NII SIMMONDS

Current

Director William James Foundation Africa Prize at William James Foundation
Co-Director International Programs at Wall Street Without Walls
Co-organizer at Maker Faire Africa

Co-founder at Afrobotics - African robot competition
Board Member at Investors Without Borders

see less...

2 more...

Past

Project Manager - Global Health at Booz Allen Hamilton
Sr. Financial Analyst at Johnson & Johnson (McNeil)
Senior Finance & Competitive Intelligence Analyst at Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals

BPO Strategy Consultant at Cap Gemini

see less...

1 more...

Education

The Wharton School
Pennsylvania State University

Recommended

7 people have recommended NII

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

My Blog

NII SIMMONDS’s Summary

I'm interested in using capital markets, business plan competitions, incubation, robots, venture capital, engineering and sustainable entrepreneurship as a mechanism to initiate entrepreneurship in Africa.

Nii Simmonds is a recognized speaker, consultant, and sustainable evangelist on African entrepreneurship. Mr. Simmonds also blogs about African business, sustainable technology, venture capital, and social entrepreneurship on his blog Nubian Cheetah.

Mr. Simmonds frequently speaks and presents on entrepreneurship, ICT, sustainable technology, elearning, globalization, and outsourcing market in Africa and other emerging markets. Professionally Mr. Simmonds is a consultant who has experience in corporate finance, supply chain management, competitive intelligence, corporate strategy and outsourcing.

African Specialties:

- African Business Development
- African strategic Alliances and Partnerships
- African connections, Deals, Negotiations, Value Propositions
- African product management
- Small Business Advising
- Entrepreneur Development
- Africa Based Business Ventures
- BPO Advising
- Africa Biofuel development
- Africa Web 2.0
- Mobile payment

NII SIMMONDS’s Specialties:

ICT, Corporate Finance, Business Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Internet web strategy, SEO, Internet Branding, Social Entrepreneurship, BPO, BOP, Business Development, Financial Analysis, Financial modeling, Business Plan, Busyinternet, Mtn, mobile payment systems, meso finance, Africa business, ERP, Healthcare, biofuels, palm oil, jatropha, telemedicine, affordable health in Africa, Africa health, Global Health, Medical Informatics, eHealth, Health Supply Chain, Supply Chain systems Africa

NII SIMMONDS’s Experience

Director William James Foundation Africa Prize

William James Foundation

(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

October 2009 — Present (2 months)

The William James Foundation supports entrepreneurs who are starting for-profit businesses with defined social and/or environmental goals.

My responsibility is to help find entrepreneurs from the African continent who have business plans that are for-profit and have a social benefit to society. Also, I'm responsible for finding mentors or in-kind donors - to provide guidance or advice to potential winners for the Africa Prize. I also help judge the competition and lead the ongoing search for more volunteer judges who have market experience from the African continent.
Co-Director International Programs

Wall Street Without Walls

(Capital Markets industry)

October 2009 — Present (2 months)

WSWW connects capital market institutions and financial products with organizations engaged in community economic development in low and moderate-income communities in emerging markets/developing countries to access new sources of mission capital; using the expertise of WSWW team of volunteers of retired investment bankers and senior financial executives.

- Provide pro bono advisory and consulting service to social enterprises, nonprofit and community development organizations using a variety of structured finance and sustainable financing programs such as tax increment finance, tax credit equity, revolving loan funds, loan guarantees and microenterprise finance.
- Collaborate with WSWW’s advisory team on sustainable socially responsible investments, mission-related investments, and/or program-related investments through outreach and partnership with various community development practitioners.
- Promote WSWW’s "dead assets" financing program in which local city governments and municipalities can utilize empty lots or vacant properties as collaterals and/or investment guarantees for economic and community development project financing.
Co-organizer

Maker Faire Africa

(Industrial Automation industry)

November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

An annual event where African industrialization and ingenuity type of innovations, inventions and initiatives can be brought to life, supported, amplified, propagated etc.

My role is to find African engineers, scientists and do-it-yourselfers to bring their inventions and innovations to the African marketplace.
Co-founder

Afrobotics - African robot competition

(Industrial Automation industry)

September 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)

A competition to fuel engineering, science, innovation and
entrepreneurship on the African continent, utilizing robotics.

Robotics is a field that brings together computer science and engineering, resulting in systems that interact intelligently with their environment. With applications ranging from agriculture to factory automation, from healthcare to education, robotics is a fascinating and fun way to develop creativity as well as the design, implementation, and integration skills that are essential for technology leaders.

Working from the grassroots level, Afrobotics will help stimulate the need of entrepreneurial risk-taking in Africa’s engineering, science and manufacturing sectors.

