Christian Ngan

Early life and education

Christian Ngan, was born in Douala on 23 December 1983 into a middle-class Christian Cameroonian family but spent all his childhood in Yaoundé. In 2002, after its baccalauréat he went to study in France. He first studied Economics at Panthéon-Assas University, then received a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, a master's degree in Management and a master's degree in International Affairs from Pantheon-Sorbonne University. In 2010 he received a master's degree in Financial Engineering from EMLYON Business School in Lyon.

Career

Prior being an entrepreneur and developing Madlyn Cazalis brand in 2012, Ngan worked as an Associate at Findercod, an Investment Banking firm in Paris where he dedicated to the long term financing and Private Equity areas. In 2010 he worked within the Corporate Finance division of Quilvest Group, a Family Office and Private Equity fund with $36 billion assets under management. Ngan worked essentially on mergers, acquisitions and fund raising assignments in numerous sectors such as Cleantech, Technology, Media, Telecom, Financial Services and Luxury. He previously worked at Société Générale Credit and Investment Banking in Paris as a Leveraged Buy Out Analyst and spent several months at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance in Cameroon as an Economic Research Assistant.

In July 2012, when he was 28 years old, Ngan decided to return to Cameroon and start his own cosmetic company with $3,000. Ngan founded Madlyn Cazalis to prevent young Africans from dangers of whitening their skins, by encouraging natural well-adapted products. Madlyn Cazalis' main goal is to launch various investment projects in Africa, to raise consciousness, and make Africans proud of their identity by creating quality-African-owned products.

He encourages African entrepreneurs in promoting their own skills and image all over the world. Interviewing for The Guardian he said, "Young Africans are the promoters of their self-image to the world. We can talk with our own voice".

Ngan is an international guest speaker promoting African entrepreneurship. On 23 February 2013, he took part in TEDxAkwa in Douala, which was the first TED (Conference) in French-speaking Africa.

Since 2013, Ngan is also Honorary Member of The Cameroonian Consumers League (LCC).

On 4 March 2014, he organized a Beauty Symposium in Yaoundé. where he met the Cameroonian Ministry of Woman and Family Promotion.

On 25 April 2014, Ngan was invited in Libreville by Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon to share his entrepreneurial experience in Africa. He was also invited to participate on workshops with government members and leaders from private sector. They talked about social, economic issues and found solutions to encourage entrepreneurship for young Africans.

On 23 June 2014, he was a speaker at the 3rd Islamic Development Bank Youth Forum during the Islamic Development Bank 40th Anniversary in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He was invited to talk about his Success Story in Africa. The theme was "Youth Entrepreneurship: From Job Seekers to Job Creators". The forum was attended by young entrepreneurs, experts of youth entrepreneurship, bankers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurship mentors, managers of various incubators, academics, and other stakeholders across IDB Member Countries. Given his achievements as an entrepreneur, he added a lot of value to the discussion on the subject during the forum and inspired young and aspiring entrepreneurs who attended the forum. He regularly encourage young to "Start Small and Think Big".

In October 2014, Ngan was elected Member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon (France).

In October 2014, Ngan was temporary lecturer for ISCOM a leading French communication school in Paris where he taught Business Model class. He was also temporary lecturer for Paris School of Business (previously known as ESG School of Management) where he taught Management Science class.

The same month, he was elected for a 3-year period in the Youth Advisory Board of Brand Africa (South Africa). The Youth Advisory Board consists of influential youth of African heritage who are active in public, private or civil society initiatives which aim to accelerate Africa’s socio-economic development. He prepared the Africa Youth Prize for Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the High Patronage of African Union Commission.

On 8 November 2014, he was speaker at the 2nd edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech (Morocco).

In January 2015, Ngan was one of the 9 young African Entrepreneur selected by ALN Ventures, African Leadership Network accelerator, created by Fred Swaniker and Acha Leke. Madlyn Cazalis was selected as one of the 8 Most Promising Young companies in Africa, among 277 African start-ups to participate to a 9-month program held in Johannesburg (South Africa). In June 2015 ALN Foundation purshased a 5% equity stake in Goldsky Partners SARL, the parent company of Madlyn Cazalis at a half million dollars valuation.

In February 2016, Christian Ngan was speaker at the 4th Forum International Afrique Développement in Casablanca, Morocco.

On 27 and 28 August 2016, he was invited by United Nations University, the academic and research arm of the United Nations to the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi, Kenya. The TICAD conferences were intended to help to promote high-level policy dialogue amongst African leaders and their development partners. He also had the chance to meet Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank Group (AfDB)President.

Honors and awards

In April 2013, Ngan received an honorary diploma delivered by Catholic University of Central Africa to Madlyn Cazalis for promoting youth business initiatives in Africa.

On 4 February 2014, he was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneur in Africa.

In September 2014, Madlyn Cazalis founder won "The Get In The Ring - Investment Battle" Competition in Cameroon and was listed as one of "The 10 most Promising Startups of Africa" by BiD Network and the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. The African Final was held in Kigali (Rwanda) and hosted by BiD Network.

On 8 September 2014, Ngan was Country Winner of Titans Building Nations Award for Best SME CEO delivered by CEO Communications. The ceremony was held in Accra (Ghana).

On 10 September 2014, Ngan was nominated Young Business Leader of The Year West Africa by CNBC Africa at the All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Lagos (Nigeria).

Institut Choiseul for International Politics and Geoeconomics, in its first edition of The Choiseul 100 Africa:Economic Leaders for Tomorrow, which was released in September, 2014, listed Christian Ngan among "growing business leaders, successful entrepreneurs, investors, etc.," that "embody the dynamism and renewal of a whole continent and carry the hopes of an entire generation." The list "identifies and ranks the young African leaders of 40 years old and under, who will play a major role in the development of Africa in the near future."

On 28 October 2014, he was listed by Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) in the "Top 35 Africans under 35 in 2014".

On 5 February 2015, he was listed for the second consecutive time by Forbes magazine as one of the 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneur in Africa.

In September 2015, Madlyn Cazalis was listed among the Top 50 most innovative African Start-ups by The New York Forum, Le Point and France 24.

In October 2015, Christian Ngan was listed among the 25 African Leaders in 2015 by Diva Magazine.

In March 2016, Madlyn Cazalis was Finalist of the Total Startupper of the Year Challenge.