Theme: METAMORPHOSIS

Our theme for the eighth edition of TEDxEuston reflects us all – as a team, community, and a continent. At TEDxEuston our desire is to evolve, to develop and to challenge misconceptions.

However, to change is a complex nuance. There are many layers we must firstly deconstruct and understand to experience growth. To be able to break the mould, there are areas of our past we must revisit with compassion and forgive to heal.

On the 2nd of December, 15 speakers and performers at various stages of their incredibly evolving journeys will share their stories with you on the TEDxEuston stage. The ways through which they engage, innovate and disrupt on the continent will be explored. Expect to be challenged and stirred by the brightest ideas from those who take the boldest steps.

TEDxEuston is a platform dedicated to ‘African Ideas Worth Spreading’ and an incredible experience that only those who have attended can attest to.

The Mermaid Conference Centre
Puddle Dock
Blackfriars
London, London, City of, EC4V 3DB
United Kingdom

Abdullah Verachia

Thought Leader/Strategist

Abdullah is the Chief Executive Officer of The Strategists – a leading strategy consulting firm that helps governments and corporates to craft competitive future strategies. He also currently serves- among other high profile positions- as the Executive Chairperson of The Collective Genius, a Director of Education Africa, senior faculty and head of the Centre for Leadership and Dialogue at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. He is on the board of General Electric in South Africa. A visionary leader who has played an active role in a number of areas globally, Abdullah co-founded Frontier Advisory and has been selected to be a part of the Brightest Young Minds in South Africa. He is also an honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Adekunle Gold

Singer/Songwriter

Adekunle Gold is a Nigerian born and bred highlife artist. His first release, “Sade”, a love song which sampled the instrumental from One Direction’s “Story of My Life” came out in December 2014. His album, “Gold," released in July 2016, debuted at number 7 on the Billboard World Albums Chart, with all of its singles enjoying massive radio play. He has performed in London and in the United States and has collaborated with acts such as Tiwa Savage (Nigeria), Simi (Nigeria), Sauti Sol (Kenya), Dela (Kenya) and Lil Kesh (Nigeria). In May 2017 Adekunle Gold announced his official band, The 79th Element. Comprised of some of the most well-known musicians in Nigeria, the 8-member band is named after the atomic number of gold.

Afua Osei

Co-founder of She Leads Africa

Afua Osei is a co-founder of She Leads Africa, a media company for millennial African women which currently reaches more than 300,000 members across 35+ countries. Afua’s career include serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia, working in the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama, and consulting on communications for more than 6 different political campaigns. Afua has been named by Forbes Africa as one of the youngest power women in Africa, by Ventures Africa as one of the top 25 African innovators to watch and is one of the 30 Quartz Africa innovators in 2017. She moved to Nigeria in 2013 to serve as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising large corporations and multinationals across Africa.

Ahnansé aka Wayne

Afrofuturist Musician

Ahnansé is a saxophonist., composer, producer, music educator and founder of the acclaimed Steam Down collective His musical journey is inextricably connected to the rediscovering of his ancestral identity and how creativity contributes to society. Is music a mere product for entertainment or a vehicle capable of effecting change in our lives? He explores the role it played in ancient African societies in comparison to its 21st-century output. Anhansé work casts an eye and examines these ideas and concepts. Carving a niche of alternatives and engaging edifice in this modern music sphere.

Amadou Gallo-Fall

VP NBA Africa/Founder of SEED project

Amadou Gallo Fall is the NBA Vice President and Managing Director – Africa. He oversees the NBA’s grassroots basketball development initiatives and its partnerships with marketing, media and consumer product companies in Africa. He is also the Founder of SEED (Sports for Education and Economic Development), a global non-profit organization established in 1998 with the mission of using sport as a vehicle to inspire, empower and support the holistic development of promising African youth. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, where he played centre on the basketball team, he has also worked for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks as Director of Player Personnel and Vice President of International Affairs.

Bibi Seck

Founder Birsel + Seck

Bibi Seck is the Co-founder of the award-winning design and innovation studio, Birsel+Seck, and the founder of Dakar Next, a design studio-laboratory in Dakar, Senegal. Bibi was born in Paris and spent his formative years in London, Paris and Dakar. He received his Master’s degree in industrial design in 1990 from ESDI, Paris. Before moving to New York in 2003, Bibi was the lead designer at Renault for 12 years and has extensive experience in materials and manufacturing, and guiding large design teams through complex problems.Bibi Seck led the interior design teams for several production vehicles like Scenic I, and Trafic (2002) won Car of the Year awards from the European trade press. While at Renault, Bibi designed the F1 Micrograph watch for Tag Heuer, winning the prestigious 2002 Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Bibi has taught at Strate College School of Design and Management in Paris, at Université Technologique de Compieg

Chouaib Brik

Co -Founder Art Solution

Chouaib Brik is a cultural entrepreneur based in Tunisia. He is the co-founder of the Tag Store (an urban art centre) as well as the cultural association Art Solution, whose mission is to support and strengthen innovative creative projects, with a focus on the involvement of female artists. He has played an active role in the development of the local and regional urban culture since 2011, acting as a cultural operator providing young amateurs and emerging artists with professional training, promotion and follow-ups. He is strongly committed to the development of the cultural sector, focusing on urban culture.

