IPS’ Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) is honored to partner with ThoughtWorks for an evening with Pan-Africanist technologists spotlighting the power of technology to build a stronger Africa and a better world. FPIF joins in the call for technology leaders to #comehome – revolutionizing the IT industry for social change and dynamic transformation in Africa and throughout the African world. Speakers to include Marieme Jamme, CEO of SpotOne Global Solutions and Betty Enyonam Kumahor Regional Director of ThoughtWorks PanAfrica.

ThoughtWorks is a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals. “We think disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients’ toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change.”

The Uber code for $20 off your fare is “ComeHome”

Mariéme Jamme is a Senegalese born-British businesswoman who runs a technology consultancy business in London. Her company, Spotone One Global Solutions, helps international technology companies selling enterprise software solutions to set a foothold in Africa, Middle East and Asia. Marieme is best known for her role in promoting technology, good governance, transparency and a better education standard in Africa. She is a blogger, tech activist, and social entrepreneur who works tirelessly to empower her fellow Africans through education, mentoring, leadership, and economic development. She was named as one of Forbes ’20 Youngest Power Women in Africa 2012′, nominated by The Guardian African Community Network as one of the ‘African Women to Watch’ in 2013, and recently nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She was also voted as one of Africa’s ‘Top 25 Women Achievers’ by The Guardian newspaper.

Betty Kumahor: As regional managing director for ThoughtWorks Pan-Africa, Ghanaian born, US educated Betty Enyonam Kumahor is able to integrate within every work decision she makes her love of research and analytics, her astute business capabilities, and her deep sense of social responsibility. She’s formally trained in engineering and medical informatics and has done, for an executive, the usual obligatory stint at a business school (Keller Graduate School of Business, Cleveland, Ohio). But it’s her analytical mind that is the basis of her innate gift for expanding an organisation’s market share or slashing operating costs. Most recently, as an executive director at Ernst & Young, she grew a US$ 50 000 account into a multi-million dollar practice in less than two years. At the beginning of her career, sixteen years ago, as an associate consultant for the Computer Sciences Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she was tasked with a special project focused on designing and developing an application and process to track and manage IT assets for more than 250 personnel. Her database solution saved 92% of the original cost estimate for the asset tracking programme. So, Kumahor’s ability to cut to the chase and apply the insights she gains in ways that continuously improve business performance commands attention and respect in boardrooms and the corridors of political power.