African Leadership Academy and African Leadership Foundation are pleased to announce five new Board Members. Each of these individuals brings a wealth of experience, expertise, and passion for empowering African youth to become the continent's future leaders. They will help guide the work that African Leadership Academy does to identify, develop, and connect Africa's most promising young leaders.
Tayo Oviosu
Tayo is the founder & Group CEO of Paga Group Ltd, a mobile payment company that is building an ecosystem that enables Africans to send, pay, and bank digitally. Paga is the leading mobile money service in Nigeria, its first market. Before Paga, Tayo was Vice-President at Travant Capital Partners, a private equity fund in West Africa. Before joining Travant, Tayo was a Manager, Corporate Development at Cisco Systems in San Jose, California.
Paga has been selected to the prestigious Fintech 250 list of most promising Fintech companies globally three times, most recently in 2022. Tayo’s work at Paga has been recognized globally – in 2014, CNBC selected Tayo as the Entrepreneur of the Year in West Africa, and in 2015 the African Leadership Network selected Paga as the outstanding growing company of the year in Africa.
Apart from his involvement with Pago, Tayo is also the co-founder of Kairos Angels, an angel investment club, and an Endeavor Entrepreneur.
Tayo earned his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, cum laude, from the University of Southern California and a master’s in business administration from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
Molly Efrusy
Molly is a dedicated philanthropist who, along with her husband, co-founded and currently serves as President of the Efrusy Family Foundation. The foundation supports local organizations that strive to create the next generation of ethical leaders in Africa, Latin America, and the United States.
Molly is Vice Chair of the Board for the Latin American Leadership Academy, an organization that seeks to promote sustainable economic development and strengthen democratic governance in Latin America by developing a new generation of leaders. Additionally, Molly serves on the African Leadership Foundation’s US Advisory Council, is the main supporter of the African Leadership Academy’s AL for Governance sector, is an investor in alx, and is a longtime supporter of African Leadership University.
Molly is also a member of the Wayfinder Wise Council, the advisory board for Wayfinder, a Stanford d.school-created organization that ensures students have access to tools to create lives of meaning and purpose. Molly is also Co-Chair of the Board of the Park City Education Foundation, which promotes excellence in Park City Schools by raising funds to provide top-level educational programs for all students.
Previously, Molly was a member of the National Advisory Board for the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, Vice Chair of the Board for the Firelight Foundation, and a member of the Dean’s Policy Advisory Council and the Changemaker Taskforce for the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Molly received an AB from Stanford University in Human Biology and an MPH from the University of California at Berkeley in maternal and child health. She lives in Park City, Utah with her husband and three sons.
Aïda Ndiaye
Aïda Ndiaye is an international business leader with expertise in building and leading large-scale tech projects and driving organizational strategy at the intersection of tech and policy.
Aïda Ndiaye currently leads Meta’s policy campaign strategy on integrity issues in Europe. She builds projects that support governments to mitigate risks related to innovation and maximize the benefits of tech for society.
Before this role, Aïda headed Meta's misinformation programs in EMEA during the Covid-19 pandemic. She built tech partnerships and campaigns that reached millions of people and supported governments in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe to deploy technology to respond to the pandemic. Aïda pioneered Meta's public policy strategy across 22 countries in Francophone Africa. She created initiatives to help African businesses unlock the opportunities of digitalization. She advised African governments on public sector reforms to support the growth of the digital economy. Before joining Meta (ex-Facebook), Aïda worked at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, UNESCO, IBM, and Google.
Aïda holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science from Quest University Canada and a Master of Public Policy (with Distinction) from the University of Oxford.
Peter Baird
Peter has three decades of business experience as an executive, an investor, and a management consultant. He has served as a board member and/or Chair for more than 30 companies and non-profit institutions. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Infrared Cameras, Inc., an industrial technology company headquartered in Beaumont, Texas.
Prior, Peter led the African private equity groups at 91 Asset Management (formerly Investec Asset Management) and Standard Chartered Private Equity. In those roles he spent more than ten years investing in and building companies up and down the African continent.
Earlier, Peter was a partner at McKinsey & Company, focused on the private equity and healthcare practices. As an Associate at McKinsey, he was one of the early professionals to join the Firm’s Johannesburg Office.
Peter received a BA degree from Bates College, and an MA in Economics from the University of Cape Town. He also holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Peter is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Caroline Modise ‘09
Gomolemo Caroline Modise, commonly known as Caroline, is an External Communications Specialist at De Beers Group Global Sightholder Sales. With a strong sales background, she has successfully managed some of the world's leading diamond jewelry retailers. In addition to her work at De Beers, Caroline played a pivotal role as one of the founding members and Head of Strategy at Botswana Careers Roundtable, a career networking platform aimed at connecting experienced professionals and newcomers in the corporate world.
Caroline completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science at the University of Rochester in New York, USA. Currently, she is pursuing an Executive MBA with Hult International Business School, further enhancing her business acumen and leadership skills.
Beyond her professional pursuits, Caroline identifies herself as a flaneur, someone who loves to travel, explore, and immerse herself in different cultures. Her adventurous spirit has taken her to several countries several across the world, allowing her to gain diverse perspectives and broaden her horizons.
As we welcome Tayo, Molly, Aïda, Peter, and Caroline to the Board, we share our immense gratitude with Ngosa Mupela ’09, who has served as the Alumni Trustee on the ALA Board for the past two years. Ngosa’s enthusiasm and dedication to ALA is unmatched and perhaps best illustrated by his active involvement in numerous subcommittees, including the Dean's Search Committee, the Finance Committee, Development Committee, and the Buildings & Grounds Committee.
