Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba

In May 2014, Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba completed her second term in the Commonwealth as the Deputy Secretary General (Political) based in London. She supported and provided leadership for the work of the Commonwealth on Political, Human Rights, Legal and Youth Development. She has firsthand appreciation of the challenges facing the Commonwealth and insights into the potential of the Organisation. Her vision for the Commonwealth is to progress initiatives that ensure a relevant organisation which engages effectively with member states. She believes that even as the Commonwealth pursues its political values, it should lend a credible voice in the discourse of global development issues and enhance it’s special role in championing Small States and vulnerable communities.

She is a national of Botswana and has extensive management experience in technical, development and the diplomatic field. She was previously the Chief-Executive Officer at the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA), Botswana’s national Investment Promotion Agency. Mmasekgoa’s role included attracting Foreign Direct Investment and promoting national exports as a key to diversifying the economy from diamond mining. Her top priority was to promote Botswana as a premium investment destination. There was need to refocus and profile Botswana’s image, differentiating and branding Botswana, something for which Mmasekgoa had a lot of passion, she initiated and successfully managed the process of Branding Botswana.

Her engineering and commercial experience at the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). placed her in the forefront of challenges of the digital divide. Telecommunications and information communication technology play a pivitol role in addressing the broader economic imperatives. Almost 16 years after joining BTC, she emerged as one of the most influential female executives’ and continued to apply her skills and experiences in a range of economic and development fields.

Her first degree was obtained at University of London, where she graduated with a BSC electronics and physics. She complimented this with a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. Her formal qualifications have been further enhanced by a continuous learning culture and discipline, e.g. completing a Bachelor of Law degree and an Advanced Management Program whilst holding down her demanding jobs. She has also served on various boards and community service institutions in the fields of tourism, business, civil aviation, and banking among others.

She has been recognised in the legal field by the Honourable Society of Middle Temple Inn awarding her Honorary Bencher status in 2009. In recognition of her achievement in business leadership, she was recently awarded, the 2015 International Distinguished Alumna Award by Pittsburgh University She is married and a mother of three.

Amel Karboul

Dr. Amel Karboul is an entrepreneur, businesswoman, author and politician. She is passionate about working with leaders, teams and organizations assisting them in creating breakthroughs in their thinking and in the way they operate.

Amel’s areas of expertise include aligning and developing leadership and critical thinking, managing large-scale change and transformation, implementing innovative strategies, coaching and building executive leadership teams, enabling communities of practice and global networks.

She was until recently Tunisian minister of tourism. Her mission was to revamp Tourism, which represents 8% of Tunisia’s GDP and enables the livelihood of 1/5 of the population. She was part of the Tunisian interim government with the mission as a “start-up democracy team” to ensure Tunisia becomes the first success story of the Arab spring.

Amel’s extensive corporate and consulting experience since 1996 includes being a project leader for innovation management and supplier relationship for the Mercedes-Benz Brand in South Africa and Germany as well as executive for knowledge transfer and leadership development at the DaimlerChrysler Corporate University in USA, Singapore and Germany. She later became a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in Germany and was then managing partner of the consulting group Neuwaldegg in Vienna, Austria. She founded in 2007 an international leadership and change consulting firm: Change, Leadership & Partners. She is an award winning executive coach, published author and a trusted sparring partner for CEO’s of global corporations as well as family owned businesses and entrepreneurs. She is visiting professor at DukeCE-ranked #1 in the world in Custom Executive Education by Financial Times and BusinessWeek, 2003 – 2014.

Amel, Tunisian born and bred, Europe and U.S.-educated, is truly global. Amel is native speaker in Arabic, French, English and German. She also has knowledge of Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Greek. Amel holds a masters degree with honors in mechanical engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany and won her doctorate in coaching and mentoring from Oxford Brookes University, UK. She has done postgraduate education in economics in the USA and has accomplished an intensive systemic coaching certification program. Amel is mother of two wonderful daughters.

Boris Kodjoe

Boris Kodjoe, better known as Boris Kodjoe, is a German actor known for his roles as Jason in the 2000 film Love & Basketball (2000), and the sports-courier agent Damon Carter on the Showtime drama series Soul Food (2000).

Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ursula, a German psychologist of partially Jewish descent, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who is of the Nzema people. His namesake is the Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak. Kodjoe is fluent in German, English, and French, and speaks some Spanish.

Boris and Nicole started the Sophie’s Voice Foundation, or SVF. They opened a Ghanaian chapter of SVF in 2009 and sent volunteers there to collect data on child mortality related to birth defects in order to better serve the spina bifida community in Ghana. They are also working with the health department in Ghana to build the first spina bifida Clinic in Accra, which will be the first of its kind in Africa. SVF is also building its first center for spina bifida in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

Simphiwe Dana

Simphiwe Dana is a Xhosa Singer and song-writer in South Africa. Due to her unique combination of Jazz, Afro-soul, RAP andTraditional music, she has been hailed as the "new Miriam Makeba".

She made a major impact in South Africa with the release in 2004 of Zandisile. The album sold very well and gained several awards, including some South African Music Award(SAMA) in 2005. On its worldwide release the album gained success in the Billboard charts and she won an AVO Session Basel Award.[3]

Dana, who has been likened to singers such as Miriam Makeba and Dorothy Masuka, sings an artful musical form that blends traditional African music with contemporary soul and hence shows hints of gospel and blues. The depth of her musical portrayals is such that she has drawn approval from an older generation of South Africans, especially women, while her youth and grasp of contemporary pop has endeared her to the young audience. Among the songs in Dana’s repertoire are ‘Ndiredi’, ‘Troubled Soldier’, ‘Chula Ukunyathela’, ‘Bantu Biko Street’, ‘Zundiqondisise’, ‘Uzobuya Nini’, ‘Sonini Nanini’ and ‘Naphakade’. She also sings the theme song of the Yizo Yizo television show.

She has maintained a strong presence, with consistent radio play and live appearances at key national events and Festivals such as Arts Alive, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz.

With two commercially-successful and critically acclaimed albums to her credit, she maintains a busy live performance roster, which increasingly includes international dates.

Her third album, Kulture Noir, was released in the summer of 2010. She later released her live album, An Evening with Sipmhiwe Dana Live in Concert, which features her singing some of her best hits accompanied by a 27 piece orchestra. Simphiwe has been vocal on topical issues in social media including political issues in South Africa.

Simphiwe Dana is also active in the World Music scene in Europe.

Hanna Tetteh

Hanna Serwaa Tetteh is the Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, and a Member of Parliament for the Awutu-Senya West constituency. Previously, she was the Minister of Trade and Industry, the general manager and company secretary of Ghana Agro Food Company which is an integrated agricultural processing company situated in Tema, producing a variety of products for the local and international markets, and a former chairperson of the sub-committee on constitutional and legal matters of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and former national executive member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the ruling party in Ghana. Hanna holds an LLB from the University of Ghana, Legon and also completed the professional law course at the Ghana School of Law. She is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a Brand Africa ambassador.