Claudia Ukonu

Claudia Ukonu is currently the Growth & Fundraising Lead at the World Economic Forum, where they collaborate with various individuals and organizations to secure funding for entrepreneurs driving positive impact and sustainable change worldwide. Claudia'sprimary focus is on supporting disruptive innovations that address critical social and environmental challenges through sustainable finance and impact investing. Claudia specifically works with the UpLink platform of the World Economic Forum to connect entrepreneurs with investors, corporate partners, experts, and governments to facilitate their growth.

Prior to their current role, Claudia worked at Mercer as the Communications Leader, Asia and as a Senior Consultant for Branding & Employee Communications, APAC. Claudia also served as the Regional Health Marketing Leader for the AMEA region at Mercer.

In addition to their experience at Mercer, Claudia also had a fellowship at the World Economic Forum, where they played a vital role in developing and executing digital marketing and communication plans for global reskilling, upskilling, and redeployment strategies. Claudia also served as a consultant, advising major institutions on effective workforce content strategies and developing lifelong learning strategies.

Earlier in their career, Claudia founded Hong Kong Shirt Co., worked as a Strategic Marketing and Brand Specialist at Mindplay, and served as an Interactive Marketing & Analytics Consultant at Vonderland Studios, Inc. Claudia also worked as a Sales and Catering Coordinator at Courtyard by Marriott.

Claudia's work experience also includes roles as an English Language Teacher at the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science, a Marketing Executive at Dodier & Company, Inc., and a Fashion Marketing Analyst at 1928 Jewelry Company. At 1928 Jewelry Company, they had the opportunity to work with the team from the show True Blood on HBO, styling jewelry for the cast, and was responsible for writing blogs, managing social media pages, and handling web traffic for the company's website.

Claudia Ukonu holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree in Marketing from Woodbury University. Claudia has also pursued computer programming at General Assembly and studied Korean at the Korean Culture Center. In 2018, Claudia participated in a semester exchange program at Howard University, where they obtained a Bachelor's degree. Claudia has furthered their education through online courses on Coursera, specializing in Sustainable Finance in 2023 and Private Equity & Venture Capital from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, Claudia has obtained certifications in Conceptual Selling and Strategic Selling from Miller Heiman in November 2014.