Christian Ngan

Christian Ngan (born 23 December 1983, Douala, Cameroon) is an entrepreneur, businessman and financier in Cameroon who owns Goldsky Partners and Madlyn Cazalis Group, which has interests in the bio-cosmetic industry. The company designs, manufactures, transports natural beauty products and operates in Central Africa with more than 50 distributors (chemist stores, beauty institutes and retail outlets). In 2014, Mr. Ngan was listed in Forbes magazine as one of the Most Promising Entrepreneur in Africa. He was listed in The Choiseul 100 Africa: Economic Leaders For Tomorrow and nominated Young Business Leader of The Year West Africa by CNBC Africa.

Early life

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.

Business career

Prior being an entrepreneur and developing Madlyn Cazalis brand in 2012, Mr. 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 $27 billion assets under management. Mr. 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 just 28 years old, Christian Ngan decided to return to Cameroon and start his own cosmetic company with only $3.000. Christian Ngan founded Madlyn Cazalis to prevent young Africans from dangers of bleaching their skins, by encouraging natural well-adapted products. Goldsky Partners' 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.

Mr. Ngan often gives numerous advises to young entrepreneurs. Notable quotes are : "If you have a big dreams and find yourself frustrated in life, quit your job and launch your own company" and "Money doesn’t make the project, the project makes the money".

Mr. Christian Ngan is also Honorary Member of The Cameroonian Consumers League (LCC).

Honors and Awards

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

On April 2013, he received a 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.

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 he was invited in Libreville by His Excellency 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".

On 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 2004, Mr.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, Mr. Christian 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."