Entrepreneurship has become a viable alternative path for many young people to making a meaningful impact on society. Today we are witnessing a lot of incredible entrepreneurs in the African diaspora accomplishing great successes and making valuable contributions to the community and economy.

Omek, in partnership with Impact Hub, is collaborating with the Black Achievement Month to organize a roundtable discussion where we bring together successful entrepreneurs from all levels, backgrounds, and industries from the African diaspora and its allies to share their stories about how they create, grow, and innovate their businesses in the Netherlands.

So, are you an aspiring entrepreneur with brilliant ideas you believe will change the world? Are you prototyping or growing your business? Or are you already an established entrepreneur with years of experience in trials and tribulations?

Join other like-minded entrepreneurs, creatives, and changemakers as they discuss their journey and share their stories.

About Omek—

Omek aims to create a safe and trusted space for talented African diaspora changemakers and allies to come together. A space where they can leverage their collective wisdom, shared passion, and unique talents to propel the community to the next level.

PANELISTS

AHMED LAROUZ

Ahmed Larouz is a social innovator, entrepreneur, and strategic creative communication and marketing manager. He has founded several businesses and initiatives which developed innovative and creative initiatives concerning social cohesion, social innovation, and entrepreneurship in different countries. He’s the founder of Africa Incubator, Diwan Awards Holland and also the co-founder and Author of 180 Amsterdammers celebrating Amsterdam’s rich cultures and for being the most diverse city in the world.

He as gained experience across several industries around the globe and has consulted commercial businesses, start-ups, government and social organizations including Bridgizz, a communication, and marketing agency based in Amsterdam with a satellite office in Casablanca, Morocco. He has also co-founded many diversity networks including INCLEADERS, The Cedar Network, and TANS.

BARBARA GWANMESIA

Barbara Gwanmesia is a magazine & newspaper editor, author, (singer-songwriter), researcher and social entrepreneur. Originally from The Southern Cameroons, Barbara lives in Rotterdam and is now working on two editorial projects for Africans living in the Netherlands and women worldwide.

As a social entrepreneur, Barbara and her business partner (son Bengyella) are behind the creation of the famous Afribol snack that has been appearing in Super Market “Albert Heijn to go” since 2016 as a winter seasonal product – and which is today generating capital to fight maternal mortality in African countries.

STANLEY ANYETEI

Stanley Anyetei is an investment officer at Triodos Investments Management, an impact-investing firm that manages direct #investments in a variety of sectors including energy and climate, inclusive development and sustainable agriculture across the globe.

Before joining Triodos, Stanley was Head of Investments at PYMWYMIC, a European community of high net worth families, philanthropists, and individual investors. After more than 10 years in banking space at Investec Bank advising organizations, on a variety of strategic and financing initiatives, Stanley sees that the new challenge is to work with investors, entrepreneurs, and enterprises to create sustainable models in social impact and financial inclusion.

REMY HOOI

Remy Hooi is the Co-founder and CEO of RMAH (Renewables Made Affordable & Honest) Group of independent projects which comprises renewable energy (Windpower & Solar). Remy has a clear vision which is to revolutionize the African renewable energy industry with Sierra Leone as a starting point. Africa has seen rapid economic growth this century, with a corresponding increase in the demand for energy.

With RMAH Group he has the vision to stabilize the economies of the countries lacking energy by the development of sustainable projects. With the developments of his pioneer project which is the first Windpower in Sierra leone called Freetown Windpark, a high demand for RMAH’s next project in Northern Ghana/Bolgotanga ‘’ Bolgotanga Solarpark ‘’ is equivalent evolved. Remy’s philosophy in business is the KISS principle which is to keep it simple, stupid. He believes that it’s crucial especially when working together with communities and empowering the people by involving them in the development of RMAH’s projects.

SANDRA DEIRA

Sandra Deira is the Founder and Global Director of Health Tribe, a company providing healthy supplements for people who want to improve their lifestyle, their appearance and their overall health. Health Tribe ships products across all European countries, the UK, the USA and looking to develop business in the Gulf region, the Magreb, the Middle East and eventually Asia. Sandra’s speciality is aligning strategy, business development and marketing. She is an award-winning entrepreneur dedicated to designing a world where people come first and where diversity and inclusion are embraced.

Besides Health Tribe she is Well Aligned and also a columnist and a podcast host talking about various aspects aligning Sustainable Wellness, welfare, and health for Sovereign Magazine, a global Magazine for executives and leading entrepreneurs.

BARRY MORISSE

Barry Morisse is an AI thinker and ethicist whose research is focused on the impact that artificial intelligence will have on our society and economy – in an African context. Professionally he collaborates with En-novate to design and facilitate high-impact global immersion trips for South African entrepreneurs to some of the most progressive cities across the world. In this work, Barry has spent most of the last 18 months traveling with South African business leaders to some of the most important technology hubs around the world. Prior to that, Barry spent 3 years in investment banking and data science.

Barry is a qualified CA(SA) holding bachelor and honors degrees in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He is currently completing a Masters in Philosophy focusing on the ethics of artificial intelligence.”

DAVID COLEMAN

David Coleman is a brand builder and commercial strategist who is passionate about evolving consumer needs, data-driven insights and value creation. He has over a decade of technology industry experience, helping organizations execute commercial strategies while keeping pace with their consumers changing lives. David is experienced at managing the chaos of innovation, as complexity is simplified to make it useful for staff, clients end users. He is a storyteller and evangelist of constant change, collaboration, and sound strategic thinking.

David is the founder of the Council Of Local Experts, a growing community of mentors and entrepreneurs, where local experts advise and train up-and-coming founders in Ghana. Currently, he is a Growth Lead at VC4A where he is working with the team to reimagine the companies role in the global startup ecosystem.

His areas of advanced skill include entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, product development strategy. venture design, demand generation, information architecture, and marketing communications.

PROGRAM

18:00 – 18:30 Registration

18:30 – 18:40 Introduction by Kemo

18:40 – 19:15 Panel discussion

19:15 – 20:00 Q&A

20:00 – 21:00 Networking activities

For more information, please contact

Kemo Camara at kemo@myomek.com