Meet Leila Janah, Founder and CEO of Social Enterprises Sama Group and Laxmi

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

Leila 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
  • Value proposition: help people lift themselves out of poverty through digital work
  • website: http://www.samagroup.co/
• Samasource
  • Value proposition: non-profit business that connects marginalized women and youth to dignified work via the Internet.
  • website: http://www.samasource.org
• Samaschool
  • Value proposition: train low-income people in the U.S. to access digital work.
  • website: http://www.samaschool.org
• 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