Nigerian Mobile Commerce Innovator among 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows

Femi Akinde

Femi Akinde, the Nigerian Mobile commerce innovator and Founder of SlimTrader is among the 20 Members of 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows. The Seattle based Nigerian is the genius behind SlimTrader’s Mobiashara the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services via their mobile phones through text.

Mr. Akinde has worked in a variety of high-level capacities at some of the most respected telecommunications and software firms in the world, including Gateway Communications, AT&T (Consultant), T-Mobile, and Microsoft. Over his telecommunications career, he has been a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for T-Mobile's mobile data platforms and wireless portals. He switched careers post MBA by joining Microsoft as a Senior Finance Manager on the TV, Video & Music Finance team. He resigned from Microsoft to start SlimTrader. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Electrical Engineering.


You can see the details of the other 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows in the following news release.


TED Names 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows
Mobile Commerce Innovator from Africa and Mental Health Activist from Bulgaria Among 20 Members of 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows Class
TED to begin accepting applications for next class of TED Fellows on June 13

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, June 7, 2011

NEW YORK, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, announces today 20 new members of 2011's TEDGlobal Fellows class. Founded in 2009, the TED Fellows program handpicks world-changing innovators from around the globe, and brings them to the TED stage -- literally and figuratively -- to raise international awareness of their remarkable work.

"I couldn't be more excited about our latest class of exceptionally talented women and men, mavericks from all over the world who embody the fellowship's commitment to diverse pursuits and geographies," said Tom Rielly, the founder and director of the TED Fellows program. "And we know the program works. After the first two and a half years, we are thrilled to witness the Fellows' post-conference transformation and accomplishment."

This year's Fellows hail from Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, China, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Poland, Rwanda, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, the UK and the US. The group includes the founder of SlimTrader, the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services with their mobile devices; an investigative journalist working to expose the inhumane treatment of children and adults with disabilities and mental illness in the Balkans; and a Jordanian social media entrepreneur who is creating comics, animation, and games for the Middle East. See full list of the 2011 TEDGlobal Fellows below. For complete program information, please visit: http://www.ted.com/fellows.

All TED Fellows participate as full members of 2011's annual TEDGlobal Conference in its new home in Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as a three-day pre-conference event where they collaborate with their peers, learn new skills and deliver their own TEDTalks. The Fellows will continue to actively participate in the TED community throughout the year, telling their ongoing stories on the TED Fellows blog, contributing to TEDx events, receiving 1:1 professional coaching being featured in the online Fellows directory and participating in a private TED social network.

On June 13, TED will begin accepting submissions for the next round of TED Fellows here. The Fellows program seeks individuals of age 21-50 (though anyone over age 18 is eligible) who demonstrate remarkable achievement in their field of endeavor. The program focuses on candidates from six regions: Asia/Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, though candidates from all regions are welcome.

The TED Fellows program is made possible by the visionary support of the Bezos family, the Harnisch Foundation, the Dhanam Foundation, the Kitchen Table Foundation and the Case Foundation among other donors.

Connect with TED Fellows at fellows [AT] ted [DOT] com, Twitter: @tedfellow, Facebook: facebook.com/TEDFellow, YouTube: youtube.com/tedfellowstalks, and ted.com/tedfellows.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Long Beach, California, along with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

TEDGlobal 2011, "The Stuff of Life," will be held July 11-15, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. TED2012, "Full Spectrum," will be held February 27 - March 2, 2012, in Long Beach, CA.

TEDGlobal 2011 Fellows:




Manuel Aguilar (Guatemala) - Energy entrepreneur
Founder of Quetsol, an organization meeting the energy needs of the Guatemalan people with appropriate tech solutions.




Femi Akinde (Nigeria | US) - Mobile commerce innovator
Founder of SlimTrader, the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services via their mobile phones through text.




Suleiman Bakhit (Jordan) - Comic creator + social media entrepreneur
Jordanian social media entrepreneur creating comics, animation, and games for the Middle East.




Yana Buhrer Tavanier (Bulgaria) - Mental health activist
Investigative journalist working to expose the inhumane treatment of children and adults with disabilities and mental illness in the Balkans.




Monika Bulaj (Poland | Italy) - Photo documentarian
Photographer + documentarian telling the stories of people and places in conflict.




Bilge M. Demirkoz (Turkey | Switzerland) - Particle physicist + educator
Particle physicist + educator currently working at CERN on the ATLAS experiment, looking for new physics.




Julie Freeman (UK) - Tech artist
UK based artist combining science, technology, and natural systems, in order to create work that "translates" nature.




Jose Gomez-Marquez (Honduras | US) Medical device designer
Director of the IIH (Innovations in International Health) Lab at MIT, inventing and deploying medical technology for global health.




Lars Jan (US) - Transmedia director
US based media artist and founder of Early Morning Opera, a multidisciplinary art lab creating works about "America right now."




Somi (Rwanda | Uganda | US) - Singer + cultural activist
East African soul-jazz vocalist + songwriter and founder of New Africa Live.




Christine Lee (US | China) - Bio-archeologist
American bio-archeologist working to uncover and better understand Mongolia's and China's ancient civilizations.




Jae Rhim Lee (US) - Scientific artist
Founder of the Infinity Burial Project, a project developing a unique strain of mushroom that decomposes and remediates toxins in human tissue.




Jon Lowenstein (US) - Documentary Photographer
Photographer specializing in long-term, in-depth projects around power, poverty, and violence -- also working to create a foundation committed to social justice through visual communication.




Sonaar Luthra (US) - Water testing innovator
Creator of Water Canary, a water-testing device that collects real-time water quality data from the field.




Nathalie Miebach (US) - Weather artist
Boston based artist using weather data to create sculptures and music.




Serge Mouangue (Cameroon | Japan) - Cross cultural designer
Tokyo based Cameroonian cross cultural artist + designer -- bringing both African and Japanese techniques into his work.




Alex Odira Odundo (Kenya) - Agricultural machinist
Kenyan inventor of the Sisal Decorticator, a device turning sisal plant into fibre, and the Sisal Twinner, a device turning sisal fibre into rope.




Genevieve von Petzinger (Canada) - Cave art researcher
Canadian doctoral student studying ancient geometric signs from the Ice Age.




Lucianne Walkowicz (US) - Stellar astronomer
Postdoctoral Fellow studying the effects of stellar activity on exoplanets with the Kepler Mission.




Jodie Wu (US | Tanzania) - Appropriate technologist
Founder of Global Cycle Solutions, an organization developing and selling appropriate tech in the form of bicycle add-ons.



Contact: Ben Kellogg, Group SJR, bkellogg@groupsjr.com, (917) 816-0831

SOURCE TED Conferences

Web Site: http://www.ted.com