Jumoke Akinsemoyin, St James’s, 1983 Leaver

Moky was born in Nigeria, educated in England and has lived in London, Johannesburg and Lagos.  In 2015, she joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the Deputy Director.

She is a well-known face across Africa as a result of her career in television which started in 2001 when she became the African Anchor and Field Reporter for South Africa’s award-winning news and actuality show – Carte Blanche. In 2007, she conceptualized, co-produced and presented a lifestyle TV series for the pan African pay TV channel MNet called Living It, which focused on the lifestyles of the African continent’s wealthy elite. The series is still being run on the channel. In 2008, she played a lead role in the ground breaking and popular MNet Pan-African drama series, Jacob’s Cross, which has proved to be one of the most successful drama series ever produced in Africa.

An accomplished writer, Moky’s articles and opinion pieces have been published in various magazines and newspapers. In November 2008, her book Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs with a foreword written by Richard Branson was published by Penguin Books. The book featured on the top 10 best-selling business books in South Africa and was selected for the Exclusive Books Homebru promotion which showcases the best of South African writing.

In 2009, Moky also started a mass market fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read.

As well as her media interests, Moky is a Marketing Communications professional with a wealth of experience gained from over 18 years in the PR industry serving almost every aspect of specialist communications from financial to foundations across Africa. An entrepreneur with a pan African vision, Moky formed her own communications agency - Red PR - early in 1999, with the vision of becoming the first pan-African PR network. Three years later she left to set up as an independent consultant to pursue her media passions.

As part of her passion to present a positive image of Africa and showcase its heroes and achievements, she created a website that has become a repository of positive facts about the continent. Visit the website at: www.africaourafrica.com

What is your best piece of advice?

Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans..... try everything at least once!

What does success look like?

As a frequent traveller, success to me is in the moments when I hit turbulence and I think the plane is going down... I realise I am OK; that if it all ends today, I have lived my best life with few regrets... that’s success to me.