Bright Simons

Biography

Bright is the President of mPedigree, a social enterprise working on three continents in partnership with governments, Fortune 500 companies and grassroots organisations to promote innovative technologies, from sensors to software, in health & food security, transparency and governance. His latest enterprise, Koldchain, incubated at the Harvard Innovation Lab, combines "smart polymers" and computer vision to offer frontline health workers an instant validation for vaccine quality.
Bright straddles entrepreneurship and scholarship, writing prolifically for the likes of Harvard Business Review, Quartz magazine, the BBC's Business Daily show, and the Huffington Post. An enthusiastic board-level advisor, recent commitments include the Microsoft Africa Advisory Council, Care International's Supervisory Board, the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Africa, the Center for Global Development's Study Group on Technology, the World Economic Forum's Africa Strategy Group, IMANI Center for Policy & Education, and the inaugural Ashoka Globalizer initiative. Other assignments have been at the instance of the World Bank, UNECA, USAID, the EU, and the Commonwealth. Other relevant affiliations include: membership in successive World Economic Forum Global Agenda and Future Councils; the TED Fellowship; the Tutu Fellowship; and Socrates, Braddock, and AGLN-ALIWA scholarships and fellowships at the Aspen Institute. Bright is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award from the African Innovation Foundation; was on a list of the 35 most impressive global technology visionaries under age 35 by the MIT's Tech Review in 2013; was ranked among Quartz’s top 30 innovators in 2015; and been listed by both the Africa Report and New African magazines on their Most Influential Persons' lists in recent years. In 2016, he was announced as the CNBC All-Africa Business Leader of the Year in the innovation category. In 2016, Fortune magazine named him on their 50 World Greatest Leaders list.