Introduction to Business Competition and Competitive Advantage

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is a Nigerian techpreneur and investor. He is best known as a co- founder of multiple startup companies, including Flutterwave, Future Africa, Talent City and Andela. In 2015, Forbes listed him among the 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa, and in 2019, New African featured him among the top 100 Most Influential Africans. He cofounded two successful startups in Africa before launching Flutterwave in 2017. With $15.7 million in funding, the payments company is empowering Pan-African merchants to execute business on global scale, processing $1.2 billion in transactions so far. 

Aboyeji’s previous startup Andela, gained attention when the venture received $24 million in funding from Mark Zuckerberg. In 2016, he co-founded Flutterwave, an integrated platform for Africans to receive and make payments from anywhere. The fintech company was highly successful, establishing over 50 bank and multinational partners. In 2019, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji became a founding investor in Moove, a Nigerian fintech that provides revenue-based vehicle financing and financial services for mobility entrepreneurs globally. Around the same time, he became a founding investor in Talent City, now known as ITANA. The company helps tech and service-based businesses to access markets in Africa.

After co-founding Future Africa, Aboyeji served as the Deputy Director-General for Oby Ezekwesili’s 2019 presidential campaign. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of the Talent City Inc, a construction company. On 11 October 2022, Aboyeji was conferred with National Honours Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by President Muhammadu Buhari. In November 2024, he was appointed with six others on the Nigeria’s 3MTT Advisory Committee organised by The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy to improve employability in the digital space in Nigeria.

Currently, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is a Managing Partner at Accelerate Africa, a company that invests in startups and early-stage SMEs in key sectors, such as agribusiness, technology and renewable energy. He is also a Founding Member of Future Africa, an innovation fund that provides capital, coaching, and community support to bold and visionary leaders.

Metta Kariyani Dewi is a UPG Sustainability Leader from Indonesia. Metta is a seasoned Senior  Accountant with over seven years of experience in multinational corporations. 

She specializes in managing complex accounting processes and delivering precise financial reports. Her expertise spans  financial reporting, compliance, and internal controls, with a proven track record of enhancing  reporting  accuracy and reducing closing times.

 Dewi excels in leveraging ERP systems to streamline operations and provide actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making. Beyond finance, she is deeply passionate about sustainability and climate change, integrating her commitment to environmental responsibility with financial integrity. Thriving in global environments, she actively connects with professionals who share her values while engaging in climate activism.

Suyashi Dwivedi is an entrepreneur and a public servant. She is a UPG Sustainability Leader from India.  Suyashi currently serves as Associate Program Officer in the Department of Culture, Madhya Pradesh  State Government. She is Chief Executive Officer at Saral Logistic Systems Private Limited. As part of this role, she started a green fuelling station in the Industrial area to fulfil the location’s needs sustainably.

She holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, a specialization in AI made her work towards new tech while at IIT Kanpur in C3I Lab, IIT Indore, BITS Pilani in Disruptive Technology Lab and MIT Momentum, Boston. 

She worked in a Gaming company, MADIEE Games, where she got the opportunity to create her own game “SUSTAINATION” which was later presented in SDG Summit, 2023 at the UN Headquarters. She represented the voice of SDG in the 12th regional 3R and Circular Economy Forum in Asia and the Pacific, UNHRC, HESI Forum 2024, and UNY recently. 

She was a scholar of the Marching J Scholarship, and she spent one academic year in Japan, 2019-20. Suyashi initiated the project ‘Free Pusthakalaaya’ with the goal of providing access to books and basic educational necessities to students and youth belonging to the middle and lower middle class residing in small towns and rural India. The project is being implemented at local level in every gram panchayat in Madhya Pradesh. Among SDGs, she fights against the inequality of opportunities, lack of information and lack of quality education and all efforts to reduce inequalities.

Professor Emeritus. Richmond, The American International University in London

Professor Dr. Wolfgang Deckers has 35 years teaching experience in a variety of institutes in the UK and abroad giving him an awareness of different education systems.

He teaches on an undergraduate level for a variety of Majors in a non-specialist way. Dr. Deckers emphasizes in his work the correlation between politics and economics on an international level. Dr. Deckers emphasizes the importance of students to enjoy their studies and to challenge their current perspectives and understanding of the world around them. He aims for students to feel motivated to engage on a significant level with the globalized world of which they are part. Dr. Deckers is interested and motivated to teach as a means to tackle injustice and education is a particularly powerful tool for this.

Dr. Deckers likes living in multicultural London and likes traveling to experience other lives.

Roberta da Silveira Moraes is a social entrepreneur from Curitiba, Brazil, with a degree in Law and an MBA in Sustainable Projects and Environmental Innovations (UFPR).

Her international background includes participation in Oxford SCENE – Sustainability, Climate and Environmental Education (University of Oxford) and the Max Thabiso Edkins Climate Ambassadors Program, an initiative of the World Bank and Connect4Climate.

As the Founder and President of the Global Youth Climate Alliance (GYCA) — a not-for- profit organization — Roberta created EDUCLIMA, GYCA’s flagship initiative that trains youth from the Global South in climate education and leadership. EDUCLIMA was incubated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with Instituto Legado, the German Government (BMZ), Bridge for Billions, and the City of Curitiba. The initiative was recognized with the Legado Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Acknowledging her strong involvement in the climate agenda, she was among 24 young Brazilians nationally qualified for the role of Presidency Youth Climate Champion (PYCC) for COP30 in Brazil. Currently, Roberta proudly serves on the Board of Directors of United People Global (UPG), as the organization’s only Brazilian representative. She has also been a UPG Sustainability Leader since 2021.