DJ Rachael

DJ/Founder of Femme Electronics

DJ Rachael is a DJ, performer, MC and producer. She is a leading member of the Santuri Safari East Africa crew and founder of Femme Electronic - a movement to support female DJs and electronic music producers in East Africa whilst addressing the severe gender imbalance in the music industry. A trailblazer, she headlined the Bayimba Festival in 2015 and represented Uganda as one of only 2 DJs from Africa at the 2016 World Music Expo (WOMEX2016) in Santiago, Spain. Her 2017 Europe Summer Tour saw her headlining the Florence Folks festival in Italy, the Etnosur festival in Alcala, Spain and the Kulturel Der Festival in Augsburg, Germany. With her ‘Afrotronics’, mixing up electronic and house styles from across the world with banging homegrown vibes, DJ Rachael has pioneered a revered ‘melting pot’ style in Uganda. Intro music for all TEDxEuston Metamorphosis videos provided by DJ Rachael is called" Castle Poles".

Dr Nneka Nwokolo

HIV Consultant

Dr Nneka Nwokolo is a consultant physician in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at 56 Dean Street, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Her interests include the sexual and reproductive health of women as well as interventions to reduce HIV transmission. She established the first HIV PrEP clinic in the UK and was part of a collaboration between community PrEP activists and clinicians that contributed to a 40% reduction in new HIV infections in London.

Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu

Mental Health Researcher

Dr. Nakimuli-Mpungu is  a clinician and mental health researcher and has worked on several mental health research projects in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa.She has won many awards including a2016 Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World. She has won grants to support her efforts in training lay health workers that deliver HIV treatments in rural northern Uganda to also recognize and deliver group-psychotherapy for depression. For this work, she was also honoured by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni with the Presidential National Independence Medal of Honour in 2016 

H.E. Madame Luísa Diogo

Former Prime Minister of Mozambique

H.E Madame Luísa Dias Diogo was 17 when Mozambique became independent in 1975. Twenty-nine years later, she was appointed the nation’s first female Prime Minister, a position she held until 2010. Prior to that, she was Mozambique’s Minister of Planning and Finance. As Prime Minister, she led the process of economic reforms and transformation that saw rapid changes in how the international community delivered support to the Mozambican Development Plan, including the plan to combat poverty and hunger. She has been recognized by both Times Magazine and Forbes as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Kola Aina

CEO Venture Platform

Kola Aina is an entrepreneur, creative, and investor. He is the Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, a seed stage fund and accelerator which focuses on supporting gritty founders building the future of Africa. Kola chairs the board of Ventures Park, Nigeria’s Premier Co-working & co-living campus. He is also the founder of other thriving companies, Emerging Platforms Ltd, an enterprise software company an EduPlatforms Ltd, and ed-tech provider. Prior to focusing on venture building, Kola worked in corporate finance, administration, corporate turn-around and strategy, having started off as a financial analyst with Fifth-Third Bank, after his MBA and initial training as an Electrical Engineer in the United States. Kola is an active mentor, having most recently mentored on the XL Africa World Bank supported acceleration Program; and currently serves on the Presidential Committee on Job Creation.

Mustafa Mahmoud

Social Activist

Mustafa is a committed social activist currently working with Namati’s Citizenship Program. He was most recently appointed the Program Manager at the Nubian Rights Forum, a Kenyan NGO, where he managed a team of 7 paralegals assisting the Nubian ethnic minority in applying for citizenship documents. He has also been involved in a wide range of community work including volunteering for the Kenyan Red Cross and hosting radio programs which showcased politically motivated violence and enlightened the audience on the re-integration of ex-inmates.

Tom Ilube

Tech Entrepreneur + Educational Philanthropist

Tom Ilube is a technology entrepreneur and educational philanthropist. He is founder and CEO of Crossword Cybersecurity plc, a cyber security company. In 2011, he  founded and was CEO of Garlik, a venture capital-backed identity protection company, sold to Experian.  He was Managing Director of Consumer Markets at Callcredit Information Group, the private equity backed UK credit reference agency, sold to Chicago based private equity firm GTCR in 2014. His career has alsoincluded Goldman Sachs, PwC, Cap Gemini and the London Stock Exchange. In 2016, he launched the African Science Academy, the first girls science and technology school on the continent. He is the current Chair of Governors of ADA College, the UK's National College for Digital Skills, Chair of the African Gifted Foundation, and he was appointed as a non-executive director of the BBC in 2017. 

William Adoasi

Founder & CEO Vitae London

William is the founder of Vitae Group (Vitae London, Vitae Digital, Broken Chain Co and Vitae Photography), who started up his first business at 19. The 26-year-old Londoner has four businesses to his name and now has a dream to build Vitae into an empire! The entrepreneur quit his job as a senior recruitment consultant in the city to bring Vitae to where it is today. Vitae’s most stand out venture is Vitae London, a watch brand birthed out of London that directly transforms the lives of children who have either been orphaned or live in poverty. Each purchase from their elegant range of watches supplies a child in Africa with two sets of school uniform, a bag and footwear for the year William has been named on prestigious Future of Ghana Top 30 under Pioneer list- Selected as Richard Branson / Virgin Ambassador for entrepreneurship within the UK.

Zeinab Badawi

Broadcaster/Journalist

Zeinab was born in Sudan and moved to London when she was two years old. A graduate of Oxford University and a holder of two honorary doctorates, Zeinab has extensive experience in television and radio. She presents BBC’s Hard Talk, BBC World TV’s Global Questions and World Debates and has produced and presented- through her own production company- many programmes, including the definitive tv series of African history in association with UNESCO. She has won many awards, chairs the Royal African Society, and is/has been on the board of among others, the British Council and the Overseas Development Institute.