WABF 2007 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Conference Chairs |
| Victor Petenkemani |
Conference Chair |
| Ama Karikari |
Conference Vice-Chair |
Communication |
Victor Abiola |
Director |
Hamet Aguemon |
Project Leader |
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Fundraising |
| Bolaji Lawal |
WASA President |
| Marc Ampaw |
Project Leader |
| Anthony Kiragu |
Project Leader |
| Malick Diop |
Project Leader |
| Chioma Duru |
Project Leader |
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| Career Fair |
| Anthony Okoro |
Director |
| Kamal Maruf |
Project Leader |
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| Business Plan Competition |
| Judith Muturi |
Director |
| Jose-Luis Del Prim |
Project Leader |
| Nana Bedu-Addo |
Project Leader |
| Michael Dzineku |
Project Leader |
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| Keynote Speakers |
| Hama Namakajjo |
Director |
| Henok Soedjede |
Project Leader |
| Armel Kouassi |
Project Leader |
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| Panel Development |
| Judith Muturi |
Co-Director |
| Kedrick Brown |
Co-Director |
| Bertrand Eding |
Coordinator |
| Bruno Occhipinti |
Coordinator |
| Amy Lin |
Panel Manager |
| Marianne Moukhtara |
Panel Manager |
| Felix Imagbe Odigie |
Panel Manager |
| Emeka Iwukemjika |
Panel Manager |
| Rona Shedid |
Panel Manager |
| Tim Parry |
Panel Manager |
| Olanrewaju Odusote |
Panel Manager |
| David Kakembo |
Panel Manager |
| Mark Mwaura |
Panel Manager |
| Nana Ware |
Panel Manager |
| Olanrewaju Osinusi |
Panel Manager |
| Jennifer Akpapuna |
Panel Manager |
| Franklin Amoo |
Panel Manager |
| Khetime Richards |
Panel Manager |
| Dokun Adewole |
Panel Manager |
| Jonathan Moyal |
Assistant |
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| Marketing |
| Tolu Sokenu |
Director |
| Jessica Potts |
Project Leader |
| Sue Chi |
Project Leader |
| Buddy Buruku |
Project Leader |
| Olubunmi Odumade |
Project Leader |
| Natalie Youssef |
Assistant |
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| Information Technology |
| Sam Ongwen |
Manager |
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| Logistics |
| Anne Ogunrinde |
Director |
| Kuzi Nyadzayo |
Assistant |
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| Reception |
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| Vivian Nabeta |
Co-Director |
| Prosper Acquah |
Co-Director |
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| Research and Analysis |
| Isaac Adejemilua |
Co- Director |
| Chijioke Onyewuchi |
Co-Director |
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Victor Petenkemani, WABF Chair
Born and raised in Cameroon, Victor is now pursuing a dual degree MBA/MA at the Wharton School with a Major in Finance and at the Lauder Institute of International Studies in the Spanish track. He received a bachelor’s in Economics and a Master’s in Accounting at the Université du Maine in Le Mans, France. Prior to Wharton and Lauder, Victor was instrumental to Delta Air Lines’ African strategy as a member of the network planning team including the recommendation of Lagos (Nigeria) as a must serve destination. He also contributed to Delta’s restructuring initiatives that led to Delta successfully turning around its business model including de-banking the Atlanta hub or modeling the prioritization of flight cancellations. Victor has spearheaded the WABF 2007 with the strong belief that Africa is at a turning point of history given the energy level and unconditional commitments by Africans themselves to developing their continent. He speaks English, French, Spanish and a native language from west Cameroon.
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Ama Karikari, WABF Vice-Chair
Ama Karikari is currently pursuing her JD/MBA. As the child of Ghanaian immigrants, she had always longed to visit Africa. In 2002, after graduating from Harvard, Ama deferred her investment banking offer to work at Bank of Ghana. She was impressed with Ghana’s innovative entrepreneurs and saddened by the impediments to business growth such as lack of access to capital. She hopes that WABF will provide a venue for like minded people to tackle those challenges.
