Our network
Deploying our network to support African solutions
We need to shift our focus from individual heroes to the intricate web of relationships that drive change.”
Jean Oelwang, Co-Chair
We are joined, supported and led by people and organisations who share a commitment to improving health security and challenging inequity.
Members
A network of 100+ philanthropies, governments, African agencies and practitioners focussed on strengthening public health systems.
Working Group
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I'll say it out loud: the global machinery needs to be more receptive to the needs and voices of African countries. We still have to deliver on the promises that have been made because it's just a matter of time before there will be another pandemic. Not if, when.”
Solomon Zewdu
Co-Chairs
Jean Oelwang
Jean is a Collaborations Architect and the founding CEO of Virgin Unite. Over the last 20 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives.
This includes: The Elders, The B Team, The Planetary Guardians, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with RMI), The Africa Partners Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, Generations Unite, and several others.
As part of her work over the last three decades, Jean has helped corporations put the wellbeing of people and the planet at their core, including working with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help embed purpose in all they do. Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy. She is currently a B Team leader.
Jean spent seventeen years helping lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US. She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite.
She co-founded the not-for-profit Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world. She is the author of the new book, Partnering.
Solomon Zewdu
Solomon is a Medical Doctor with extensive expertise in global health, resilient health system design and disaster preparedness and response.
He left Ethiopia as a teenager during the civil war, going on to study medicine in the US. He became a decorated Lieutenant Colonel of the US Airforce, running various humanitarian and disaster mitigation missions including as a first responder at the Pentagon on 9/11 and the Indonesian tsunami.
Solomon's international health work with Johns Hopkins University and the (US) Center for Disease Control brought him back to Ethiopia in 2006 as Country Director for PEPFAR. He later joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work on end-to-end solutions for health system strengthening in alignment with the Government of Ethiopia before serving as Deputy Director for the Africa office. Given his background in emergency management, he served as the BMGF COVID-19 coordinator for the African continent.
Currently Senior Executive Resident for Strategy and Planning at the Mastercard Foundation, Solomon shapes partnerships in workforce development, pandemic preparedness and the manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. This includes the management of the Saving Lives and Livelihoods partnership.
Solomon also serves on the boards of the Institut Pasteur and Living Goods.
Team
Jodie Jones
Jodie is normally a fundraiser. She began consulting with the Africa CDC in late 2019, and, at the outset of the pandemic, was asked by the Founding Director to support the establishment of the Africa Public Health Foundation to better accelerate partnerships for Africa CDC.
In late 2022, with a core team established at APHF, she began working directly with the Africa Partners Collective (then Africa Donor Collective) to support the team at Virgin Unite shape future plans.
Before working with the Collective, Jodie has worked for and with organisations like Restless Development, VSO, CCS Fundraising, Tony Blair's Africa Governance Initiative and established her own consulting practice. She graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in Law and French and has since attained an MSc Green Economy at Bournemouth University and an MBA with the University of Exeter.
Sofi Llewellyn
Sofi has been with Virgin Unite (the not-for-profit entrepreneurial foundation of the Branson family and Virgin Group) since 2019, initially working in the Grants and Investments team to deliver grant funding to new and existing partners within the portfolio.
In 2020, she transitioned to sit within the President's office, working closely with Jean Oelwang and the team on several initiatives and priorities closely aligned with the Branson Family. As part of this role, Sofi handled briefings for Unite engagements and managed a number of relationships with Foundations and HNWIs and played an instrumental role in Virgin Unite's COVID-19 response.
Currently, Sofi sits within the Strategy and Programme team managing Virgin Unite's Health, Rights, Social Justice, and Entrepreneurship portfolio, and dedicates much of her time to VU's Emergency Response strategy. She is passionate about building and sustaining partnerships that align with Virgin Unite's values and drive impact.
Prior to Virgin, Sofi worked in the Financial Services sector for five years, with a focus on Investment Management and Private Equity. She grew up in a small town bordering the South Downs in West Sussex and graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in Modern History and Politics.