Bio
Arinze is an MBA Candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MA Education Candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He's passionate about emerging applications of synthetic media in gaming, education, and mental health.
Before Stanford, Arinze worked in venture capital across Kenya and Nigeria as part of the investment team at The Fund for Africa's Future (aka. Future Africa), helping drive investments into some of Africa's top startups. He’s also the co-founder and publisher of Kenga, an independent culture publication documenting the ideas, personalities, and cultures shaping African Gen Z communities on the continent and in the diaspora. Arinze started off his career as a content designer at Meta in London, where he worked on product features aimed at limiting the spread of sensitive content on Facebook and Instagram. While at Meta, Arinze co-founded EarlyAdmit, a coaching platform that helped high-achieving students from underrepresented minority backgrounds get admitted to the top MBA programs in the world. EarlyAdmit was acquired in 2023 by Tequire.
Arinze joined Meta after graduating valedictorian of his class at the African Leadership University (ALU) in Mauritius with a first-class honours degree in Business Management, then left Meta to pursue a master’s degree in Global Affairs with a focus on AI Policy at Tsinghua University, where he was a Schwarzman Scholar and a China Oceanwide Fellow. In 2020, he became the first-ever student from an African university to be offered admission to the competitive deferred MBA programs at both Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Arinze currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Queer African Network (QAN), a nonprofit building digital platforms and third spaces for Africa's queer community to find community, resources, and opportunities. He also briefly served as the Managing Editor of 'A Nasty Boy', Nigeria's first LGBTQ+ publication, where he helped bring visibility to the stories of a community thriving against all odds in one of Africa's most violently homophobic countries.
Arinze is a 2017 recipient of The Diana Award and, in 2021, served as a Judge for the prestigious social impact award created in honour of the Late Princess Diana. In 2023, RIVET recognised Arinze as one of the 20 young people in the world, catalyzing the youth revolution through social innovation and entrepreneurship. For his work building Kenga, a creative platform that helps shift the narrative of Africa towards better stories about the African experience, Arinze was also named a 2023 Kekere Storyteller Prize Champion. In 2024, the Skoll Foundation selected Arinze as a Skoll Fellow among a cohort of 33 other global changemakers leading impactful organisations in their communities.
Honors & Awards
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ROMBA Fellow, Stanford Graduate School of Business (2024)
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BOLD Fellow, Stanford Graduate School of Business (2024)
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Skoll Fellow, The Skoll Foundation (2024)
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Kekere Storyteller Prize Winner, Africa No Filter (2023)
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Schwarzman Scholar, Schwarzman Scholars Program (2021)
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China Oceanwide Fellow, Schwarzman Scholars Program (2021)
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RIVET20 Awardee, RIVET (2023)
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ALU Leadership Award, African Leadership University (2020)
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Best Graduating Student, Business Management, African Leadership University (2020)
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Best Dissertation/Thesis, Business Management, African Leadership University (2020)
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Awardee, The Diana Award (2017)
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Founding Class Full Scholarship, African Leadership University (2015)
Professional Affiliations and Activities
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Investor, Justice, Stanford GSB Impact Fund (2024 - Present)
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Member, African Narrative Collective, Africa No Filter (2024 - Present)
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Advisory Board Member, Queer African Network (QAN) (2023 - Present)
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Member, A&A Collective (2023 - Present)
Education & Certifications
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MMSc, Tsinghua University (Schwarzman College) - China, Global Affairs (2022)
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BA, African Leadership University (ALU) - Mauritius, Business Management (2020)