In business, government, philanthropy and the arts, and all over the globe, these men and women are transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same. Ghana and mPedigree Founder and President, Bright Simmons made the list at the 47th position. Closely following Bright Simmons at 48th is premier of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
mPedigree uses cutting-edge technology to innovate partnerships, ensuring that such critical products reach consumers in the right condition, protected from counterfeiting, diversion, tampering and other supply building partnerships with USAID, ORANGE, MTN, Tigo, Airtel, World Economic Forum,Ashoka,UNBS among others. mPedigree delivers services to consumers, brand owners and governments across Africa and middle east and Asia. Since its founding in 2007, mPedigree has delivered the technologies and partnership models needed to create a new kind of operating system for the supply chains which carry consumer products in emerging markets.
Bright Simons is a Ghanaian social innovator, entrepreneur, writer and researcher affiliated with IMANI. Bright has spoken and contributed to several forums internationally; The World Economic Forum and The Web Index 2013 launch among others.
Simons writes for the Huffington Post,Digital and the Royal African Society’s online magazine, African Arguments.He is a regular contributor to the BBC’s Business Daily programs.
In 2012, The Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy named Simons one of the Top 99 under 33 Innovators for his work with mPedigree.
MIT Technology Review included Simons in a list, released August 21, 2013, of the top 35 innovators under 35. He was included on the list for his work in telecommunications.
In 2009, Simons was a TED Fellow. The World Economic Forum recognized Simons in 2012 as a Young Global Leader and The mPedigree Network as a technology pioneer.
The International Foundation for Africa Innovation gave Simons a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to innovation in Africa on August 7, 2013.
The Salzburg Global Seminar named Bright Simons a Fellow in 2011. He credits his Salzburg engagement as helping accelerate movement of the mPedigree Network from Africa to India and China.
Simons has co-authored research at IMANI.
Below is the accompanying brief on Bright Simmons in the Fotune’s list;
“Counterfeit drugs are rife in Africa—one estimate pegs the chances of purchasing one at 30%, and in 2013 more than 120,000 African children died because of poor-quality antimalarials. Simons, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Ghana, offered a boldly simple solution: Africans could check the authenticity of medications by sending mPedigree a text message with the special 12-digit code marked on their drug packet. Now mPedigree has its labels on more than 500 million packets, with clients including giants AstraZeneca and Sanofi. The company is currently active in 12 countries in the developing world.”
