Dr. Akin Adesina

Vice President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Dr. Akin Adesina is Vice President (Policy and Partnerships) for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a bold new entity established by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of bringing a green revolution to Africa, and lifting millions of poor farmers out of poverty and food insecurity. Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is the Chairman of AGRA.

He is a distinguished agricultural economist, with over 20 years of professional experience in African agriculture. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics (First ClassHonors) from the University of Ife, Nigeria. In 1988 he obtained his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, USA, where he won the Best PhD Thesis Award forhis innovative thesis work.

In June of this year Dr Adesina was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon to the Eminent Persons Group as an Advocate of the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group.

A distinguished scientist, leader, and communicator who has been working passionately for Africa's Green Revolution, he has been selected to receive the prestigious 2010 Borlaug Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) Communication Award. Dr. Adesina won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship in 1988, which initiated his career in international agricultural development. He has worked variously in senior research positions in International Agricultural Research Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. This includes: Principal Economist and Social Science Research Coordinator for the InternationalInstitute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (1995-1998); Principal Economist and Coordinator for West Africa Rice Economics Task Force at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) (1990-1995); and Assistant Principal Economist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) (India and Mali: 1988-1990).

He joined the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, as a Senior Scientist for Africa in 1998 and later served as Rockefeller Foundation Representative for Southern Africa, based in Harare Zimbabwe (1999-2003) and is also an Associate Director (Food Security) at The Rockefeller Foundation, based in Nairobi, Kenya (2003-present).

He has published over 70 articles in international journals, conference proceedings and books on issues of agricultural development in Africa and serves as reviewer for several international journals. He is currently the President of African Association of Agricultural Economists and is an Executive Board member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists.

He helped to design, inspire and galvanize support of the international community behind the landmark Africa Fertilizer Summit, where 40 heads of states agreed to solve Africa's fertilizer crisis in the drive towards an Africa green revolution. He is consulted on agricultural development issues in Africa by the World Economic Forum, World Bank, African Development Bank, governments and several other development institutions.

Dr. Adesina received the Outstanding Black Agricultural Economist Award from the American Agricultural Economists Association in recognition of his distinguished academic and management contribution to the field of agricultural economics and international agriculture. He was awarded on September 1, 2007 the prestigious Yara Prize for African Green Revolution in Oslo, Norway, for his leadership on the green revolution for Africa, and especially his pioneering work with developing rural agrodealer (rural input suppliers) networks that are now supplying affordable farm inputs to millions of poor farmers across Africa.

Charles Abugre Akelyira

Africa Regional Director, UN Millennium Campaign

Charles Abugre Akelyira has been an active anti-poverty campaigner for more than 20 years. Born in Ghana, Charles is a trained development economist and a social policy commentator. Charles is currently Africa Regional Director of the UN Millennium Campaign based in Nairobi. The campaign supports and inspires citizens to hold their governments accountable for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Prior to this, Charles worked as Head of Global Policy and Advocacy Division for Christian Aid in London. During this time, he was also a visiting gender and macroeconomics lecturer at the University of Utah and the Levi Institute in New York and a lecturer and research fellow at the University of Swansea.

Charles was Executive Director of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and Coordinator of the Africa Secretariat of the Third World Network, both in Ghana. He has wide-ranging experience from grassroots development work to international consultancies in social and economic development all over the world.

Dr. Melvin Ayogu

Director, Human Enterprise Research Group

Melvin Ayogu earned a PhD in Economics from Ohio State University in 1989 and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London. He was Professor of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town from 2000 to 2009, then Head of Global Leadership Centre, Standard Bank Group. He is currently a Director with Human Enterprise Research group.

Melvin Ayogu is co-editor of "Development Dilemmas: The methods and political ethics of growth policy (2005) and Privatization and Corporate Governance" (2002). His most recent writings focus on the impact of institutions on economic development in the sub-Saharan Africa region (SSA). These include macroeconomic volatility and institutions, ICT governance in South Africa, aid and absorptive capacity in SSA, and the impact of China and India on politics and governance in SSA. Recent articles include "Infrastructure and Economic Development in Africa" and "Inside Boardrooms: Restoring Corporate Governance." His current research interests include devolution, capture, corruption and the flight of public capital in SSA.

He has taught at the College of Business at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia; the Department of Accounting and Management Sciences at the University of Jos in Nigeria; the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa; and at the Joint Facility for Electives of the Africa Economic Research Consortium and the Collaborative Masters Program in Economics in Nairobi, Kenya. From February to June 2000, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, and concurrently, the Senior Rockefeller African Humanities Institute Fellow at Harvard University. He has published in a wide area of economics and consulted widely for the World Bank, IMF, UN-Habitat, UNECA, NEPAD, COMESA, ILO, Shelter Afrique and MEFMI (Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for Eastern and Southern Africa). Ayogu is a member of the African Economic Research Consortium and Economic Advisory Board of Global Financial Integrity.

Amadour Mahtar Ba

Chief Executive Officer, African Media Initiative

Amadou Mahtar Ba is the Chief Executive of the African Media Initiative (AMI), an unprecedented pan-African effort aimed at providing the continent's media owners and practitioners with the tools they need to play an effective role in their societies. AMI aims to strengthen the media sector in Africa to ensure the accountability of governments and other institutions and to promote social development and economic growth.

Mr Ba is also a co-founder and chairman of AllAfrica Global Media, Inc – owner and operator of http://allafrica.com – an international multi-media content service provider, systems technology developer and the largest distributor of African news and information worldwide. Prior to starting AllAfrica, Mr. Ba served from 1996 to 2000 as Director of Communications and Marketing for BICIS Bank, a subsidiary of the French banking group BNP Paribas. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Ba helped lead the successful restructuring and privatization of the Panafrican News Agency.

