Charles Sekwalor, more commonly referred to as Chale, is a serial entrepreneur, investor and nation builder. He is founder and CEO of The Continent Group, where he is creating a new category of development: private-sector, citizen-led nation building. His mission is to restore Africa as the global centre of human civilisation, innovation and progress, in a world where every child gets to live their purpose and realise their potential. The group builds and invests in the institutions, infrastructure and technologies required to convert Africa's potential into progress; to understand how far human potential reaches; and to give the world a different way of organising itself in the 22nd century. 

Bidemi “Demi” Palmer is a Nigerian-American MBA candidate at Columbia Business School, a strategist, operator, and community builder whose work spans consulting, education, and community design. She previously worked at Accenture and Slalom, helped lead and scale an early childhood education business across two sites serving 350 children, and founded a platform centered on culture, art, and music in New York City. She holds a B.S. from Boston University and an M.S.Ed. in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and is particularly interested in how institutions and systems can create stronger, more connected communities.

Adani Illo is a managing director in Evercore’s Equity Capital Markets practice and leads the origination and execution of public and private equity transactions in the fintech and financial institutions sectors.

Mr. Illo has worked on more than 165 book-run deals, raising over $110 billion during his career, including transactions for Palomar Holdings, Fidelis Insurance, Gemini Space Station, Cardlytics, TPG, MercadoLibre, XP, StoneCo, PagSeguro, Corebridge Financials, Energy Transfer, Globant and LyondellBasell Industries.

Mr. Illo joined Evercore from Goldman Sachs, where he worked on originating and executing public and private equity transactions. 

Hawa Hassan is James Beard Award winner, host of Food Network’s Hawa at Home and Cooking Channel’s Spice of Life, acclaimed author of In Bibi’s Kitchen, and founder and CEO of Basbaas, makers of African-inspired sauces and condiments. An acclaimed speaker and presenter, Hawa has been covered by major international media including The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, The Seattle Times, Condé Nast
Traveler, Thrillist, Ebony, The Ringer, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, The Washington Post, and New York Magazine.

Emy has built her career at the intersection of capital allocation, regulation, and geographic expansion of tech products in ‘hard to reach’ markets.  She currently leads expansion of money movement and stablecoin products at Stripe. Before Stripe she was based in Nairobi where she worked at Paystack as the Chief of Staff to the CEO. Emy started her career as a VC investor in Latin America, backing early-stage tech companies in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. Emy holds an MBA from Stanford GSB and sits on the Advisory Board of the African Diaspora Network. She is French and Congolese and currently lives in New York.