These are the role models that attended the Nordic Somali Youth Summit 2014 in Copenhagen.
Mataano is a women’s contemporary ready-to-wear line with pieces that redefine timeless elegance by infusing modern edge and global sensibility. The founders and creative minds behind the brand are twin sisters Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim. In 2009, The Mohallim sisters launched their brand Mataano. Oprah Winfrey, the queen of daytime television, invited Ayaan and Idyl to appear on her show titled “Young Millionaire Moguls". Oprah lauded the duo for their inspiring story and much deserved success, and introduced them to the national stage as an emerging brand with a rich cultural heritage. Since then, Mataano has released six collections attracting fervent attention from the press, including The New York Times, Vogue Italia, Glamour Magazine, Elle Magazine, Refinery29, Arise Magazine, Essence Magazine, Telegraph Magazine, Huffington Post, and CNN International to name a few.
Studied Psychology in Roehampton University in London from 2006-2010. Masters in Psychological research with a focus on Social Interaction. Worked as a trainee at the Institution against Public Discrimination from 2010-2011. And since 2011 he has been working at NAKMI (Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research) on a project involving prevention programs aimed towards minority youth. Warsame wrote a literature review on khat use and health in Norway.
Idil Ibrahim is a Somali-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles and New York, and working worldwide. She is an alumni of the University of California, Berkeley, and attended NYU for graduate school. She has lived and worked extensively in East Africa and has produced projects filmed worldwide in places including Serbia, Japan, Turkey, Somalia, Lebanon, Kenya and Uganda. In January 2013, Idil traveled to south-central Somalia on behalf of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to film and cover drought and conflict response programs, specifically Livelihood and Water and Sanitation (WASH) programs in the IDP camps and for the host community. The videos were released for World Water Day.
Warsame Ali
Idil Ibrahim
Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim
Roblé Ali
Roblé Ali is also known as Chef Roble and he is the guest of honor for this year's Nordic Somali Youth Summit. Roblé Ali has quickly become one of the most recognizable chefs and one of the very few young African-Americans in the culinary world with national notoriety. The dashing and charismatic chef has provided his services to some of today’s most notable individuals including President Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Legend, Jack Nicholson, Michael Jackson and Vanessa Williams, to name a few.
The launch of his business was captured in Bravo’s culinary docudrama, Chef Roblé & Co. In addition to his catering company, Roblé is currently at work on multiple projects, which include an upcoming fragrance, wine, restaurant, book, apparel line and philanthropy. In his free time, Roblé enjoys working with various charities, including: Project Sunshine, I Am A Star, Brooklyn Community Services, Harlem R.B.I., Thanksgiving Food Truck presented by By Any Meals, Dan Cathcart, Executive Assistant, Roblé & Co. LLC and Brooklyn USA
Zakaria Hersi
Zakaria Hersi is a degree holder from Stockholm University and has been voted one of Sweden's Super Talent of 2013 and also the Best New Recruit in a Startup in the Nordic Region in 2012. He has founded six companies that are all diverse from a patent, to a telecom infrastructure provider, incubator and a app startup. Currently is the Global Implementation Manager of Besedo, and has been living in Colombia starting an office there and also in Mauritius. His next focus is to mentor and fund 10 startups in Eastern Africa and is launching end of June.
Speakers
SPECIAL GUESTS
Mogens Jensen was appointed Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation on February 3, 2014.
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Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party (2007-)
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Vice-chairman of the Social Democratic Party (2012-)
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Government auditor (2013)
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Spokesperson for culture and media
Rufus Gifford was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 1, 2013, and sworn in on August 15, 2013, as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. Ambassador Gifford most recently served as Finance Chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Lise Wulff firmly set out for a completely different profession than the artistic one. Wulff explores a range of various techniques and materials. Organic shapes and natural materials are recurring characteristics. Further, she is involved in several art projects related to dignity and to the environment, most notably she is the founder of the environmental art project The Scream from Nature, along with Charter for Change. Wulff is a member of the professional organization for visual artists in Norway, NBK, and she has exhibited in a range of galleries and museums in Norway and abroad.
Rufus Gifford
Lise Wulff
Mogens Jensen
Fatima Siad
Fatima Siad is currently signed with IMG Models in New York City, Paris, Milan, and London, and Ace Models in Athens, Greece, as well as with Munich Models In Munich, Germany. In 2013, she had an ad campaign with Wildfox's "We're The Kids in America" Spring Collection, Armani Exchange and Doncaster's Winter 2013 Collection. In 2014, Siad likewise had a campaign with Jonathan Simkhai Pre-Fall 2014 collection. She also landed a Spring/Summer 2014 print campaign for Ralph Lauren, as well as for cosmetics giant Pantene.
Mohamed I. Bulale is IT project manager at Atos Denmark and runs projects over 1 million DKK. He received his M. Sc. in Engineering from Technical University of Denmark in 1997. The last 10 years he had different positions within the IT field, where he started as a software engineer, project manager and IT Operations manager. In connection with his last position as IT operations manager with Novo Nordisk he spent time in China to help a new office in Tianjin. Mohamed Bulale came to Denmark as a teenager and he succeeded on taking a higher education and afterwards getting desirable job.
Mohamed Bulale
Farhiya Khalid
Farhiya Khalid is a student of history and journalism at Roskilde University and works at the social housing project 'Husum for Alle'. As an activist and debater her work mainly focuses on asylum policy, antiracism and feminism.
Abdirizak Farah
Abdirizak Farah joined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in August 2010 as a Policy Advisor. He was the host of the Global Columbus Show on Government TV-3. Before joining Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s team, Abdi demonstrated his leadership capability while working for the United Nations Operations in Somalia and United Nations Political Office for Somalia where he worked on national reconciliation, grass-root level institution-building and other capacity building initiatives, including conflict resolution, economic development and disarmament efforts.
