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Pumla Maswanganyi

Baobab Consulting and Jara Johannesburg, South Africa @swangs_express Advisor | Prize

Pumla Maswanganyi is a South African entrepreneur, strategist, and innovator, working at the intersection of art and impact. As a global citizen having lived and worked on 5 continents, she is committed to developing systems and strategic interventions that disrupt traditional development norms, with a creative 21st-century lens.

Being a globalization and development expert, Pumla’s primary passion is to build context-based solutions to improve life chances and inclusivity for disenfranchised populations. This passion has led her to create a number of projects including using vocational training as a tool to end child marriage, to leveraging mobile technology to increase education accessibility for nomad and migrating communities in Africa.

Secondly, she is passionate about developing high-level strategies and systems to bring powerful ideas to life. Pumla currently serves as the youngest C-suite executive in two social impact-focused companies; namely, Baobab Consulting which fosters intercultural collaboration with an African focus, and Jara which is developing a solar & crank-powered IoT device to provide emergency education to children in post-disaster zones. Additionally, she also offers strategic and ‘system-building’ advice to startups and leaders within the arts, medtech, sustainable architecture, and equitable tourism industries.

Finally, in addition to being nominated as one of the ‘Most Influential People of African Descent’ (MIPAD) under 40, her work has earned recognition from Forbes, the Clinton Global Initiative, the UNLEASH Sustainable Development Innovation Lab, Resolution Project, the African Women Leaders Network, and the African Union to name a few.