I was born around 1960 in Northeastern Somalia to nomadic parents.  I graduated from H/W Secondary School in 1979, Muqdisho, Somalia.  I received B.Com degree in 1986 from University of Poona, Pune, India.  In the USA I attended many business and leadership classes including the Senior Manager by Nonprofit Leadership Institute, Saint Paul, MN. I traveled extensively around the world.  I can remember at least 10 different countries that I have either stayed or lived in.  After University, I worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somalia.  In 1988 I came to USA for a diplomatic mission and stayed since.  In USA I worked on many different capacities both in the nonprofit sector as well as the business sector.  Currently, besides my nonprofit activities, I am self employed business owner.

I am a husband and the father of three children. I do invest in any activity where man’s ability to develop for better results is undertaken. I enjoy seeing individuals grow to their potential, especially educating the young.
Every morning in rural nomadic Somalia tens of thousands of children who are at school age go out to rare camels, goats, sheep, and cattle. That is because the opportunity of going to school is simply not there for them. I, along with others, mobilized the Somali Diaspora in Minnesota in 1998 and laid the foundation for Kodmo Education Fund in order to provide that missing opportunity. The feeling was that a socio-economic change could be triggered by providing an opportunity to educate future generations.  We built the first pilot project.  Fast forward ten years, I am the Executive Director of that 501 (c) 3 public charity organization that runs Kodmo Primary School with 150 students.