My Story
James Kaguima
James is a Social Entrepreneur, with a passion for entrepreneurship & innovation in the Startup ecosystem & working on projects that has a social impact on society & emerging markets
He is a innovative individual and often works with people from all walks of life and organisations on career pathways, fulfilling career aspirations, and uplifting underrepresented leaders and young people in the workplace.
He is experienced in providing knowledge and insights on startups, social entrepreneurship, and tackling barriers to equality, diversity and inclusion within the startup & business sector.
He also mentors young people on a less formal basis, and dedicates significant efforts to encouraging companies to embrace diversity and inclusion of all backgrounds, behaviours and experience.
Looking for a high quality speaker for your next event? Get in touch.
Journey to entrepreneurship
Founded by James Kaguima, Modern Day Chief aims to redefine leadership through uplifting Underrepresented Leaders & Empowering the next Generation to Lead through Personal Development, career development opportunities, and helping you lead a more purposeful life
James Kaguima’s social entrepreneurship journey started from a young age, where he was the youngest youth worker in his area, and was tasked into securing a grant from UnLtd. to help coordinate an event that had a positive social impact in his local area. He managed to successfully secure funding through pitching his idea to UnLtd. and they awarded him a seed grant to set up a social enterprise that will host a community sports event that brings together young people and grownups. Ever since then he has been involved in numerous projects that had positive social impact in the community & continued to pursue his Entrepreneurial endeavours.
He is now legal professional turned Social Entrepreneur. James’ transition from law school into social entrepreneurship started during my final year in Law school where I started selling Wooden watches, and for every watch I sold a tree was planted. He then delved into the world of startups and tech, and won multiple competitions and realised he had a talent for entrepreneurship & being innovative. This is where he realised his life purpose can cross disciplines, and does not need to be boxed into one cliche career path, but one filled with many ventures.
My main inspiration for Entrepreneurship and business in general came from my Grandfather, who became a Real Estate Developer in my home country Kenya. I grew up being inspired by hearing about rag to riches stories of how prominent individuals that built their own businesses & scaled them to new heights. I plan on applying their work ethic to my own journey and help others along the way.
We strive to combine having a Social purpose with Entrepreneurial drive, leadership and Community building
Social Enterprise Festival 'Pitch for Good'
James applied for the Social Enterprise Festival ‘Pitch for Good’ competition and became one of the finalists that was granted the opportunity to pitch on behalf of my social enterprise among some great early stage & established social enterprises and met some wonderful people.
It was a 2-day event that enables people to meet, solve problems and change lives.
The festival is coordinated by City, University London to celebrate those that enable positive change through business.
During this event he pitched groups Social Enterprise Startup Youth Haven, a pop up Youth Centre that aim to empower the next generation to Leaders.
However, a month later COVID-19 emerged and put the whole world into a standstill and countries everywhere were forced to go into lockdown and we had to practice social distancing – Schools, Youth Centres & Events were put on hold and many people from all walks of life were affected by this sudden shift staying indoors & learning to become accommodated with our new predicament.
This has not stopped me from pursuing my ventures as I’ve learned that the Secret to having a growth mindset, is to see hard times as a stepping stone. Learn how to overcome obstacles & set-backs: Click here
Empowering & connecting underrepresented Black Professionals
“I thought the Know-How of Networking event by The Obsidian Network was very interactive and thought provoking. It has revealed there is more to networking than what meets the eyes, definitely gave me a fresh & more genuine perspective on how to approach networking and applying it to building my own network.” ~ James Kaguima
James Kaguima was part of an ambitious and inspiring team aiming to connect BAMEs (Black African & Caribbean males) and support each other’s personal and professional ventures – Hosted an event at HSBC’s Headquarter officer in London Canary Wharf. Speakers included Jeffrey Wotherspoon, an International trainer, certified executive coach, speaker and high-risk conflict resolution specialist with a BSc (Hons) Psychology & Claud Williams, a multi-award-winning creative and entrepreneur with eleven years of governance experience alongside a twelve-year entrepreneurial career. A specialist in developing strategies for digital and cultural transformations.
Winners of Barclay’s Eagle lab — First LawTech Hackathon
On November 2019, I took part in a 3 day LawTech Hackathon hosted by Barclays Eagle Labs, our team Cenk Ozan, Kahraman, Gus Neate, James Kaguima, Deividas Duda, Leonard-Petru Ciobanu, and was tasked into creating a solution to real-world challenges faced by Barclays Bank, the event was about using cutting edge technologies like Blockchain and AI to solve challenges Lawyers face in their profession.
My team came first place against some serious competition and it was a pleasure working with a multifaceted team of legal professionals and seasoned software engineers.
Special thanks to the Eagle Labs & partners for organising a wonderful and well executed Event — Shareen Qureshi, Natalie Ojevah, Carl Garner, Tara L. Waters, Natalia Chic, Chris Grant, Samuel Smolkin
Exhibitor at Future Banking Conference
James Kaguima also had the opportunity to attend the FutureBanking conference representing Foundervine and my team’s early stage startup as exhibitors presenting our mission and MVP (Minimum viable product). The event conference was about ensuring there is more diversity at all levels in the Fin-Tech (Financial Technology) ecosystem and bringing together a diverse group of experts to explore forward thinking topics on the future of the banking ecosystem.
Board Member of Young Peoples Executive Advisory Board
The Positive Transformation Initiative (PTI) is a network of TRUSTED networks acting for positive societal change, real relationships with real people and its purpose is to help everyone find, create, resource and fund opportunities, that includes you personally, your businesses and your supply chain.
The PTI Young Peoples Advisory Board provides advice to the PTI Management Committee, giving the perspective of young people, while bringing views from a very diverse and inclusive group, to ensure that PTI is fair, open and always listening to the insights of our leaders of tomorrow.
He is also an Ambassador of Youth Employment, where they provide expert guidance and support to all organisations working with and employing young people.
Hasani Design
Hasani Design is a platform that provides digital solutions & strategies for Brands that help maximise their online business activities. We help you evolve digitally and grow in existing markets without losing touch with the values or passion that founded them. Visit: www.HasaniDesign.com
Hasani Watches
In 2019, James founded Hasani Watches, during my Law School exam season, which is a brand started with the goal to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle and reduce wastage of wood resources and utilise it for a purpose by offering handcrafted Wooden watches. We partnered with a Charity called One Tree Planted, so for every watch sold we planted one tree in honour of our customer’s sale. (I was always involved in social entrepreneurial projects when I was young, but this was my first ecommerce where I invested money that I have raised and gained a return on my investment into the watch brand). You will always remember your first sale, treasure it as it is no small feat.