Dr. Amit Thakker Dr. Thakker is chairman of the Kenya Healthcare Federation and founder of Avenue Healthcare, Unicare Holding (EA) and the East Africa Healthcare Federation. He is one of East Africa’s eminent and respected business leaders in the healthcare industry. He was winner of the best Kenyan entrepreneur in 1999 by Rotary International. He is recognized for providing innovative and bold business cross-cutting solutions in the health services and financing sector within East and Southern Africa.
Sam Gichuru Sam Gichuru is the founder and CEO of Nailab, one of Kenya’s leading business incubators. He served as vice-chair of the technical team that put together the first ever Kenya National Innovation Forum, resulting in the establishment of Enterprise Kenya – a trade entity for innovation. He is a strong proponent of mentorship for young entrepreneurs as a critical interface between job creation and poverty eradication in emerging markets.
Siddharth Chatterjee Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator a.i for Kenya as well as UNFPA Kenya Representative. Prior to this, he was Chief Diplomat and Head of Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Prior to IFRC, he served in the UN from 1997. Most of his career has been spent working in fragile states and complex emergencies. He has held various leadership positions in the United Nations, served as Regional Director at UNOPS and Chief of Staff at the UN Mission in Iraq. He writes extensively on humanitarian and development issues.
Dr. Marleen Temmerman Dr. Marleen Temmerman is chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aga Khan University (AKU) Hospital in Nairobi, and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health AKU - East-Africa. For the past three years she was Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO), in Geneva. She is a full Professor OB/GYN at the Ghent University in Belgium. As an obstetrician she supervised over 18,000 births in many parts of the world. She is one of the penholders of the UN Global Strategy for Women's, Children’s and Adolescents' Health 2016-2030, launched by the UNSG and partners in September 2015, transitioning from the MDGs to the SDGs.
Andia Laura Chakava Andia Laura Chakava is currently an independent investment professional with over 14 years’ experience. She is passionate about facilitating both foreign and intra-Africa investment on the continent, increasing financial literacy through investor education and promoting gender lens investing. She has been instrumental in the set up of two fund management companies from scratch in Kenya. She is co-founder and former Managing Director of Alpha Africa Asset Managers, which engages in fund management and investment advisory activities.
The 10 finalists' start-up summaries
The four winning solutions
