Viola Llewellyn
Co-Founder & President of Ovamba Solutions; Leader in FinTech and Advocate for Diversity & Equality
Viola Llewellyn is the co-founder and President of Ovamba Solutions, Inc.
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Full Bio
Viola Llewellyn is the co-founder and President of Ovamba Solutions, Inc. Ovamba is an award winning African “TradeTech” company that creates culturally attuned technologies for Financial Institutions so that they can serve formal and informal African SMEs in the trade & commodities sectors with short term capital and financial inclusion. Ovamba’s solutions combine innovative Sharia compliant structures with eCommerce, logistics services, and technology to drive financial inclusion and promote growth. Ms. Llewellyn oversees technology development, strategic implementation, investor communications, and global business development for Ovamba.
As a founding team member of a life insurance investment fund ($500M AUM) in Washington, DC, she led investor communications, and asset management divisions. In her past career, she has held positions with Unisys Corporation, IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint and Rothschild’s.
Ms. Llewellyn was listed in the “Digital Undivided Report” as one of only 34 Black women in the USA to have raised more than $1 million for a technology company as featured in the April issue of Vanity Fair Magazine. She is listed on Innovate Finance’s 2016, 2017 & 2018 “Women in FinTech Power List”, and on “Latice80’s Top 100 Women in Fintech 2019” list. Ms. Llewellyn is further distinguished by being the first Female African Tech Founder to speak at both “Slush”, Helsinki and “Slush, Tokyo” – yearly events that are billed as the biggest gathering of innovators, funders, startups and entrepreneurs in Europe and Asia respectively. In late 2018, her TED Talk was included as part of the “Reboot” Series with Boston Consulting Group. Ms. Llewellyn is a published author of the The Brooking’s Institute’s “Foresight Africa 2019” article, ‘Winning in Africa’s FinTech: The Ovamba Way’ and the Wilson Centers’ “Africa: Year In Review 2019.”
She is on a number of advisory boards, including The Africa Fintech Summit, The Africa Professional Services Group, the European Women’s Payment Network, as well as the African Women in Fintech & Payments Network. In June of 2018, Ovamba was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Technology Pioneer, securing a 2-year Ambassadorship and a place at the prestigious “Davos Summit” conference. Ms. Llewellyn previously served on the board of Africa’s leading tech hub and incubator ActivSpaces.
Llewellyn’s family is originally from Cameroon. She was born, raised and educated in the U.K. and lives between the African Continent and the USA.
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MEDTRONIC
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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
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SAP COMPANY
Thank you again, Dr. Kimbrough, for a great presentation, our attendees are still talking about it!
CAMPUS LABS
Dr. Henry Lee's presentation was entertaining, insightful and wise. I, and everyone at Pfizer, especially appreciate the remarks you directed about following your passion and preparing yourself to excel. Thank you, everyone, at PDA for helping to make this happen!
PFIZER
The event was successful! I received many messages expressing how awesome, outstanding and inspiring Ms. Webb-Christburg's speech was."
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MEMORIAL BREAKFAST, BOSTON, MLK SPEAKER
Everything went well. Atsuko was very easy to work with and the students enjoyed her performance! Thank you again for your recommendation and I hope to work with you again in the future!
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
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GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
Jordan Carlos was very very entertaining! A majority of students who answered the event survey indicated they really enjoyed Jordan and definitely will bring him back!
WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
On behalf of myself and my organization Entertainment Unlimited the Campus Programming Board of Ferris State University, we thank you PDA and Dan for a successful event!! Dan was magnificent! Students really enjoyed the presentation. I know I did. Can't wait to bring in more programs with PDA Group.
FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY
It was a great pleasure to work with PDA Group! The communication was always prompt, friendly and helpful. We loved the speakers and events we booked through Mr. Peter Walker (PDA Group).
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Thank you, Peter, for all your help, you'll be happy to know that the event went incredibly well! Aneesa Ferreira was by far one of the best speakers we've ever had!
FURMAN UNIVERSITY
Topics
An Evening With Viola Llewellyn
Videos
A new model of microfinance for Africa, and beyond | Viola Llewellyn | TED Institute
The Democratisation of Financial Services (Viola Llewellyn, Ovamba)
Books
News
Testimonials
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