Dr. Melissa Sassi

Dr. Sassi is a tech disruptor whose doctoral research examined digital inclusion and its tie to solving the most pressing issues of our time, which led to creating the world’s first digital skills & readiness standard endorsed IEEE Standards. She created and led two startup accelerators at Microsoft and IBM where she spent 8+ years. Her portfolio of early-stage ventures included 225+ startups in 75+ countries, having raised $100M+ in investment capital. As Wall Street alum, her stints at Goldman Sachs and BlackRock enabled her to power programs like 10,000 Small Businesses, 10,000 Women, and analyst thought leadership worldwide. She’s led 400+ talks in the last 4+ years in topics such as digital inclusion, future of work, economic development in emerging markets, tech startups, youth enablement, and gender equity with organizations such as United Nations, World Economic Forum, Microsoft, IBM, ITU, UNESCO, World Bank, CES, IEEE, and more. As Skills Hustle’s Co-Founder, she’s democratizing access to meaningful employment and entrepreneurship with a lens on solving the skills and confidence gaps. Her nonprofit, MentorNations, has enabled tens of thousands of young changemakers to code in twelve countries, resulting in three UN award nominations. Having worked in 60+ countries across the globe, you can often find her tweeting from faraway lands. Join Dr. Sassi’s Twitter journey: @mentorafrika.