Jean Philbert Nsengimana is the Africa Managing Director at the Commons Project, working to unlock the full potential of technology and data for the common good. He serves on many boards including the Alliance for Affordable Internet where he is the Honorary Chairperson, Place Fund, i4Policy,  Startup Genome, and Future State.

Phil’s career spans the public, international development and the private sectors. Most recently, he served as the Minister of Youth and ICT of Rwanda. During his tenure, he spearheaded the Smart Africa Alliance and YouthConnekt Africa – two pan African organizations focused on accelerating digital transformation and youth empowerment.

Before joining the government, Phil was the Country Manager for Voxiva Rwanda where he led the design and implementation of mobile technology platforms that helped the Government of Rwanda to successfully scale up major national public health programs including HIV/AIDS and Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response. Prior to Voxiva, he served as the Africa coordinator for the Development Gateway Foundation, extending digital platforms for managing official development aid and public procurement to 15 countries.

Phil holds a Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Global MBA in Information Technology, a Masters in Software Engineering and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.