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Bolaji Lawal, WASA president
Bolaji is a Finance and Strategic Management MBA major at the Wharton School, where he is a Robert F. Toigo Foundation Fellow. He is currently the President of the Wharton African Students Association (WASA). Previously, Bolaji was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and prior to that, he was an Industrial Engineer in the retail logistics and distribution industry. Post Wharton, Bolaji intends on going into a career in financial services starting with investment banking, and long term in buy-side investment funds. At Wharton, Bolaji has been involved in many activities, including serving as a Graduate Assistant in the Graduate Admission office. Bolaji grew up between Ile-Ife and Lagos, Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Tennessee, with a B.S in Industrial Engineering and has an M.S in Engineering Management from the George Washington University.
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Tolu E. Sokenu, WABF Director Marketing
Tolu is a second year MBA student concentrating in Finance and Strategic Management. He received a Bachelors degree in Information Systems and Technology from Howard University as well as a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins University. At Wharton, he participates in the Leadership Fellows program, Omnicom Fellows program and Wharton Dance Studio. Prior to Wharton, he worked as an ERP Consultant for PeopleSoft Incorporated and ETS Group Inc. He is originally from Lagos, Nigeria. |
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Victor Abiola, WABF Director Communication
Victor is a 2nd year MBA student majoring in Finance, who worked as an investment banking associate at JPMorgan last summer. Prior to Wharton, Victor worked for the World Bank Group as a private sector development consultant on Africa, Central America, and South East Asian industrial competitiveness projects. His work led to the publication of a best seller in 2003 titled "Standards and Global Trade: A Voice for Africa". Victor is an adventurer at heart with travel experience across 15 international cities, and 4 languages. He is student guitarist, and an avid lover of art, music and photography. |
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Amy Lin, WABF Panel Manager
Amy is pursuing an MBA and International Relations MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, respectively. Her professional interests are in international development in sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, she worked at the World Bank in its Development Marketplace group, which funds innovative projects. Earlier, Amy worked with TechnoServe, advising microentrepreneurs in Peru. Before Peru, she spent two years with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Amy graduated from Yale with a BA in Political Science. |
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Anne Ogunrinde, WABF Director of Logistics
Anne is a second year MBA student at the Wharton School majoring in finance and management. As the logistic chairperson for the WABF conference, she was responsible for all logical aspect of the conference. Before Wharton, worked with the Motorola quality team as a senior quality engineering working on the reliability of cell phones and cell phone accessories. She spent this past summer with SC Johnson as an Assistant Brand manager and is currently focusing on starting a retail business. Anne graduated from the University of Miami with a Master Degree in electrical and computer engineering. |
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Anthony Kiragu, WABF Fundraising
Tony is a second year student at Wharton majoring in Finance. Prior to Wharton, he worked as an investment banker executing M&A transactions in sub-Saharan Africa. He plans to spend most of his post-MBA career funding entrepreneurial ventures and investing in Africa. Tony holds a BComm degree and is a Chartered Accountant. |
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Anthony Okoro, WABF Director of Career Fair
Anthony Okoro is WASA’s Vice-President for Careers. Prior to coming to Wharton, he was a pioneer telecom entrepreneur in Nigeria, West Africa. In 1993 he founded a telecom devices distribution company that became a $2m, multi-store, National Distributor for all the major global cell-phone vendors. He entered the Wharton MBA Program in 2006 to “learn more, do more and be more”. Anthony is pursuing a Major in Finance & Management. |
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Armel Kouassi, WABF Manager Keynote Speakers
Armel started his career at KPMG Paris where he audited the largest French company during an unfavorable economic environment. He next joined GE Consumer Finance in Germany as Credit Portfolio Manager for revolving products, where he implemented the risk procedures. In December 2005, Armel joined GE Equipment Services Europe headquartered in Amsterdam where he successfully led the European credit scoring project. Armel is a native of Ivory Coast, speaks three European languages, and has a Master in Statistics from ENSEA Abidjan and a Master in Finance from ESCP-EAP Paris. Married, Armel plan to use his business and finance skills to contribute to Africa. |
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Bruno Occhipinti, WABF Panel Development
Born and raised in Casablanca (Morocco), Bruno returned to the continent over the summer to support high-impact entrepreneurs in South Africa through the Endeavor program. He leveraged his background in business development and finance, previously built in media and software companies in Europe and Asia Pacific. He also applied the management skills acquired through the dual program Wharton MBA and Lauder (Middle-East focus), where he is now a second year. |
