013 – Antu Yacob
Antu Yacob is Ethiopian a professional actress, playwright, and philanthropist.
012 – Jomo Tariku
Jomo Tariku was born in Kenya to Ethiopian parents. As a young boy growing up in Ethiopia, he was always drawn to the eclectic art pieces, souvenirs and furniture pieces his father collected while traveling across Africa. That combined with volunteering at a local woodshop in Addis, catapulted his interest in furniture design. Jomo graduated from The University of Kansas with a degree in Industrial Design.
011 – Hamere Demissie
Hamere Demissie, Founder and CEO of Actuel Urban Living is a designer with a passion for contemporary art forms particularly furniture, interiors, fashion and visual arts. She has a dichotomous professional background going back and forth between her two lifelong passions of design and development economics – sometimes managing to miraculously combine her two passions in a single job. Hamere has worked as a designer of apparel, furniture and home furnishings and jewelry with various companies in the US, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.
010 – Azariah Mengistu
Azariah Mengistu is the co-founder of Enzi, a premium leather footwear brand based in Ethiopia.
Find out more about Azariah and about Enzi:
Website: www.enzifootwear.com
Twitter: EnziFootwear
Facebook: ENZI
009 – Saron Yitbarek
Saron Yitbarek is the founder of CodeNewbie, the most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. She’s also host of the weekly CodeNewbie Podcast and a program manager at Microsoft for Tech Jobs Academy, a technical training program for talented New Yorkers ready to launch their tech career.
You can follow her @saronyitbarek.
008 – Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste is a novelist and essayist. Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was selected by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books and named one of the best books of 2010 by Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe and other publications.
007 – Solomon Kassa
Solomon Kassa is a Senior Technology Consultant at Deloitte, a Fortune 500 global consulting firm. Before joining the management consulting world, Solomon worked as a software developer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is also the producer and host of the Amharic TV Show “TechTalk with Solomon” that airs on Ethiopia Broadcasting Services (EBS), where he explores the topic of Science and Technology and interviews several highly accomplished Ethiopian-Americans in the field of science and technology. Solomon just recieved the 2016 (SEED) Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora award in recognition for his extraordinary commitment to produce a science and technology show and hosting it for millions in his native language Amharic. Solomon is working on an all-amharic, first of it’s kind book based on the topic of Science and Technology.
006 – Messay Getahun
Messay is a community leader, script writer and film maker. He has organized and produced many local, national and international events over the past 15 years including a televised event called A.R.O.C. (Above Reproach On Campus), which featured artist such as Lecrae, The Afters, Lifehouse and many others.