Our Team
Ashoka staff members are working in more than 30 countries around the world. Together they form a powerful team of teams. Each team member is a creative and effective leader in their own right, building proven track records for making powerful ideas real.
Abdoulaye Aziz Soumare
Abdoul Aziz Soumare is passionate about leadership and personal development. Both altruistic and philanthropic, Mr Soumare studied International Business.
Dadisai Taderera
Dadisai Taderera joins Ashoka as the Venture and Fellowship Manager for Southern Africa. She has worked for over a decade supporting change makers and communities to advocate for transparency and accountability to ensure a more equal and just society.
Mbali Gushu
Mbali Gushu (Zondi) was born and raised in Pietermaritzburg, on the East Coast of South Africa. She was selected to be a part of the inaugural class of the African Leadership Academy for outstanding leadership potential and academic promise.
Okey Uzoechina
Okey is a global Leadership Group Member of Ashoka and currently leads the Youth Years strategy in Africa.
Paula Ugwu
Paula Ugwu is passionate about food security, poverty alleviation, youth and female empowerment, and has contributed to academic researches that inform knowledge on the role of African women in agriculture and the pricing system of agricultural produce on the Italian Commodity Exchange market.
Sarah Mujulizi
Sarah Mujulizi joined Ashoka in 2019 as the Knowledge and Communications Associate at the Africa Hub in Lagos, Nigeria. She brings on board years of experience providing strategies, community engagement, content management and project management skills.
Stéphanie Schmidt
Stéphanie joined Ashoka Africa Leadership team since September 2017, after 13 years with Ashoka on different continents: at the Global Headquarters in the US, Mexico City and Paris.
