Laure Yossa

BIOGRAPHY

Laure Yossa

Finance Expert, Entrepreneur, born November 16, 1971, in Cameroon. After a difficult child wood in a house from divorced parent, Laure decided to focus on her studies and worked hard at school to in order forget the sadness of the home she lived in. She was well rewarded from her effort and won Honor Awards (presented to the top 5 students of the class) every year for all the seven years of high school.

In 1989, Laure Yossa successfully passed her High School Diploma with specialization in Mathematics and Physics. She was also admitted to ESSEC (Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales). She was one the leaders of AIESEC “International Associations of Students in Economics and Science”, an exchange program for students worldwide. As an AIESEC leader she attended leadership conferences in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast and got Human Resources internship with Kraft Foods in Switzerland. After 5 years in ESSEC she graduated in 1994 as Top student from a promotion of 50 graduates with a Master in Finance and Accounting

After graduation she worked with Afriland First Bank for 1.5 years in Cameroon, then joined Dale Carnegie & Associates in New York and later on SOME (So others Might Eat) as Accountant in Washington DC. 3 months after joining the SOME, Laure was promoted to Financial Manager and referred a classmate from ESSEC who was hired at SOME.

In 2000, she left SOME to pursue her MBA at Kellogg School of Management with the main goal to use her skills to influence the development of Africa. In 2002, she chose to work with ExxonMobil on the pipeline project, one of the biggest USA investment in Central Africa. In 2003, she started her own consulting company (Africa Growth Action) – www.africa-growth.org. in order to better serve and help businesses get the resources they need to be successful.

From her growing up with a father obsessed with agro-industry, who used to make homemade pie out of porc meat and jam out of fruits, Laure has always been moved by the potential that developing countries have to transform their natural agricultural resource and use value added as a tool to reduce poverty.

As of March 2006, Laure Yossa is committed to implementing a network of farmers who would use sustainable and environment friendly techniques to cultivate organic fruits. The fruits are then transformed into snacks for distribution in national and international markets. This project will result in job opportunities for 25 people the first year and stable stream of revenue for hundreds of farmers in the region.