Kennedy Ekezie-JosephFounder

Nigeria - Lagos

Kennedy's north-star is to unlock socio-economic prosperity for Africa.

As a 16-year old college freshman, he founded & led a social enterprise that expanded access to rights for women in Nigeria, specifically by ending the practice of female genital mutilation in communities and increasing access to education for young girls. During his time at Calabar, he trained, judged and competed as a debater at 35+ Universities across 12 countries. He was Nigeria's #1 ranked competitive debater for 2 years.

Kennedy has been awarded and personally recognized by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England, PM Theresa May, Sir John Major (Former British PM), David Beckham, Caroline Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's daughter & US Ambassador), and Nile Rodgers.

Amongst others, Kennedy has also won President Obama's Young African Leaders Fellowship and the Resolution Fellowship. He is a One Young World Ambassador and presented a keynote at the United Nations Youth Assembly and 2 TEDx talks. In 2017, Kennedy was named one of the Top 30 Teen Leaders in the World by WAFF.

He received the Yenching Scholarship dubbed the "Chinese Rhodes Scholarship" (2.7% acceptance rate) to pursue a fully-funded Master's of Economics Degree at China's premier University.

He led TikTok’s (the world's most valuable startup) entry into Africa and has worked in management consulting in Nigeria & the USA. Today, he is leading a team engineering prosperity for the next billion internet users in Africa