Christian Ngan
Christian Ngan | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 23, 1983 Douala, Cameroon |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, music producer, songwriter, motivational speaker, author |
| Known for | Founder of Adlyn Holdings and Madlyn Cazalis Group |
Christian Ngan (born 23 December 1983) is a Cameroonian entrepreneur, music producer, songwriter, motivational speaker, and author. He is the founder of Adlyn Holdings and the Madlyn Cazalis Group, a conglomerate based in Cameroon with operations spanning Central and West Africa.
Early life and education
Born in Douala, Cameroon on 23 December 1983, Christian Ngan was raised in Yaoundé. After obtaining his Baccalauréat in 2002, he relocated to France to pursue higher education. He completed a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration followed by a Master's degree in Management and International Affairs at Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
In 2010, Ngan earned a Master's degree in Financial Engineering from EMLYON Business School located in Lyon. Further enhancing his leadership skills, he attended the Global Strategic Leadership Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 and participated in the Agribusiness Program at Harvard Business School in 2018.
Career
Christian Ngan started his professional journey as an associate at Findercod, an investment banking firm based in Paris. In 2010, he joined Quilvest Group’s Corporate Finance division—a private equity fund and family office managed by the Bemberg family. He also gained experience working at Société Générale.
At the age of 28, in July 2012, Ngan returned to Cameroon to establish Madlyn Cazalis, a cosmetics company focused on producing natural beauty products tailored for the African market as alternatives to conventional skin-whitening items.
As an advocate for African entrepreneurship, Ngan has delivered talks internationally. He was a speaker at TEDxAkwa in Douala in 2013—the inaugural TED event held in French-speaking Africa. In April 2014, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba invited him to participate in workshops addressing entrepreneurship and socio-economic challenges confronting African youth.
In June 2014, Ngan presented on "Youth Entrepreneurship: From Job Seekers to Job Creators" at the 3rd Islamic Development Bank Youth Forum held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
He won the "Get in the Ring Investment Battle" competition in Cameroon in September 2014 and was recognized among Africa’s "10 Most Promising Startups" by BiD Network and the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.
October 2014 saw Ngan elected as a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum based in Lyon. Concurrently, he served as a visiting lecturer at ISCOM and the Paris School of Business, where he taught courses on Business Models and Management Science. Additionally, he was appointed to a three-year term on Brand Africa’s Youth Advisory Board, contributing to the preparation of the Africa Youth Prize for Social Entrepreneurship under the High Patronage of the African Union Commission.
On 8 November 2014, he delivered a speech at the second edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Marrakech.
In January 2015, ALN Ventures selected Ngan as one of nine promising young African entrepreneurs for their specialized entrepreneurship program. By June that year, ALN Foundation acquired a 5% stake in Goldsky Partners SARL—the parent company of Madlyn Cazalis—valuing it at $500,000.
He spoke at the 4th Forum International Afrique Développement in Casablanca, Morocco, in February 2016 and took part in the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) held in Nairobi during August of that year.
In 2018, Madlyn Cazalis invested $3 million to establish a new manufacturing facility in Yaoundé.
On his birthday, 23 December 2023, Christian Ngan released 40 Principes de l'entrepreneur en Afrique, documenting his entrepreneurial journey alongside key business principles for success within Africa.
Music
In 2023, Ngan introduced his first albums, titled Like Shuga and Séquoia.
Honors and awards
Ngan earned a place on Forbes magazine's list of "30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa" for two consecutive years, 2014 and 2015.
In September 2014, he appeared in the debut edition of The Choiseul 100 Africa: Economic Leaders of Tomorrow, a publication highlighting emerging African figures influencing the continent’s economic landscape.
During the same month, CEO Communications awarded him the Titans Building Nations Award for Best SME CEO at an event held in Accra, Ghana.
In October 2014, Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) featured him among the "Top 35 Africans Under 35" in the International Policy Digest.
Espace PME Cameroun recognized him as one of Cameroon’s "3 most influential young entrepreneurs" in August 2015.
By March 2016, a Swahili-language newspaper from Global Publishers in Tanzania included him in its list of "Top 40 African Visionaries."
In September 2016, Tropics Magazine honored him as one of the continent’s "Top 100 African Doers."