Eni Ikuku

Winnie Mang'eni is the founder and CEO of Pan-African Wide Alignment (Pawa AI), a pioneering company developing Small Language Models (SLMs) designed for low-resource environments in the Global South. Her mission is to make artificial intelligence accessible, secure, and transformative for communities, civil society, and businesses across Africa. Under her leadership, Pawa AI has been backed by Mozilla AI, Common Crawl, AWS, NVIDIA’s Inception program, ITU AI for Good, and other global initiatives, establishing it as one of Africa’s most promising AI ventures and delivering models tailored to the continent’s unique needs. Before founding Pawa AI, Mang'eni held leadership and technology roles at Microsoft, Avanade, Accenture, and Prudential Financial, where she developed software and AI-driven automation solutions, led enterprise digital transformation initiatives, and designed scalable technology strategies across multiple industries. These experiences shaped her expertise in software architecture, partnership building, and strategic innovation. Mang'eni has forged strategic partnerships that give African innovators access to advanced technology across sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, and fintech, helping bridge the continent’s digital divide. Her work emphasizes security, privacy, and automation, empowering businesses, entrepreneurs, and civil society organizations with practical AI solutions. Committed to ensuring that Africa’s AI future is shaped and led by Africans, she champions local talent, strategic investment, and homegrown innovation. An alumna of the African Leadership Academy, Mang'eni is a recognized thought leader and advocate for inclusive technology, advancing an AI-driven future that reflects Africa’s priorities, unlocks its potential, and fosters sustainable, equitable growth.