User:Oilmporan/sandbox

'''Samuel. “Sam” Alemayehu' (Amharic: ሳሙኤል ዓለማየሁ; alämayähu)'' is an Ethiopian-American serial-entrepreneur and investor. He is focused on climate resilient technologies. He is the founder and Chairman of Cambridge Industries Ltd, who developed the first waste-to-energy project in Africa, Reppie waste-to-energy plant and the universal waste management project in Kinshasa  He is a 2018 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Early life and education
Samuel Alemayehu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1999, he immigrated to the United States to reconnect with his father who was a political refugee and former Member of Parliament in Ethiopia.

Alemayehu started his education in the U.S. as an ESOL student with limited exposure to the English language and four years later, graduated from High Point High School in Beltsville, MD as valedictorian. Alemayehu was accepted to numerous top colleges including Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and Caltech.

Alemayehu attended Stanford University where he graduated from the School of Engineering. During his collegiate career, Alemayehu was President of Stanford’s Society of Black Scientists and Engineers (SBSE) as well as several other organizations. He also launched entrepreneurial and philanthropic initiatives focused on project-based learning and consumer media.

Alemayehu co-founded Tutor24, which developed a project-based teaching program, “The Program in Math and Physics (P.I.M.P.) My Golf Cart,” The program was designed to teach students of the Boys and Girls Club of East Palo Alto STEM concepts by transforming old golf carts into their dream car. Alemayehu also founded Corner Media, a social networking platform for close-knit communities, which launched several social medial brands for diaspora communities in the US.

Mobile services
In 2008, Alemayehu joined Venrock Associates as an Associate Investor where he invested in consumer media and mobile application services.

During his tenure at Venrock Associates, Alemayehu co-founded 4AFRI Media, a mobile software start-up that developed mobile solutions across industries specific to the African continent and was designed as the African version of 4INFO. In its first year, 4AFRI Media produced over 50 SMS based mobile applications reaching over five million mobile users.

In addition to his work with 4AFRI Media, Alemayehu led the creation of SantéPhone S.A., a mobile-based health prevention platform founded in partnership with leading health insurance companies across West Africa and the investment bank Credit Suisse.

Climate Resilience
Alemayehu believes that infrastructure is the “bottleneck for growth in emerging cities”. Following his mobile services career, he co-founded Cambridge Industries Ltd. with the mission of transforming these infrastructures to make them more sustainable through the intersection of innovative technology and localized business models. Starting with the African continent, Alemayehu and his team have led the investment and development of several initiatives focused on technology for development and digital infrastructure.

In 2012, to address the waste issues and prevent tragic garbage landslides in Africa, Alemayehu and his team designed an ambitious “infrastructure model starting with a facility which can process over 1,000 ton of waste per day and produce over 100,000 MWhr of electricity per year while supporting the direct and indirect employment of over 10,000 people within a single city.” By August 2018, they surpassed the goal by having led the construction and planning of the first waste-to-energy facility in Africa located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which is able to process 1,400 ton of waste per day, produce 185,000 MWhr of electricity per year while following EU standards for emission control and support over 15,000 jobs. After proving the vision with the globally recognized facility, Cambridge Industries Ltd. is aiming to deploy $750 million USD to build six additional facilities, within a sustainable city park model, throughout Africa. The new facilities will include insect farming facilities where they'll leverage food-waste to farm insects that will be converted into chicken and fish feed.

He also serves as the Chairman of Contingent Technologies, where he recently build a multipurpose power project in Ethiopia with an investment of over $850 million USD in partnership with Globaleq. Despite getting funding approval, the project is awaiting local approval for the targeted Genale Dawa VI hydropower and irrigation site. In addition to pushing this project, Alemayehu and his team have invested in researching the viability of several sites for renewable energy projects in East Africa.

Alemayehu sits on the Board of Directors of several other companies.

Philanthropy
As an immigrant from humble beginnings, Alemayehu recognizes that his success is made possible through “the generosity of strangers” and has made a commitment to give back at every stage of his life. His core focus areas are to promote diversity in STEM-education and entrepreneurship through project-based learning programs.

He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Ron Brown Scholar Program. As a 2004 recipient of a Ron Brown Scholarship, Alemayehu sought to encourage the cycle of giving back to the organization by donating the full scholarship he received, $40,000, to fund a future scholar’s college education ten years later in 2014.

In addition to financial donations, Alemayehu invests and is involved in creative initiatives aimed at shifting perceptions of cultures and people while supporting entrepreneurship. These efforts include:


 * Helping to finance the PBS Independent Lens documentary, The Judge, which tells the story of, Kholoud Faqih, the first female Sharia-Court judge in the Middle East . The documentary was shown at the Toronto Film Festival and has won a Peabody Award.
 * Investing in and partnering with the Pitch & Flow movement, which connects emcees with entrepreneur for a business plan competition that is presented in a rap battle format. Pitch & Flow has been presented at the Kennedy Center, Singularity University and at SXSW, where it is an annual event.

Alemayehu has served on the advisory board of the World Waste to Energy Summit and advices several NGOs in Africa.

Notable awards

 * The Choiseul 100: Africa’s 100 Top Young Economic Leaders
 * World Economic Forum: Young Global Leader (2018)
 * Unreasonable Fellow
 * American Journey Awards: Emerging Leader