Leonida Mutuku is a Nairobi-based data scientist and AI researcher with over 13 years of experience specialising in inclusive technology and AI innovation to address development challenges across Africa. She is currently the AI Research Director at the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), where she leads research on the development, scaling and governance of responsible AI applications for sustainable development and climate resilience in emerging economies. In this role she has built an AI system that supports smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change and mitigate losses from crop failure. Leonida is also the founder of Intelipro, where she leads a team building reja.ai, an AI- powered financial management platform enabling small business owners to make sustainable and profitable decisions. Globally, she is recognised as a thought leader in technology and responsible AI innovation, AI governance, and data-driven policy implementation. She holds a number of advisory roles, including serving as the Civil Society Digital Governance Cluster Lead at the Open Government Partnership, collaborating with the Kenyan government on ethical, safe, and inclusive AI adoption. She also serves on the advisory boards for Open-Source AI at Digital Futures Lab in India and the New Commons Challenge by the GovLab and Microsoft, where she provides guidance on investments and policies in responsible, sustainable, and open AI innovation ecosystems. Leonida holds a Master of Business Analytics and Big Data from IE Business School in Madrid and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi.