Advisors

I'm a 5x founder with 15+ years of leadership and field experience at the intersection of emerging tech, innovation, and social impact. In 2010, President Clinton publicly recognized me for my pioneering work in Humanitarian Tech. I've since drawn on my extensive experience in humanitarian action to drive inclusive innovation in Climate Tech. My deep commitment to climate action, social justice, and systems change is clearly evident from the many First-of-a-Kind organizations and projects I've led across the globe.

I lead the Climate Robotics Network and advise Climate Tech startups, companies, investors, and international organizations. I also serve as senior consultant to the Vice Presidency of Innovation at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL).

Previously, I served as Entrepreneur in Residence at EPFL's Center for EssentialTech. I also served as Strategy Lead for Robotics at EPFL and at Innovation Booster Robotics, an accelerator funded by the Swiss Agency for Innovation. Before this, I was the Executive Director of WeRobotics, an international tech nonprofit I co-founded with labs in 40+ countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and South Pacific. In this capacity, I led many first-of-a-kind projects and enabled locally-led deployments of robotics for disaster response, public health, climate action, and more.

I'm a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and UBS Global Visionary. I've also held fellowships at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Climatebase, where I learned from and collaborated with world-class experts, scientists, innovators, founders, and startups.

I've given over 200 talks/keynotes, including 5 TEDx talks. My work has appeared in the media, including the New York Times, CNN, BBC, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Wired, Nature, New Scientist, and elsewhere. In addition, I authored the first book on Humanitarian Tech & AI and have co-authored 80+ articles, reports, peer-reviewed papers, and book chapters.

I hold a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, a Pre-Doc from Stanford, and an MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). I was also an exchange student at Berkeley.

More importantly, I was born and raised in Africa.