About Us
Our Story
After graduating from college and realizing that the entities making decisions impacting Black families and communities historically avoid hiring Black people and funding Black-led ideas, Esi and Peter decided to create an organization that would equip young Black people with awareness of this problem and the tools and skills necessary to build grassroots solutions that will provide Black job seekers and entrepreneurs with more access to Black-led, Black-benefitting economic opportunities.
– Co-Founders of DIFFvelopment
We envision a world where Black people know their history and view themselves as part of a collective global community that is empowered and responsible for identifying, defining and solving its own socioeconomic issues through visionary entrepreneurship, wealth building and philanthropy.
Through our mission of re-empowering the global Black community through historically centered re-education that empowers aspiring Black visionaries to develop their world differently, we give ambitious young Black people the wake-up call they need to put their love for their family and community into transformative action that disrupts negative historical patterns and creates sustainable solutions to longstanding problems.
Meet the
executives
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/17-1024x1024.png)
Esi Kagale Agyeman Gillo
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/18-1024x1024.png)
Peter Markeeo Gillo
Meet the
team
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/19-1024x1024.png)
Wanjiku wa Gitau
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/25-1024x1024.png)
Alexandra Gayle
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/23-1024x1024.png)
Anton Esaulov
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/26-1024x1024.png)
Rakibul Hasan
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20-1024x1024.png)
Nafeza Kingston
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/21-1024x1024.png)
Abubakar Abdullahi
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/27-1024x1024.png)
Opoku Bonsu
Meet the
Board
![](https://www.diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Vice-Chair-1024x1024.png)
Imani Missouri
![](https://www.diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/10-1024x1024.png)
DuWayne D. Harrison
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/courtney-1024x1024.png)
Courtney Stewart St. James Grant
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/11-1024x1024.png)
Jacqueline Lara
Council of
Advisors
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Untitled-design-23.png)
Ariana Stowe
![](https://diffvelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Chair.png)