Balkissa Mahamane is the Founder of La Grande Académie "LGA" School Project in Niger (www.lagrandeacademie.org), and Chair of the Board for a non-profit organization Agaji-Assistance (www.agaji.org). She worked at Wells Fargo Bank and at the Nebraska Business Development Center performing market research analysis for researchers and innovators looking to commercialize their inventions. She is an alumni of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program and awarded for LGA school project in Niger.

Balkissa is passionate about making people's life and processes better and is living her passion through entrepreneurship, education, training and working at Kiewit Corporation where she aims for operational excellence daily.