Sandiso Sibisi

MD COOi Studios

Sandiso is the Managing Director of COOi Studios, an innovation accelerator partner to South Africa’s global enterprises. COOi is helping mining companies reimagine the implementation of technologies through human centric service designs of artificial intelligence and edge computing (IoT) solutions that lead to safer and more productive mines. She is the former Head of Accenture's Open Innovation capability for Africa, a division that bridges the gap between innovative products developed by startups and the needs of Accenture's corporate clients. Her humanitarian work in developing young women for employment and entrepreneurship has afforded her the following achievements; selected from a pool of 4000 applications from South Africa to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2016, represented South Africa at the World Bank Youth Summit held in Washington DC, where she shared ‘Khwela’, an EdTech platform that provides affordable tertiary education for marginalised groups. Amongst other accolades she is a Sustainable Development Goals ambassador, Mzansi’s 100 Inspiring and Aspiring Leaders 2017, a Play Your Part Ambassador with Brand South Africa, Inspiring 50 women in STEM 2018, and Destiny Magazine Powerful Women under 40, 2018. Sandiso holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems (Honours)  from Wits University with a Certificate from INSEAD on Social Entrepreneurship.