| Mariéme Jamme | |
| Birth Place: | Dakar, Senegal, West Africa |
| Occupation: | Tech entrepreneur, founder of iamtheCODE |
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.[1] In 2013 she was nominated as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.[2] 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 and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for globally supporting girls and young women and advancing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.[3] That same year, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[4]
Mariéme Jamme was born in Dakar, Senegal.[5] She taught herself to read and write in her teenage years.[6] [7] She built her technology career when she moved to the United Kingdom, where she attended the University of Surrey to learn English.[8] While cleaning people's houses for a living, She also learned coding at a local library in Surrey.[9] [10] She has had multiple temporary jobs and worked for companies such as Citibank, HSBC, JP Morgan, and Lloyds Bank. She has also served in Business management positions at Oracle and Microsoft. In 2013, she was appointed to Microsoft’s 4Afrika team, where she served in an advisory role to projects that aided African startup companies.
Jamme founded SpotOne Global Solutions (now called Accur8Global) in 2007 in the UK and is the CEO.[11] 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.[12] Jamme was referred to as being "at the forefront of the technology revolution that is slowly transforming Africa" by CNN.[13] 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,[14] [15] and the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa prize for Innovation.[16]
In 2013, Jamme was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum[17] 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[18] to create "Accur8Africa",[19] an initiative to help governments, civil society, entrepreneurs, and businesses evaluate progress on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 using Accurate Data.[20]
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.[21] [22] 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.[23]
In 2017 Jamme became the first black woman on the World Wide Web Foundation Board.[24] [25] 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.[26]
Jamme has been included in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Powerlist, a listing of the 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.[28]