Pelkins Ajanoh

Pelkins is a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of CassVita - a social enterprise that leverages technology to eradicate food insecurity and create prosperity for smallholder farmers in Africa. CassVita has invented a novel technology for increasing the shelf-life of cassava from 3 days to 18 months and built a fully-automated factory to convert cassava into grain-alternative products, selling to multinationals. CassVita partners with thousands of farmers in West Africa and has been able to increase their earnings by as much as 400%. Pelkins’ work has been recognized by the World Food Programme, the African Development Bank, and President Biden. He is fluent in French, holds three patents, and was recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Pelkins obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MS/MBA from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School, where he graduated with honors and was supported by the Soros Fellowship.

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