intelligence work. Sharmi also oversees Harambee's work in Rwanda. Sharmi is the Founder of Making Caring Count, a social enterprise that aims to build impactful solutions around care work in Africa. Sharmi is an Aspen African Leadership Initiative Fellow, Class of 2020, an RSA Fellow, and sits on the Boards of Emerging Public Leaders, Metis, and Instill Education.
Ambassador, United States Mission to the African Union
Ambassador Jessica Lapenn is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and
currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the African Union and the U.S. Permanent
Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Just prior to this
assignment, 2016-2019, she was the Chargé d’Affaires in South Africa. Previous leadership
roles include Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security and Deputy
Chief of Mission in Kigali.
Ambassador Lapenn joined the Foreign Service in 1994 and has served overseas in
Jeddah, Riyadh, Paris, Tbilisi, Baghdad, and Jerusalem. In Washington, she worked for the
Under Secretary for Political Affairs, as the desk officer for Libya and Tunisia, and as the
director of the Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the Bureau of International
Organizations. She was an advisor on Security Council matters at the U.S. Mission to the UN in
New York and spent a year as a fellow in a Congressional office.
Ambassador Lapenn was born and raised in New York City. She received a BA in
Women’s Studies from Harvard College and an M.Phil in International Development from
Cambridge University. Her twelve-year old son has been along for all her most recent
adventures.
Fred Swaniker is on a mission to bring better leadership to Africa and the world. He is the founder and CEO of the African Leadership Group – an ecosystem of organizations that are catalyzing a new era of ethical, entrepreneurial African leaders. Over the past 15 years, he has founded and led the pre-university African Leadership Academy, the African Leadership University, the African Leadership Network and ALX — a next-generation leadership development and talent sourcing platform. Collectively, these endeavors aim to transform Africa by developing 3 million African leaders by 2035. He is also the founder of The Room, a talent agency for the world’s ambitious doers.
Fred previously worked as a McKinsey consultant before earning an MBA from Stanford and becoming an entrepreneur. He is an Echoing Green Fellow; Aspen Institute Fellow; and most recently, was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s most influential people of 2019. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from Macalester College, Middlebury College and Nelson Mandela University.
Maryana Iskander is CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia. She spent 10 years as CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa, winning the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2019. Prior to this, she served as Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was an associate at McKinsey & Company, and a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Rice University, an M.Sc. from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She is a Henry Crown Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Ann Mei Chang is a leading expert on social innovation and author of Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good. Ann Mei served as the Chief Innovation Officer at USAID and first Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab, engaging the best practices for innovation from Silicon Valley to accelerate the impact and scale of solutions to the world’s most intractable challenges. In addition, she was Chief Innovation Officer for Pete for America, Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy Corps, and Senior Advisor for Women and Technology at the U.S. Department of State.
Prior to her pivot to the public and social sector, Ann Mei was a seasoned technology executive, with more than 20 years’ experience at such leading companies as Google, Apple, and Intuit, as well as at a range of startups. As Senior Engineering Director at Google, she led worldwide engineering for mobile applications and services, delivering 20x growth to $1 billion in annual revenues in just three years.
Ann Mei earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellows’ class of 2011. She has been recognized as one of the “Women In the World: 125 Women of Impact” by Newsweek/The Daily Beast in 2013, "23 most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech" by Business Insider in 2019, and "20 Top LGBTQ+ Entrepreneurs, Executives and Thought Leaders" by Global Shakers in 2019.
