Conference Speakers

Simi Nwogugu

CEO, Junior Achievement Africa (JA Africa)

Simi Nwogugu

Simi Nwogugu is the CEO of Junior Achievement Africa (JA Africa), a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, which equips young Africans with financial literacy, entrepreneurship and employability skills for future success. Prior to joining JA Africa, Simi served as the executive director of Junior Achievement (JA)Nigeria, which she brought to Nigeria in 1999, after she served as a volunteer in New York and realized that the entrepreneurial training programs were exactly what the large unemployed youth population in Nigeria needed.

Simi started her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs after studying economics and English at Mount Holyoke College. After setting up and running JA Nigeria for three years, she left to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. Her contribution to work-life management in the United States, youth empowerment in Nigeria and her own personal struggles to balance work, family and social responsibility, are the subject of a Harvard Business School case study titled, An Entrepreneur’s Journey: Simi Nwogugu.

Simi sits on the governing Board of the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN) as its President.