Afrobotics is a unique competition designed to facilitate creative team-building exercises for students in African universities and technical schools.

Initially, the goal of the competition is to solve a problem in short time-frame. Afrobotics will define the spirit of technology leadership for these students because they are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles.
Board Member

Investors Without Borders

(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

May 2008 — Present (1 year 7 months)

IWB is a grass roots initiative designed to fill a key gap in the financial markets of developing countries known as the missing middle. The missing middle are the small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are too large for microfinance, but too small to meet the requirements of many traditional financial institutions.

I'm part of a board that gives advice and strategic counsel to founder Tricia Chirumbole. IWB's has plans to initially enter the West African marketplace via Ghana, then branch out to other countries and markets.
Project Manager - Global Health

Booz Allen Hamilton

(Privately Held; Management Consulting industry)

March 2007 — October 2009 (2 years 8 months)

Project manager that provides healthcare and pharmaceutical clients economic and business analysis including: cost analysis, revenue analysis, business strategy, revenue cycle and planning for public and commercial clients. I also assist in business development, proposal writing and conducting best practices research, cost estimation, and analysis for transactional and transformational Pharmaceuticals healthcare projects and technologies.
Sr. Financial Analyst

Johnson & Johnson (McNeil)

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; JNJ; Pharmaceuticals industry)

July 2005 — September 2006 (1 year 3 months)

Project Manager for a team of analysts that provided finance models and analysis of costs of manufacturing and distributing OTC drugs in developing countries.

• Provided and analyzed financial costing models of manufacturing OTC drugs in domestic and international locations
• Partnered with international marketing team to develop inexpensive packaging for developing markets that were more affordable and environmentally friendly
• Developed financial models to analyze and forecast price/volume mix, monthly standard cost, engineering projects spend, and Supply Chain benchmarking analysis to analyze days of supply and inventory turnover
• Engaged with technology/business leaders and end-users in Finance to gather business and technology requirements in regards to a new SAP Financial upgrade.
• Developed a balanced-scorecard benchmark; interviewed subsidiary companies to benchmark and get overall opinion on SOX and SAP Financials upgrade
Senior Finance & Competitive Intelligence Analyst

Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Pharmaceuticals industry)

May 2004 — June 2005 (1 year 2 months)

• Assisted development of respiratory market strategies in key competitor markets using key market data from IMS Health and other Health analysis companies
• Supported competitive intelligence analysis of other Pharmaceutical competitors in the respiratory category using data resources and 3rd party vendors
• Project leader in the development of long term forecasts and quarterly/annual business reviews
• Developed and maintained key financial performance on business issues or opportunities, analyzed budget versus actual performance on respiratory portfolio
• Analyzed and presented forecasts and budgets, financial results and product performance of respiratory products to executive marketing managers
BPO Strategy Consultant

Cap Gemini

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)

September 2002 — May 2004 (1 year 9 months)

• Helped determine core versus non-core functions of a company, developing sourcing strategies that prioritize and sequence sourcing efforts, and analyzed options for using outsourcing to create value for a client, and assisting outsourcing service providers in refining their go-to-market strategies
• Performed costing and pricing analysis, developing transition plans that prioritize and sequence outsourcing efforts, evaluating service provider-developed solutions, and analyzing service provider capabilities
• Researched and analyzed the financial mechanics of an outsourcing agreement; assessing the client's current situation and making recommendations, maintained business model templates for analyzing potential deals, and supported the engagement team during the delivery process
• Regularly attending conferences, speaking and presenting outsourcing research

NII SIMMONDS’s Education

The Wharton School

Executive Education , Business Process Management , 2003 — 2003
Pennsylvania State University

B.S. , Management/Finance , 1997 — 2001

Activities and Societies:

Smeal College of business

Additional Information

NII SIMMONDS’s Websites:

My Blog

NII SIMMONDS’s Interests:

Ghana, Global Health, BPO, Business Process Outsourcing, Internet Incubators, ecommerce, pharmaceuticals, Penn State Football, Chicago Bears, Conglomerates, Globalization, Video Games, Strategy Consulting, Social Activism, innovation, Africa, Africa outsourcing, TED, BOP, Bottom of pyramid, McKinsey, Ron Bates, Sarbanes Oxley, Corporate Finance, Grameen, Micro Finance, Wharton, HBS, HBS Africa, Norway, Sweden, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, auctions, booz allen hamilton, bah, Muhammed Yunus, professional networking, international travel, PSU, washington dc, online auctions, outdoor activities, eLearning, sourcing, African healthcare, Africa eHealth, Africa mHealth, eHealth in developing markets