Yasmin Kumi

Biography

Yasmin Kumi is a half-Ghanaian/German young professional combining a Master's degree in African Studies with an MBA at the Saïd Business School (Oxford 1+1 MBA program). Her studies are funded by the Pershing Square Foundation founded by Bill Ackman from New York, which supports young leaders working on scalable solutions to social challenges around the world. She is the current President of the Oxford University Africa Society, the umbrella organisation for students hailing from or interested in Africa. Last year she was the co-chair of the Oxford Africa Conference 2015 which was opened by the President of Ghana.

Yasmin has worked as a senior consultant for McKinsey & Company since 2011 advising clients in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa in the consumer goods and banking industry. Previously she led the monitoring division of an agricultural development project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Accra that promotes the integration of the cashew nut value chain in West Africa. Yasmin has completed a number of internships during her undergraduate studies at a German business school, amongst others at the German International Development Corporation (GIZ), Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Yasmin is passionate about creating social change in sub-Saharan Africa through private-sector driven solutions. In 2013 she developed an initiative at McKinsey to support Green Belt Movement, the organisation of late Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai, in the transition to a social business model. She is currently working on the establishment of an African research advisory company providing employment opportunities to local talented graduates and has recently been accepted to the Harambe Entrepreneurship Alliance with her corresponding proposal. She is excited about salsa and hiphop dancing, poetry and the art of cooking. Yasmin speaks German and English fluently, but also has language ability in French, Korean and Twi.