We’re thrilled to welcome two inspiring changemakers to Thistlerock this April: Sophia Swire and Basima Abdulrahman. For this special Changemaker Chat, Thistlerock’s John Kluge will interview Sophia and Basima about their work together, using a new investment vehicle to bring clean, green electricity to local communities including a Yazidi refugee camp in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI). Together they’re combining smart investment with humanitarian action, creating a model that helps displaced people and empowers women and children, while also making sustainable business sense. The Changemaker Chat will be followed by community Q&A.
This event is free to attend.
Bios:
Sophia Swire is an award-winning social entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, and impact investor whose life’s work has centered on empowering women and communities in crisis. With a career spanning three decades in some of the world’s most fragile states, Sophia has become a globally respected advocate for women and girls, particularly those displaced by conflict.
Her journey began in 1989 on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where she left a successful City finance career to establish 250 schools for girls—many of them daughters of Afghan refugees. These schools educated over 35,000 children (50% girls) at a time when female education was heavily restricted, offering hope, stability, and skills to families fleeing war and conflict. Later, through her non-profit Future Brilliance, Sophia expanded her work to vocational training programs for Afghan returnees, especially women. These programs equipped artisans with jewelry-making, business, and financial literacy skills—helping them generate income and rebuild their communities.
Since the fall of Kabul in 2021, Sophia has played a vital role in the evacuation and resettlement of Afghanistan’s most at-risk women, including Sharbat Gula, the iconic National Geographic cover girl. Working behind the scenes with governments and NGOs, she helped secure safe passage for over 500 individuals and provided support to more than 1,200 others. Today, she continues to support a school for 300 Afghan girls by sourcing laptops and online education in collaboration with Dell Computers and the University of Cambridge.
Sophia’s latest initiative, GEDI.VC (Gender Equity Diversity Investments), builds on her decades of experience by investing in women-led, tech-enabled startups in frontier markets. GEDI’s impact strategy includes a focus on empowering displaced populations through the provision of affordable green energy, education and financial inclusion, recognizing that refugees—particularly women—are powerful agents of change when given the right tools and support.
Through every chapter of her career, Sophia has demonstrated an unshakeable belief in the transformative power of education, entrepreneurship, and investment. Her work has helped thousands of refugees and asylum-seeking women escape cycles of poverty and dependence, giving them the means to rebuild their lives with dignity, resilience, and purpose.
Her message is simple but profound: when we invest in women, we invest in peace, stability, and a better future for all.
Basima Abdulrahman is a seasoned green tech entrepreneur with over 15 years of expertise in sustainable development. She is the Founder and CEO of KESK, the pioneering company in Iraq that fuses renewable energy solutions with software technologies for a smooth transitioning to sustainable energy generation. With a diverse range of accomplishments, Basima has served as a World Economic Forum Foundation Board Member between 2019-2022 and is a laureate of the prestigious Cartier Women's Initiative in the MENA Region and the ExpoLive Global Innovators Award.
As a thought leader in the Greentech sector, Basima was featured in renowned publications such as TIME magazine, Inhabitat, Forbes, WEF Agenda, CNN, and the National, among others. She was named as one of the 100 most influential women by the BBC in 2023. Since 2018, she has been sought after as an international speaker on entrepreneurship, climate change, greentech, and environmental issues in the Middle East. Basima holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a master's degree in Structural Engineering from Auburn University/USA. She is an accredited professional by the U.S. Green Building Council since 2016.