Helen McEachern - CEO, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Helen joined the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in 2017 after over a decade at ActionAid, most recently in the role of Director of Fundraising for ActionAid UK. She brings over 20 years’ experience in international NGOs and has held senior leadership positions at Greenpeace and ActionAid International. Helen has a BSc. in Social Policy from Birkbeck, University of London, and an International Executive MBA from the IE Business School in Madrid.

Sylvia Mulinge - Chief Customer Officer, Safaricom

Sylvia is currently serving as the Chief Customer Officer in Safaricom PLC. She is the commercial leader at the most profitable company in East and Central Africa and is responsible for driving the company's commercial strategy and focus on the consumer to deliver long term shareholder growth as well as create preference for the Safaricom brand. Over the span of her 20-year career in the corporate sector, Sylvia has built a reputation as one of Kenya's outstanding business transformative leaders, a mentor and a go-getter. She is the recipient of several awards, which includes her appointment to the Presidential Award Scheme, a self-development programme in Kenya aimed at equipping young people aged between 14-25 years with positive life skills so they can make a difference for themselves, their communities, Kenya and the world.

Sylvia was named as one of Kenya's Top 25 Women In Digital in 2019, and has also been feted as one of Kenya's Top 40 under 40 Women for 3 consecutive years. She is a 2015 Young Global Leader (YGL) recipient, an award given by the World Economic Forum to those distinguished as exceptional global leaders under the age of 40. Sylvia is a certified executive coach and a Bachelor of Science degree alumna from the University of Nairobi where she graduated with the highest distinction of First-Class Honors.

Her passion for transforming lives, leadership, women empowerment & community impact has her currently serving on several boards including SHOFCO (Shining Hope for Communities), Endeavor Kenya and Food4Education, and she is also a Trustee of the President Award Kenya as well as the Safaricom Foundation. She was also appointed by the Unstereotype Alliance as one of the four Global Vice Chairs in 2019. 

A mentor and coach in both her professional and personal life, Sylvia operates on the principles of partnership, humility, openness and professionalism. But when all is said and done, her most treasured role is that of a mother to her two beautiful children.

Olu Orugboh - CEO, Synergy Solutions

Olu is the CEO and Founder of Synergy Solutions, a specialist management consultancy practice, focussed on helping companies stay at the forefront of evolving technology and the ever-changing world of customer expectations, whilst remaining resilient and futureproofing their business.

As a senior leader and seasoned professional with over 20 years’ experience, leading businesses through change, transformation and migration into digital environments, Olu has assisted a range of companies from start-ups, through to high growth scale ups to FTSE listed companies both in the UK and Internationally to embrace digital technology, safely, whilst remaining resilient and responsive to the rapidly changing environment. Olu has deep international experience, assisting enterprises to turnaround their failing operations through to putting in place infrastructures to support growth initiatives and introduce digital innovation. She has extensive business experience having had the opportunity, through both her own business and other executive level positions to shape the strategy for a wide array of businesses and introduce digital technology, providing a range of companies with the opportunity to speed up response and enhance the quality of that response, which she believes to be vital in the delivery of an agile business.

Olu is  highly committed to assisting organisations to become resilient and future proofed. In addition to running a business, Olu is a mother to two wonderful children  and is passionate about growing the impact of digital technology in underserved communities.

Claire Sibthorpe - Head of Connected Women, Connected Society and Assistive Tech, GSMA

Claire is Head of the Connected Women, Connected Society and Assistive Tech programmes at GSMA. These programmes are focused on accelerating digital inclusion for the underserved in low- and middle-income countries. Connected Women has a specific focus on accelerating digital and financial inclusion for women and Assistive Tech has a specific focus on advancing digital inclusion for those with disabilities. Claire has been working for over 20 years with public, private and international development organisations on social policy and service delivery with a focus on information and communications technology (ICT) policy and practice. She has developed, managed and implemented programmes in Africa, Asia and the UK. Claire holds an MSc in Social Research Methods (2012) and an MSc in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries (1997) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).