African Gifted Foundation
African Gifted Foundation (AGF) is a UK-registered charity focusing on STEM education for gifted African girls. AGF is also registered as an NGO in Ghana (African Gifted Foundation Ghana) and the United States (African Gifted Foundation, US) - all working together to mobilize support for AGF's flagship project, the African Science Academy, and its outreach projects.
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Tom Ilube CBE is the Chair of African Gifted Foundation and Founder of African Science Academy.
He is a technology entrepreneur and educational philanthropist. Tom is the founder/CEO of London based Crossword Cybersecurity plc, a Non-Executive Director of FTSE100 company WPP, the world largest advertising group and the Chair of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Previously he was on the Board of the BBC and was Managing Director of Consumer Markets at Callcredit Information Group, a UK credit reference agency. Prior to Callcredit, he founded Garlik, a venture capital-backed identity protection company and prior to that served as Chief Information Officer of Egg plc, the pioneering British internet bank. His career has also included Goldman Sachs, PwC and the London Stock Exchange.
In his educational work, Tom is an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Tom was the Founding Chair of Hammersmith Academy, London and was also the Chair of ADA College, the UK’s National College for Digital Skills.
In 2017, Tom was named as Britain’s most influential Black person. In 2018, Tom was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to Technology and Philanthropy and has received Honorary Doctorates from City, University of London, University of Wolverhampton, University of Portsmouth, University of Coventry and the University of Benin, Nigeria.
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Sandra Stash is a seasoned non-executive director and chair; Sandra (Sandy) has over 40 years of international executive and non-executive experience. Her board experience includes publicly listed, private equity, and government businesses in the UK, USA, and Canada. Her professional career spans executive leadership positions in engineering and operations, commercial negotiations, mega capital projects, supply chain management, ESG, and government and public affairs in the energy, manufacturing, and hard rock mining sectors. Through oversight of several very public and controversial issues in these sectors, Sandy is recognized for her unique capabilities in bridging the extractive sector to external stakeholders - in government, civil society and at the community level. She has deep business and operations experience on six continents: North and South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe.
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Matthew Ilube is a media planning account manager with a global advertising agency. He studied geography and urban planning at Newcastle University and worked in insurance in Australia and with a social mobility charity in London before entering the advertising and media world. Matthew has been actively involved with the African Gifted Foundation as a volunteer for the past ten years. Matthew has supported African Gifted Foundation events in London, Kampala, Uganda and Accra, Ghana and is passionate about seeing young people develop across Africa. Matthew is also an international rugby player, having been selected to represent Nigeria in rugby sevens competitions in Mauritius and Zimbabwe.
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Rosalind Kainyah MBE is a Non Executive Director currently serving on the boards of discoverIE plc (a London-listed FTSE 250 company), Gem Diamonds Limited (a London Stock Exchange listed company), BTE Renewables, (a private equity owned renewable energy company), WE Soda, the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash and TheBoardroom Africa (TBrA), a private membership network of women executives in Africa. She is also a Senior Advisor to Actis LLP.
Rosalind Kainyah is a speaker and advisor to business leaders on Sustainability with over 30 years of combined international legal, executive and board-level experience in companies and organisations including De Beers, Tullow Oil, Linklaters, Anglo American and the United Nations Environment Programme. She has worked in and on projects across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Asia.
Rosalind holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Ghana, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London, and a Master of Laws degree from University College, London.
She is a member of the Bar of England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
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Dr. Rashada Harry FRSA is a proven and experienced business leader who leverages the power of technology to support business transformation. Rashada holds 20 years of technology sales experience and has a record of accomplishment in delivering growth, supporting innovation and delivering value to global organisations and is a keen advocate for inclusion, diversity and equity practice.
In a professional capacity, Rashada is an Enterprise Technologist at Amazon Web Services, where she seeks to take enterprise Customers on a digital transformation to the cloud. Before joining AWS, she worked for organisations including Vodafone Global Enterprise and Cisco. Whilst at Cisco Rashada, was the only Black female on the highly competitive Sales Academy Programme, which spanned across Europe. This experience led her to believe more needed to be done to bring more diverse talent into the organisation and broader industry.
