Bright Simons is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, writer, and social commentator. He is the founder and president of mPedigree, a social enterprise notable for exposing makers and distributors of counterfeit drugs in three continents in partnership with governments, companies and grassroots organizations to promote innovative technologies, from sensors to software, in health & food security, transparency and governance.
His organization his reputed for the development of a computer program ‘Goldkeys’ that enables the verification of certain products in some countries.
Bright straddles entrepreneurship and scholarship, writing prolifically for the likes of Harvard Business Review, Quartz magazine, the BBC’s Business Daily show, and the Huffington Post. An enthusiastic board-level advisor, his recent commitments include the Microsoft Africa Advisory Council, the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Africa, the Center for Global Development’s Study Group on Technology, the World Economic Forum’s Africa Strategy Group, IMANI Center for Policy & Education, the Africa Population Health Research Center, Care International, IC Publications, owner of the New African magazine, and the inaugural Ashoka Globalizer initiative. His other notable assignments are at the World Bank, UNECA, USAID, the EU, and the Commonwealth. Other relevant affiliations include: membership in successive World Economic Forum Global Agenda and Future Councils; the TED Fellowship; the Tutu Fellowship; and Socrates, Braddock, and AGLN-ALIWA scholarships and fellowships at the Aspen Institute.
In recognition of Bright’s brilliant creativity as an entrepreneur par excellence, he is a recipient of noble awards, like African Innovation Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award, MIT’s Tech Review Shortlist for 35 most impressive global technology visionaries, Quartz’s top 30 innovators and CNBC All-Africa Business Leader of the Year in the innovation category. In 2016, Fortune magazine named him on their 50 World Greatest Leaders list.
