Ovidiu Bujorean is the designer and host of the Roots to Foods podcast, a platform that spotlights entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders shaping the future of food systems, renewable energy, access to finance, and emergent technologies. He is also the CEO of OviBees Ventures, a venture accelerator dedicated to globalizing early-stage ventures and building catalytic public-private partnerships across Africa and beyond. OviBees Ventures focuses on scaling innovative solutions in food systems, renewable energy, access to finance, and emergent technologies to unlock transformative growth. Ovidiu is a growth strategist focused on social impact. He works with foundations, private sector leaders, governments, and family offices to mobilize capital, align policy, and build partnerships to design and scale catalytic platforms for deploying philanthropic and family capital toward large-scale impact. Over the past 25 years, he has led initiatives reaching more than 80 countries and directly managed $47M in impact investments. Previously, he led the U.S. Department of State’s GIST Network, mobilizing $32M in financing, activating $300M in revenues, and generating 2,000+ jobs for emerging market entrepreneurs. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Corporate Council on Africa and the Global Advisory Council of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and contributes to Convergence, IFAD’s SAFIN, and the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Ovidiu holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is certified in Advanced Design Thinking by IDEO. Previously, Ovidiu held leadership roles at AV Ventures (an ACDI/VOCA affiliate) and ACDI/VOCA.