Rashada went on to co-found and launch the award-winning YFYA initiative in 2012 as a vehicle to help organisations and students connect and bridge the diversity gap in STEM. She is also part of other initiatives, including UKBlackTech and the AWS BLACK Council. Rashada presently sits on the board of Engineering UK and Off The Curriculum as a trustee.
In acknowledgement of her work in the Technology industry, Rashada Harry has been listed in the Financial Times UK’s 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in Technology, EMpower’s Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive List, as well as being acknowledged by ComputerWeekly as a Female leader in Tech 2023. In recognition of her contributions to the industry and encouraging more diversity in STEAM, Rashada was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy for her alma mater, London Metropolitan University, in 2019 and graduated alongside the School of Computing and Digital Media.
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Stuart Hopper is a knowledge and service delivery innovation expert; Stuart has thirty years experience as an international corporate lawyer and in senior management and consulting roles in the legal industry.
Born in Ethiopia, with dual British/Nigerian heritage, Stuart has a lived experience of diversity and a passion for understanding how culture influences behaviour. He has been an active champion of education and inclusion in various roles. Currently, he is the Chair of the industry mentor group at Oxford University’s Law & Computer Science Programme, a member of the City of London Corporation’s LawTech Sounding Board, Vice-president of his undergraduate college’s alumni association and a former Chair of the Advisory Board to the Social Mobility Foundation. He holds an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, an MBA from Henley Business School and has just submitted his third Masters’ dissertation (on Economic Anthropology in Sub-Saharan Africa) at SOAS, University of London.
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Andrew Alli is an accomplished business leader and institution builder with 35 years of experience, of which 25 years have been investing in and managing businesses in Africa. He is a trained engineer, successful institutional banker and investor involved in well over USD 10 billion worth of investments in Africa.
Andrew started his career in management consulting and investment banking in the UK. He joined the International Finance Corporation in 1996, where he worked for 11 years, gaining experience in energy and telecommunications investments at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 2002, Andrew was chosen to lead the IFC’s operations in Nigeria. Four years later, he was appointed to lead the institutions’ operations in Southern Africa.
In 2008, after a stint as the co-founder of a private equity fund, Andrew was appointed President and CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), which he led for ten years. Under his leadership, the AFC delivered over $4.5 billion in investments across 30 countries, becoming a leading African financier of infrastructure.
In 2019, Andrew joined SouthBridge Group, a pan-African investment bank, as Partner and Chief Executive Officer of the firm.
Andrew also has extensive directorship experience, serving on the board of a number of prestigious companies in various jurisdictions across two continents.
Since 2009, Andrew has been an angel investor, supporting many well-known startups in their earliest stages of growth.
Andrew is a ferocious reader, avid traveller and music lover with a particular interest in classical music and opera.
Andrew Alli’s academic credentials are summarised below:
Degrees:
-B.Eng. in Electronics and Electrical Engineering, King’s College London
-MBA, INSEAD Business School
-Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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Charlotte Dewey is a financial services professional whose career has focussed on innovation in payments and improving standards in consumer protection. She currently works in the fintech sector at Wise, where she is a regulatory product manager. Before Wise, Charlotte advised major banking institutions as a part of EY’s financial services consulting practice and supervised regulated firms at the Financial Conduct Authority. Charlotte holds degrees in Economics and International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Charlotte is an advocate for improving educational access for women and underserved communities. She has served in numerous mentorship programmes with this aim, including the Girls’ Network in London and UCLA Mentorship for students in North Hollywood. Charlotte has also led Diversity and Inclusion initiatives within her professional network since moving from the US to the UK in 2016. Charlotte is wholeheartedly supportive of the mission of the African Gifted Foundation and is honoured to join the UK Board.
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"Tina studied Computer Science at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa where she worked as a developer before moving into Education. She moved to the UK in 2003 to teach and she joined Ada, the National College for Digital Skills when it opened in 2016 and has been Principal at Ada since 2020. She is keen on the intersection of Technology and Creativity and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm with others