Marieme Jamme (born 1974) is a Senegalese-born French-British businesswoman and technology activist. In 2016 she founded the iamtheCODE Foundation and served on the World Wide Web Foundation board. In 2017, Quartz Africa included Jamme in their "Quartz Africa Innovators 2017" list. In 2013 she was nominated as a

Young Global Leader Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Sw ...

at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

. In 2017, she won the Innovation Award at the Global Goals Award as a Goalkeepers for her work in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, curated by

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...

, for globally supporting girls and young women and advancing the UN's

Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

. That same year, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.

Early life and education

Mariéme Jamme was born in

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 million in 2023. Dakar is situated on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the w ...

. She taught herself to read and write in her teenage years. She built her technology career when she moved to the United Kingdom, where she attended the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...

to learn English. While cleaning people's houses for a living, She also learned coding at a local library in Surrey. She has had multiple temporary jobs and worked for companies such as

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...

, and

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

. She has also served in Business management positions at

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. In 2013, she was appointed to Microsoft’s 4Afrika team, where she served in an advisory role to projects that aided African startup companies.

Career

Jamme founded SpotOne Global Solutions (now called Accur8Global) in 2007 in the UK and is the CEO. The company helps IT organizations establish in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She is the co-founder of Africa Gathering, the first global platform for entrepreneurs and experts to network with regards to development across Africa. Jamme was referred to as being "at the forefront of the technology revolution that is slowly transforming Africa" by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

. She has been involved in various African competitions for tech innovation including the annual "Apps4Africa" competition as an organiser and judge, showcasing innovation and app ideas across the continent of Africa, and the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa prize for Innovation. In 2013, Jamme was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the

for her activism work in empowering and investing in young girls and women in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia through creative learning, entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics, and design (STEAMD). In 2015, Jamme collaborated with a group of African leaders to create "Accur8Africa", an initiative to help governments, civil society, entrepreneurs, and businesses evaluate progress on the UN's

by 2030 using Accurate Data.

iamtheCODE Foundation

2017 saw the launch of Jamme's "iamtheCODE" initiative, which became the first African-led initiative that collaborated with government, private sector, and investors to advance STEAMD education for girls from under-privileged areas in Africa, South America and the Middle East. The program's goal is to contribute in achieving the UN sustainability goals for education by reaching 1 million girls by 2030. The foundation aims to inspire more girls worldwide to learn to code, with an emphasis on including marginalised communities by providing them with educational spaces, tools and employment guidance.

World Wide Web Foundation board and awards

In 2017 Jamme became the first black woman on the World Wide Web Foundation Board. That same year, she was recognised as one of five inspiring leaders at the Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards, which were hosted by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and Melinda Gates, where she won the Innovation Award.

Other activities

, Member of the 4Afrika Advisory Council (since 2013)

Recognition

Jamme was included in the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

editions of the ''

Powerlist The Powerlist is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The Powerlist is not lim ...

'', a listing of the 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamme, Marieme Alumni of the University of Surrey Senegalese businesspeople Senegalese women in business Chief executives in the technology industry Social entrepreneurs 1974 births Living people