Pedro Lopes is currently Cabo Verde’s secretary of state for innovation and technical and vocational education and training. In 2017, he received the We Are Cabo Verde Best of the Year Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was selected to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship. In 2018, he was named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent and became an Obama Foundation Leader. He was also a nominee for One Young World’s 2018 Young World Politician of the Year Award, and he was on Apolitical’s 2018 list of the World’s 100 Most Influential Young People in Government. Pedro’s achievements include designing the model for the Prime Minister’s Youth Council and for Cabo Verde Digital, an innovation program. He also organized the first TEDx in Cabo Verde, and is the founder of Generation B-Bright, a youth empowerment organization.