A globally recognized thought leader and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin has recently joined the United Nations Development Program as the Chief Innovation Officer in the Regional Bureau for Africa. She is the architect and head of timbuktoo, a bold new initiative to mobilize US$ 1 billion private-public capital for investing into youth tech and tech-enabled startups across Africa.
Prior to this, she served as chief happiness officer of blueMoon, Ethiopia’s top private incubator, and founded blueSpace, a highly successful co-working space company. Previously, Eleni conceived, designed, and ran the acclaimed Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) between 2006 and 2012, achieving $1.2 billion annual trading in three years, impacting the livelihoods of over 15 million small farmers.