Her mission is to strengthen impact-driven solutions that promote leadership, climate resilience and socio-environmental inclusion, both locally and globally.

Bio forthcoming.

Cherrie Atilano is a farmer who works to empower other farmers. She is the Founder and CEO of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc., an agro-social enterprise that aims to help eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families in order to alleviate the effects of climate change and establish food security in the Philippines. AGREA has been mobilizing communities, businesses, academia, local and national governments, and international partners to bring an “Ecology of Dignity” to farming and fishing communities on the island of Marinduque.

Previously, she worked as a consultant with the Department of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines and helped to form 241 cooperatives of smallholder farmers in the country.

She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including Inspiring Filipina Entrepreneur in 2017, The Outstanding Women in Nation’s Service Award in 2016, and first Awardee of Women of the Future Social Entrepreneur in SouthEast Asia, chosen as one of the ASEAN Emerging Leaders (ANGELS) by Channel News Asia and Visionary in Asia by Japan NHK World News.

Amadou Mahtar Ba is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of AllAfrica Global Media, Inc. AllAfrica owns and operates allafrica.com, an international multi-media content service provider, systems technology developer and the largest distributor of African news and information worldwide. He is also the Founder of the African Media Initiative (AMI), a pan-African effort he established and led until 2014 to provide the continent’s media owners and practitioners with the tools they need to play a stronger leadership role in their communities, countries and the region.

Prior to AllAfrica and AMI, Mr. Ba served as Director of Communications and Marketing for BICIS Bank, a subsidiary of the French banking group BNP Paribas and helped lead the successful restructuring and privatization of the Pan African News Agency (PANA).

Ba is a champion of the role of the media, good governance, women’s empowerment, technology and innovation and he has served on several international Boards and working groups. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, Forbes listed him as one of “The Top 10 Most Powerful Men in Africa” in February 2014. EXPO 2015 and Afronline awarded Mr. Ba the 2012 African Media Prize acknowledging his “outstanding contribution to African Media and his skills on promoting innovation among African Media.”

Martin Chungong serves as the Secretary General of the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU). He has more than three decades of experience and knowledge of parliaments at national and international level, Chungong has dedicated his professional life to promoting and building democracy worldwide. He contributed to establishing governance benchmarks to strengthen democracy, as chair of the Management Committee on Accountability of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Governance Network. Since 2012, Mr Chungong has made a push to strengthen parliamentary engagement on sustainable development and accountability through his role as Parliamentary Representative on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. An awardee of the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, Ordre de la Francophonie, and a linguist by training

Daisy Guo is the Co-founder and CMO of Tezign.com, a platform based creative marketplace & workflow solution.With a mission to revolutionize the relationship between clients and creative professionals, Tezign has brought together over 2,000 projects, from major clients such as land developer SOHO China, Greenland Group, and the film production company H.Brothers. Guo is an artist at heart and a graduate of China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, she holds a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture. She has curated art exhibits worldwide, including as part of the curating team for the Chinese pavilion at Venice Biennale 2012.

Juliette-Marie Somerset is currently the CEO & Managing Partner at Somerset Capital based in Silicon Valley, where she oversees global investments in disruptive technologies and serves actively on game-changing tech startups Boards and Advisory Councils. Her investment and venture capital career spans over two decades, including executive roles in New York City on Wall Street in investment banking and portfolio management.

Juliette-Marie Somerset is focusing on three tech sectors: ClimateTech, FinTech and AI. She is investing, advising and
mentoring innovative startups and fostering growth in cutting-edge industries. The professional network of Fintech women and her peers in New York City honored her at the NYSE as a leading female Fintech role-model and leader. She has been a guest lecturer in finance at Haas Business School based in Berkeley, California and a visiting lecturer in Blockchain Technology at ESCP Business School based in Berlin, Germany.

Juliette-Marie Somerset has spent the past decade as a mentor, advisor at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center based in San Francisco, Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale University (Tsai City) and Norrsken Impact Accelerator based in Stockholm, Sweden accelerating climate-tech solutions and partnering with global entrepreneurs. She has provided mentorship to environmentalists and innovators nominated for the prestigious The Earthshot Prize founded by Prince William, The Prince of Wales and the Royal Foundation.

She began championing the international rights and protection of children as a UNICEF volunteer in New York City nearly 30 years ago. Sustainable global impact and advancing gender equality are her professional and personal North Star. Juliette-Marie Somerset speaks regularly at International Women’s Day global events and How Women Lead board mentorship and networking conferences. She was educated at Yale University, Columbia University in New York City and All Souls College in England.

Graça Machel is a leading social and political activist as well as a renowned international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, having fought for decades for increased literacy and access to education and greater assistance for community development. She served as the first Education Minister of Mozambique until 1989 and during this period Machel lowered the illiteracy rate by 20 percent and oversaw a dramatic increase in primary school enrolment. In 1997 she chaired a United Nations Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children that helped establish a comprehensive agenda for the protection of children in conflict zones. Mrs. Machel founded the Foundation for Community Development, a grassroots NGO that works to bring together the forces of all sectors of society to promote development, democracy and social justice. Graça Machel is a founding member of The Elders alongside her late husband, Nelson Mandela. The Elders is an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights. Her humanitarian contributions have been recognised by a number of awards, including the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project, the Nansen Medal for her service to the cause of child refugees, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the Council of Europe’s North-South Prize.