A rising junior at the University of Rochester, and an African Leadership Academy alumnus and Patrice Lumumba Spirit of Africa awardee, Souleymane was born in Guinea, lived in Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa before attending college, thanks to a full scholarship. He is respectively a 2022 and 2023 Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) and Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst. Given Guinea’s 2004 political volatility, Souleymane’s family fled and took refuge in Côte d’Ivoire. During the 2010 post-election crisis, Souleymane experienced first-hand the atrocities of war seeing one of his best friends instantly killed by a stray bullet, and his parents losing everything with rebels’ looting. Once again, Souleymane and his family fled, reverting to Guinea. These experiences shaped Souleymane’s interests in ethical leadership education which he believes is key to building a peaceful and prosperous nation. As a high school and college first-generation student from a family of 13 children, Souleymane uses his privilege of gaining a good quality education to give back to his community. Souleymane is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Guinean Young Leaders Initiative (GYLI), a non-profit foundation empowering Guinea’s most promising young leaders to drive positive change through ethical and entrepreneurial leadership education. Thanks to a $10,000 grant by the Davis Foundation, GYLI launched its pilot program in Conakry, this summer. Through GYLI, Souleymane and his teammates aspire to build the Guinean Leadership Academy, an innovative school that will identify, develop, and connect Guinea's most promising young leaders, ensuring that Guinea's brightest minds have access to a world-class education in Guinea, stay in Guinea, and access the resources needed to develop Guinea on their own terms.