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Buddy Buruku, WABF Marketing
Buddy Buruku (Uganda/Tanzania) is a 2nd year MBA majoring in management. Prior to Wharton she worked in alternative energy consulting in Beijing, China. As part of her MBA summer internship she worked in The Parthenon Group’s Private Equity Practice. Buddy is involved in several community service initiatives on and off campus. She loves to travel (visited 40 countries) and speaks English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili. She is also a red belt in Taekwondo. |
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Chioma Duru, WABF Fundraising Manager
Chioma was born in Nigeria and raised in Atlanta, GA. She earned an Economics degree from Harvard University and is currently a 1st Year MBA student at Wharton planning to major in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management. Outside of her involvement with WASA, Chioma is also active with the Small Business Development Center and the Investment Management Club. Chioma enjoys running in competitive races, traveling to developing countries, and researching topics in personal finance. |
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David Kakembo, WABF Panel Manager
David joined Wharton after spending the last four years in a successful architectural career in the USA. At Wharton, he is focusing his studies on Strategic Management and Finance. David recognizes the tremendous opportunities and challenges Africa is presented with in building the necessary capacity for increased investment. His particular interest is the intersection between Energy, infrastructure and the financial services, as he deems them necessary in enhancing the continent’s competitive positioning in the Global market. |
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Dokun Adewole, WABF Panel Manager
Dokun Adewole is a 1st year MBA candidate at the Wharton School of Business. Prior to Wharton, he spent 2 years as an internal consultant at Wachovia Bank developing on marketing strategies for several products including mortgages and student loans. During his spare time he served as President of the Nigerian Business Forum (2006-2007), where he was able to organize several events focused on promoting Nigeria’s investment image. |
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Emeka Iwukemjika, WABF Panel Manager
Emeka is pursuing an MBA at the Wharton School focusing on Real Estate and Entrepreneurship. Emeka's career interests are in the areas of Real Estate Private Equity and Real Estate Development in Africa and the United States. Prior to Wharton, Emeka spent five years working at Freddie Mac Corporation as a Senior Business Analyst and worked on Secondary Mortgage markets. He leveraged his experience at Freddie Mac Corporation and co-founded a Real Estate development firm (Capitol Management).
Emeka also runs a non profit firm (StudentsXpress LLC) in Lagos, Nigeria with focus on mentoring and educating underprivileged youth and assistance with college applications to U.S schools. He graduated from Morgan State University with a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and a minor in Business Administration |
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Ham Namakajjo, WABF Director Keynote Speakers
Ham is a Finance and Entrepreneurial MBA major at the Wharton School. He received a Master of Science in Operational Communications from Coventry University in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Science in Electronics from the University of Dar-es- Salaam in Tanzania. Prior to Wharton, Ham spent 5 years working for the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) as a technical officer. At UCC, he was involved in numerous regulatory policy initiatives including the development of a market based Spectrum Management Policy regime as well as the development of the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy and strategy. He also represented Uganda at the 2006 ITU Regional Radio Conference, which set the technical standards for Digital broadcasting in Europe and Africa, serving as the Vice Chairman of the East and Southern Africa regional coordination group. Most recently, Ham spent the summer as an Associate at Bain & Co’s LA office where he was participated in a productivity design and improvement project for a leading microprocessor manufacturer. Ham is married to Georgina, a lawyer passionate about gender and human rights issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. |
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Isaac Adejemilua, WABF Co-Director Research and Analysis
Isaac is a second year MBA student at the Wharton School. He began his career as a consultant at Technology House, where he helped financial companies leverage technology to make their business operations more customer-centric. Later, he joined Vignette where he advised companies on how to improve their efficiency using technologies that enabled enterprise-wide content sharing and data management. Mr. Adejemilua holds a Bachelor in Computer Science from University College London. |
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Kendrick Brown, WABF Co-Director Panel Development
