‘Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion and digital rights through its offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. He is a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF) High-Level Leadership Panel and a member of the International Panel on the Information Environment’s Scientific Panel on Global Standards for AI Auditing. ‘Gbenga is a highly sought-after conference speaker, presenting at over 30 national, regional, and international conferences annually.

Before starting Paradigm Initiative, ‘Gbenga led the Lagos Digital Village, a joint project of Junior Achievement of Nigeria, Microsoft, and the Lagos State Government. Originally trained as an Electronic and Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, he completed Executive Education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University, University of the Pacific, INSEAD, and King’s College London. ‘Gbenga’s consulting experience includes assignments completed for numerous institutions in the private and public sectors as well as United Nations agencies, in over 30 countries.

A Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and former member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT, he is a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow.

‘Gbenga served as a member of the Presidential committees on Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications, and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013), and was listed by CNN as one of the Top 10 African Tech Voices on Twitter and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40. ‘Gbenga is married to Temilade Sesan, PhD, an Energy Poverty and Development expert.

‘Gbenga was a Non-Resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University from 2020 to 2021, advised the World Health Organisation on Data Privacy during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and advised the World Economic Forum on its Operationalising Trust Project, to develop rights-respecting Data Policy for businesses.