Boardroom Banter

From a very young age, Carrie Rich wanted to learn about the business of helping people. Sometimes, no matter how big a vision you have to do good in the world, people may not see the value in investing in it until you prove that it works. In today's episode, Carrie Rich recounts her 10-year journey scaling the Global Good Fund and the community that has grown around this mission to create a new generation of transformational change agents. Our conversation features various themes around the value of mentorship, building meaningful relationships in life and creating personal alignment within ourselves. She encourages young leaders to believe that the little steps we take to make the world better for ourselves and others will have a long-term impact on millions of people.

For the last seven years, we have invested time, money and enormous energy in mastering our skills and growing our network. Our experiences have taken us to Draper University (Silicon Valley) the Watson Institute (Colorado) and the African Leadership Academy (South Africa). As we sit in our small boardroom at the African Leadership University (Mauritius) we analyse the state of education on the African continent and share essential lessons from our failed solutions to bridge the gap between students and the workspace. We also share approaches we have each taken to secure lucrative opportunities over the years, with a special masterclass on the Art of Networking.

There is a fundamental disconnect between colleges/ universities and employers in the real world. Academic institutions were never intended to build people with professional skills but were primarily centers of learning & knowledge acquisition. Our guest today, Roshan Paul, noticed this gap in meaningful transitions into the workspace and in response, chose to forego a career in the lucrative corporate world and set his life's mission on changing this narrative. As co-founder of Amani Institute and strategic advisor to nonprofits and other impact-driven organizations in the United States, Roshan breaks down social impact and what it truly takes to change the world. His new book and #1 Amazon bestseller -The New Reason To Work- recounts the lessons he has learned working with changemakers from all around the world.

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How can we prove that the gold in our central banks is real? What affects the strength of the money that you currently have in your wallet? Who controls the messages in the media all around us and what is their agenda? In this episode, we share our thoughts on these questions, our views on the current global crisis and the approach that the youth should take in keeping their head above the waves of media outlets. We believe that Africa has key lessons to learn from the West during this time and have a pretty good idea of where this needs to begin. Listen in!

The media is the most powerful entity on earth due to its immense ability to shape public perception. Our guest today, Mr. Simon Cohen, dedicated his business and his life to spreading positive messages of love and hope through his communications agency. Simon walks us through his inspiring journey discovering new teachings of compassion and tolerance, representing the Dalai Lama, Gandhi's grandson, and many of the world's wisest women, men, and children. He believes that as long as the 'why' in your life stays constant, what you do doesn't matter too much and demonstrates how this reflects onto his own life purpose of MULTIPLYING!

How does society let men act? How aware are men of their male privilege? In this final part of our Quaternion series, we explore these questions and experiences that have shaped our perception of masculinity over the years. Having grown up in communities that built fragile facades of what it means to be a man, we have each in our own rights challenged the ideologies that this school of thought has been modelled around. With a deep understanding of our role as global citizens and our unique positions as progressive leaders- we purpose to communicate a message of love, respect and responsibility to fellow men who are open to learn, unlearn and relearn.

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In this first episode of our special two-part series, we are joined by Jefferson Kangacha and David Kariuki- two incredible young changemakers who together with Yuri and Omina form a boys club known as The Quaternion. Recognized within their social and professional circles as bold and adventurous risk-takers, The Quaternion shares how they challenged conventional approaches to education through their decisions to take gap years, early mentorship journeys and entrepreneurial endeavors that characterized their late teenhood. Jefferson (who currently studies at Cornell University in New York) and David (current President of the General Assembly of the Kenya Model United Nations) have very unique perspectives of how the education system should better shape students to take on the global competitive landscape- listen in!

How much of our valuable time & attention are we really giving to these popular social media platforms? In this episode, we scrutinize the inner workings of the addictive models of social sites and the concepts of human behavior that they are founded upon. As entrepreneurs and future leaders of industries, will we focus on maximizing the profitability of our companies or consider the social impact of our designs? There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding the future of our workspaces especially in Africa, with innovative solutions around artificial intelligence and automation just begging to replace the human workforce. When push comes to shove, will we choose our beloved employees over the programmed robots that are 10x better?

From small scale businessman in Nigeria to a global consultant, and early stage investor, Edison Gbenga walks us through his journey of living out his wildest dreams. When an avid problem solver like himself found failure after failure in his career and startup life, he had to rethink his philosophy and mindset completely. In this episode, we learn more about the mind blowing dynamics of the booming startup scene in Africa and what it really takes for founders to raise billions, create impact at scale, and stay true to the people they serve.

As we navigate life in our 20s, we find that we have a very large social cushion to try different things, fail, learn and repeat. On the other hand, there is a lot of pressure from society to have everything figured out all at once. In this episode, we envision what our lives would look like once we've made it big, become famous and are subject to public scrutiny- but also look back at the childhood experiences that shaped us growing up.