It was a pleasure an honor to meet Leila Janah at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (#GES2016) and interview her for the podcast. Since launching Samasource in 2008, Leila has been not only a participant in social enterprise, but has been a leader, advocate, and trusted voice in the space.

She spoke in the plenary session of #GES2016 Plus, a day focused on women and youth in entrepreneurship. The plenary session explored new global innovations and the entrepreneurs that are attracting funding, breaking the status quo and changing the world.

  • Moderator: Brad Stone – Bloomberg West
  • Oren Yakobovich – Founder, Videre and 2016 Skoll Foundation Entrepreneur
  • Leila Janah – Founder, Sama and Founder, Laxmi
  •  Ooshma Garg, Founder and CEO, Gobble

To hear insightful remarks and reflections by Ooshma Garg, please listen to our episode: Live at #GES2016 Plus.

Listen to the Podcast

Meet Leila Janah

Meet Leila JanahLeila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Sama Group, Co-Founder and CEO ofLaxmi, and an award-winning social entrepreneur. Her work focuses on bringing living-wage jobs to poor women and youth to reduce poverty and build better communities.

Leila is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a Director of CARE USA, a 2012 TechFellow, recipient of the inaugural Club de Madrid Young Leadership Award, and in 2014, was the youngest person to win a Heinz Award.

The idea for Samasource began in high school, where Leila was already interested in social justice and involved with the American Civil Liberties Union and a couple of local organizations. At 17, Ms. Janah went to Ghana on a scholarship to teach English. She then studied African development at Harvard, and later worked for the World Bank, getting frustrated with the large-scale development approach in places like Africa.

Show Notes

  • Sama Group
  • Samasource
    • Value proposition: non-profit business that connects marginalized women and youth to dignified work via the Internet.
    • website: http://www.samasource.org
  • Samaschool
  • Laxmi
    • Value proposition: unite undiscovered, effective natural ingredients with transparent, responsible production and sourcing practices. Engage women to take part in the world in a way that creates lasting beauty.
    • website: http://bylaxmi.com

 

 

    What should we write about next?

    0 replies

    Leave a Reply

    Want to join the discussion?
    Feel free to contribute!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.