Salma Valgarma Hayek Pinault is an actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) as well as the romantic drama Midaq Alley (1995). She soon established herself in Hollywood with appearances in films such as Desperado (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), and Dogma (1999).
Margaret Cushing Whitman is an American business executive, diplomat, and politician serving as the United States ambassador to Kenya since 2022. Whitman was president and chief executive officer (CEO) of eBay from 1998 to 2008. Afterwards, she became president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from 2011 to 2015, during the company's major split. She then served as the CEO of Quibi from its launch in 2018 until its closure in 2020. A member of the Republican Party, she ran for governor of California but was defeated by former governor Jerry Brown in California's 2010 gubernatorial election. Whitman was a senior presidential campaign official for Republican Mitt Romney in both 2008 and 2012, although she supported Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the 2016 presidential election and the 2020 presidential election, respectively.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.
Valerie June Jarrett is an American businesswoman and former government official serving as the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation since 2021. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. She was assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, overseeing the office of the same name, and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Before that, she was the chief executive officer of The Habitat Company and served as a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project.
10,000 Women is a program organized by Goldman Sachs and the Goldman Sachs Foundation with the goal of helping to grow local economies by providing business education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital to underserved women entrepreneurs globally. The program was announced on March 5, 2008, at Columbia University. The initiative is one of the largest philanthropic projects the bank has been involved with. The program was in its initial years run by Dina Habib Powell, a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
Fatema Akbari is an Afghan and ethnic Hazara entrepreneur and women's rights advocate who is the founder of the Gulistan Sadaqat Company and non-governmental organization the Women Affairs Council. In 2011, she received the 10,000 Women Entrepreneurial Achievement Award.
Kathryn H. Ruemmler is an attorney who formerly served as principal deputy White House counsel and then White House Counsel to President Barack Obama. Previously a partner at Latham and Watkins co-chairing its white-collar defense group, Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs in 2020 as a Partner and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. In 2021, she was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.
Teresa Hillary Clarke, is an American investment banker, entrepreneur. She is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs and co-founded a scholarship and mentoring non-profit, Student Sponsorship Programme in South Africa. Considered an expert on Africa, since 2010, she has funded and led Africa.com.
Angela Benton is an American businesswoman. Benton founded NewME (acquired), the first startup accelerator for minorities globally in 2011. She is a pioneer of diversity and one of the most important African-Americans in the technology industry. She has helped minority-led tech companies raise over $47 million in venture capital funding.
Natasha Sanaipei Tande, popularly known as Sana, is a Kenyan singer, songwriter, actress, radio personality and entertainer. Born and raised in Mombasa, Natasha attended Loreto Convent Mombasa, Mama Ngina High school and Aga Khan High School.
The United State of Women Summit was a summit held in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 2016 focused on gender equality in the United States. The summit was hosted by the White House, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Aspen Institute.
The Goldman Sachs Foundation is a New York–based, not-for-profit private foundation that is a subsidiary of the financial services firm Goldman Sachs and has the goal of bettering humanity worldwide, especially regarding health and education. In recent years its principal philanthropic projects have been: 10,000 Women, and 10,000 Small Businesses.
Josephine Kulea is a Kenyan women's rights campaigner. Rescued from female genital mutilation and forced marriage as a child, she has since set up the Samburu Girls Foundation, which has saved more than 1,000 girls from similar practices. Kulea was recognised as an "unsung heroine" by US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger in 2011.
Kennedy Odede is a Kenyan social entrepreneur and author. Odede is the co-founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a movement based in Nairobi, Kenya, and New York, USA.
Kagure Wamunyu, is a Kenyan civil engineer, urban planner and the CEO and Co-Founder of Jumba, a construction tech start-up that is simplifying purchase and financing of construction materials in Africa. Previously, Kagure worked as the Global Head of Operations at Kobo360, an African freight logistics startup. She also served as the Senior Director of Strategy for Bridge International Academies in East Africa and as the Country Manager for Uber in Kenya.
Michelle Kathryn Essomé is a former investment banker and the ex-CEO of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA). She is also an ambassador of Build Africa, an international development and education charity based in London, England.
Chebet Lesan is a Kenyan climate activist and entrepreneur whose company BrightGreen creates charcoal briquettes from local waste materials, selling them through a network of women. Her awards include the Queen's Young Leader Award and a Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
Nzambi Matee born at the date September 19 1992, is a Kenyan trained mechanical engineer, environmentalist, hardware designer, inventor and serial entrepreneur. She is well known for her innovative and creative ways of converting waste into sustainable materials. She pioneered the sustainable efforts by recycling plastic to make bricks that can be even stronger than a concrete. Her sustainable efforts have also been hailed as one of the successful strategies to curb the plastic pollution in Kenya. She founded Gjenge Makers, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rehmah Kasule is a Ugandan social entrepreneur, public speaker and author. She is the founder of CEDA International a non-profit organization in Uganda.
Lorna Rutto is a Kenyan ecopreneur, and founder of Ecopost, a social enterprise that manufactures fencing posts and other products from recycled plastic waste in offering sustainable jobs to people in marginalized communities and solutions to Kenya's plastic waste challenge.
