Catalytic Leader - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Amen Temesgen, an entrepreneur, is a Co-founder and CEO of BeNu Foods. He is a graduate in Architecture from Addis Ababa Science and Technology University in the year 2017. He has interests ranging from Leadership to filmmaking. In July 2017, he partook in a prestigious leadership and social entrepreneurship institute called Hansen Summer Institute in San Diego, CA. He was one of the two representatives from Africa. And before that, he was shortlisted as a finalist in the NBH youth creativity award held in Bahrain for his zero-budget short film- Eighteen. Apart from his attempt to form his own club- Junto, practiced his leadership skills while serving as Students President in Don Bosco Catholic High school. He also served in Students Union as an academic affairs representative at Addis Ababa Science and Technology University.

While in office, he organized the annual innovation week in AASTU, creating a chance to work together with the now co-founder and CTO of BeNu, Bethelhem Lakew, and he learned about her innovative solution to tackle malnutrition in Ethiopia. After Amen returned from San Diego to Ethiopia with a conceived idea of developing nutritious biscuits, he enrolled in Ethiopia’s leading agri-business incubator called blueMoon and committed to realizing this new project. This project was selected as one of the top ten startups in Ethiopia by startupethiopia.com in the year 2019. He is also a YALI fellow where he was granted a certificate that indicates ‘most likely to succeed in his business.

As a part-time employee, Amen also has participated as a business developer on an emerging digital platform called move.et. move.et pioneers on digitizing and modernizing logistics in Ethiopia. Currently, Amen is also leading a team that develops a comprehensive platform that aims to digitize and transform the backward and corrupt construction sector in Ethiopia. 

Amen is passionate about entrepreneurs’ journey and what they go through in Ethiopian ecosystem. From a personal journey that he has gone through, Amen wants to assist in efforts to meaningfully support entrepreneurs and help them transform their communities. So in collaboration with ECatalyst, Amen aims to realize these goals by helping build a working, robust ecosystem in Ethiopia.