Prior to Wharton, Kedrick traded at Knight Equity Markets LP for 8 years and authored the book Trend Trading: Timing Market Tides (Wiley, 2006). He obtained his BS in Physics from Rutgers University, and is also a graduate of the US Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. Kedrick interned at Citigroup Investment Research in 2006 and in Morgan Stanley’s Commodities Group in 2007. At Wharton, he is Co-President of the Sales & Trading Club, Executive Director of Career Services for the Wharton Graduate Association, an Andersen/Wharton Fellow, a Venture Fellow and a Robert Toigo Foundation Fellow. |
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Khetiwe Richards, WABF Panel and Marketing Manager
Khetiwe is a first year at the Wharton school, pursuing an MBA in Strategic Management and Operations and Information Management. In addition to the Wharton African Business Forum, she is also involved in planning the upcoming Wharton Business and Technology Conference and Wharton Charity Fashion Show. Khetiwe is interested in International Development and Nonprofit Consulting. Prior to Wharton, she was a consultant with Deloitte in the Public Sector Practice. Khetiwe graduated from Spelman College and Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in Computer Science and Computer Engineering respectively. |
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Lanre Osinusi, WABF Panel Manager
Lanre Osinusi is a first year MBA student from Nigeria. He has been responsible for planning the International Organizations and the Prospective Student Panels at the WABF 2007 conference. Lanre's career interests are in the areas of Development Finance and Investment Banking. Prior to Wharton, Lanre worked as a CPA in public accounting and in the private equity industry. He completed his undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Maryland |
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Malick Diop, WABF Fundraising Manager
Malick is currently pursuing his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After living in Dakar, Senegal, Malick developed an interest in infrastructure development and venture capital in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to Wharton, Malick analyzed the creditworthiness of international construction and engineering firms for the American International Group. Earlier in his career, Malick worked as a Financial Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan Securities. Malick graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in Finance. |
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Marianne Moukhtara, WABF Panel Manager
As an MBA candidate majoring in Entrepreneurial and Strategic Management, Marianne has professional interests in small business management, international development, and non-profit. A recipient of the Wharton Fellowship Grant, Marianne is actively involved in the Wharton Africa Students Association, the Greater China Club, the International Volunteer Program, the Entrepreneurship Club, and takes part in activities such as the JP Morgan Good Ventures Project. She previously combined a business education with a liberal arts education, earning degrees in Marketing, Anthropology, and Mandarin Chinese from the University of Florida. Her experience in The Gambia, Lebanon, Taiwan, and the US give her international exposure that she will leverage when she returns to West Africa to take over and expand her family’s business. |
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Mark Mwaura, WABF Panel Manager
Mark Mwaura is a 1st-year MBA student at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Finance and Strategy. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Indiana University (Indiana), and a BS Chemistry degree (summa cum laude, salutatorian) from Elizabeth City State University (North Carolina). He was previously a senior analyst at the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget in Illinois, and a research scientist at CIBA Vision Corporation (a Novartis Company) in Georgia. Mark’s hometown is Nairobi, Kenya. He intends to pursue a career in investment management, with a focus on emerging markets. |
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Samuel Ongwen, WABF Director Information Technology
Sam has been involved in the development of WABF’s website. Last summer Sam interned in the Dallas office of Oliver Wyman, where he led an inventory planning optimization work stream for a major US airline seeking a reduction in maintenance inventory. Prior to Wharton, Sam worked for the Coca-Cola bottler in Uganda, where he was responsible for analyzing key consumer trends. Sam started his professional career in commercial property management. |
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Tim Parry, Panel Manager
Tim studied international business and French at Oklahoma State University and completed both degrees with honors. As president of the French Club he reinvigorated membership, more than tripling the number of members. This immersion changed his perspective and convinced him that his career would combine business with the challenge of living and working abroad. After spending time with UPS in b2b sales, Tim shifted careers and accepted a position as a Small Business Advisor in the tropical hills of Cameroon. While there, Tim consulted with two Microfinance Institutions to improve their operations and loan portfolios, established an organization-wide partnership with a British NGO, initiated a rural women's business training program, and taught economics at the local high school. He was selected to help redesign the small business program in Cameroon and trained many incoming volunteers. During the two years he spent in Cameroon, Tim became knowledgeable of the business climate of Western Africa and familiar with the many difficulties that come with doing business in the region. |
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