Leila Janah

Early life Leila Janah was born as Leila Chirayath on October 9, 1982, in Lewiston, New York, near Niagara Falls, and grew up in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. She was the daughter of Indian immigrants, Martine Janah and Sahadev Chirayath, a structural engineer. As a teenager, Janah worked many jobs, including babysitting and tutoring. where she spent 6 months during her senior year of high school. In Ghana, Janah taught English to young students in the village of Akuapem, many of whom were blind. Janah has cited this early experience as sparking her passion for working in Africa, and she continued to visit the continent during her time in college. Sama workers are trained in basic computer skills and paid a local living wage for their labor.

Additionally, Sama provides a host of impact programs to ensure their workers are advancing in their careers and learning life skills. These programs include health and wellness education, professional skills development, a scholarship program to assist with continuing education costs, and the GiveWork Challenge—a program to provide micro loans and mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs. Sama has been named one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies" and counts Walmart, Google, General Motors and Microsoft among its clients. She also received the Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls from Hillary Clinton in 2012, and was a former Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Program on Global Justice and Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. She was a recipient of the Rainer Arnhold and TEDIndia Fellowships, and served on the San Francisco board of TechSoup Global and the Social Enterprise Institute. in 2016 and The New York Times T Magazine’s Five Visionary Tech Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World in 2015. She was also named a “Rising Star” on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2011, one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” in 2012, and was profiled as one of Fortune’s “Most Promising Entrepreneurs” in 2013.

Death Janah died at the age of 37 on January 24, 2020, from epithelioid sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.