JGA 20th Anniversary Career Day Speaker Biographies
SIR BRIAN SOUTER
Co-founder, Stagecoach Group
In 1980, Sir Brian founded Stagecoach with his sister Dame Ann Gloag, founder of Jonathan Gloag Academy. Stagecoach started out with two second-hand buses and 40 years later has 24,000 employees and a fleet of 8,300 energy efficient buses, coaches and trams that carry 3million passengers a day. The company ran the national bus services in Kenya and Malawi for a period of time in the 1980s and 1990s.
Sir Brian is passionate about protecting the environment and, not only has he ensured that the Stagecoach fleet is amongst the most energy efficient in the world, he is also an investor in a number of green energy companies. Sir Brian worked as a bus conductor while studying at university where he first graduated with a Diploma in Commerce teaching qualification before returning to university and graduating with a joint degree in accounting and economics.
Today, Sir Brian heads up Souter Investments which has over £250million invested in over 30 businesses. He also oversees the Souter Charitable Trust which assists projects for the relief of human suffering in the UK and overseas. Sir Brian has been presented with countless honours and awards including receiving his Knighthood in 2011 and receiving the Businessman of the Year award, Ernst & Young UK Master Entrepreneur of the Year title, Scottish Entrepreneur Award and Scottish Business Achievement Award.
EDNA SEMITI
HR Consultant and Career Coach
Edna is an HR professional with 22 years experience working in marketing, human resources, career coaching and consulting for different sectors in East Africa. Edna graduated in Communications and Community Development from Daystar University in 2001 and has a coaching certificate from Leadership Management International in Denmark. She is currently completing her MBA in Strategic Planning and a National Diploma in Career Coaching and Development.
Edna is passionate about youth development for economic independence. She believes that with adequate support, education, advice and guidance, young people are able to prepare for the future and enter into careers they love providing sustaining jobs helping to overcome poverty and unemployment. Edna recently set up ZinduaKaria which focuses on providing career services for school age youths, youth transitioning to adulthood, NEET youth and young professionals under 35. She also provides HR Consultancy services to MercyShips, a US based organisation that provides free surgical care in Africa through hospital ships.
DAVID SENGEH,
Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education & Chief Innovation Office, Sierra Leone
David is currently a senior member of the Sierra Leone Government and is also a TED Senior Fellow. After studying in Norway, David studied biomedical engineering at Harvard University where he researched aerosolised vaccines for TB. During his time at Harvard, he was co-founder of Lebone Solutions, a start-up that developed inexpensive batteries from microbial fuel cells.
David then joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his post graduate studies when he was inspired to work on prosthetics due to his experiences of the Sierra Leone civil war. He used 3D printing to generate new sockets and his prototypes were tested by veterans and amputees from the Boston Marathon bombing.
During his PhD research, Sengeh founded the NGO Global Minimum Inc, a programme that supports the Innovate Salone entrepreneurship programme in Sierra Leone, Kenya and Cape Town. He wanted to change ‘aid to Africa’ to ‘Made in Africa’. David worked with IBM Research in Nairobi and Johannesburg designing and developing healthcare technologies in Africa before joining the Office of the President of Sierra Leone in 2018.
David was named as a TED Fellow and selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2014. He was selected as one of Face2Face Africa’s Young Africans Committed to Excellence and he won the 2014 Lemelson–MIT Prize for his innovations in healthcare.