Mr. Ba is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Council for the Future of journalism, advisory board member of the Reporting Developing Network Africa, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Knight International Journalism Fellowship administered by the International Center for Journalists as well as a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board of ONE.

Mr. Ba was educated in Senegal, France and Spain and is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Fulani and Wolof. He holds a Masters degree from the Ecole Française des Professionnels de la Communication in Paris and from the Paris 7 University (Jussieu).

Owen Barder

Visiting Fellow, Center for Global Development

Owen Barder is a development economist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC, and he leads a team at a British NGO, Development Initiatives, which works to make international aid more transparent and accountable. Owen was an economics aide to Tony Blair when Mr. Blair was the British Prime Minister. Owen has served in a number of other senior roles in the British civil service, including in the Treasury, Cabinet Office and Department for International Development, where he was variously head of Africa policy, Director of Communications and Director of Global Development Effectiveness and International Finance. Owen has also worked in the South African Treasury, where he worked on budget issues with Trevor Manuel, and he was a visiting scholar in the economics faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. Owen writes about development issues at www.owen.org/blog and hosts the Development Drums podcast.

David Barnard

Executive Director, SANGONeT

David Barnard is the Executive Director of the Southern African NGO Network, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

David was previously the Manager of the Programme for Development Research at the Human Sciences Research Council (1992 to 2000). He is a Founding Member of the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship and Advisory Board Member of the African Press Organisation. He serves on the e-Skills Council and in the past served on the Presidential National Commission on the Information Society for Development.

David has extensively published and presented on issues relating to development and ICT in Africa. His areas of expertise include the role of the international development and funding community in Southern Africa, the role of the NGO sector in Southern Africa, corporate citizenship and the involvement of the corporate sector in development issues, and the contribution of information and ICT in support of development processes.

David holds BA and BA (Hons) degrees (both cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch, and has participated in management training at Cranfield University (UK) and City University of New York.

David completed the 7-day, 250 km Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon from 17 to 23 October, 2010.

Erik Charas

Founding and Managing Director, Charas LDA

Erik Charas is a young Engineer, Mozambican entrepreneur and self-styled social activist. His company, Charas LDA, invests in young Mozambican entrepreneurs. It targets the very bottom strata of society with a view to transforming the next generation of Mozambicans into successful small business owners. On top of his other responsibilities, Mr Charas is also president of Mozambique's biggest circulation newspaper, @ Verdade with over 600,000 readers.

Among his other accolades, Mr Charas was voted a Hero of Africa in 2005 by media group MSN and was named a Young Global Leader in 2006 by the World Economic Forum, 2007, Archbishop Tutu African Leadership Fellow .

He believes passionately that the key challenge Africans face is creating a unique identity. "To stand alone in an African society is almost impossible. To think differently or differently from the norm, is a risky and dangerous thing in these parts of the world," he says.

As to how he managed to succeed in such a demanding business environment, Mr Charas says that perseverance is the key.

"Adversity is part of everyday life but the trick is to never give up," he says. "These are very hands-on societies. Nothing can be trusted: check and double-check everything all the time. Be a control freak. Nothing comes easy in this continent or in this country."

Looking ahead, Mr Charas believes that Africa needs to create positive role models, not just politicians and liberation leaders, but ordinary people who struggle to exist in a hostile environment. Corruption must also be tackled. "We should not have mercy on corrupt individuals and must make them accountable for their actions," he says. "I am part of a generation that believes we deserve better. A better Africa. A great and prosperous Africa, filled with new ideas and that the current scenario is just unacceptable." Erik Charas' African hero: His father, and Nelson Mandela "My father, because he believed that we are all entitled to live a dignified life and we should pursue our dreams regardless, and Nelson Mandela, the father of all us Africans!"

Paul Collier

Director, Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. He took a five-year public service leave between 1998 and 2003, during which he was Director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank. He is also a Professeur invit? at CERDI, Universit? d'Auverge, and at Paris 1. In 2008, Paul was awarded a CBE for services to scholarship and development. He is the author of "The Bottom Billion," which in 2008, won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes, and in May 2009, was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize. His second book, "Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places," was published in March 2009; and his latest book, "The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature," was published in May 2010. Paul is currently Advisor to the Strategy and Policy Department of the IMF, advisor to the Africa Region of the World Bank and he has advised the British Government on its recent white paper on economic development policy. He has been writing a monthly column for the Independent, and also writes for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource rich societies.

Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin

Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopia Commodity Exchange

Dr. Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange since 2008, is an internationally recognized thought leader on agricultural marketing in Africa and global development, with a career spanning both research and development practice, and now business. Prior to returning to her native Ethiopia, she served as Senior Economist at the World Bank and Senior Research Fellow with the Washington-based think tank, the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has also worked in the United Nations as Commodity Trading Expert based in Geneva. Her career over the past 18 years has focused on traders and markets in more than nine African countries and authored numerous publications and articles on this subject, including "Reforming Agricultural Markets in Africa" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).

Dr. Eleni holds a PhD in applied economics from Stanford University, an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and BA in economics from Cornell University. She was awarded Outstanding Dissertation by the American Agricultural Economics Association in 1999 for her thesis titled "Social Capital, Transaction Costs, and Market Institutions in the Ethiopian Grain Market." As a voice for African markets, she represented the African business community at the G20 Business Summit in London in 2009, and is presently on the Nike Foundation sponsored Advisory Panel on Girls in Rural Economies, as well as the Expert Group on Development Issues for the Government of Sweden, the African Union Task Force on Commodities, and the Stiglitz Task Force on Africa. She is a Founding Fellow and Board Member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and was nominated in 2010 for Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year by African Business Awards.

Neville Gabriel

Executive Director, Southern Africa Trust

Neville Gabriel was born in Durban, South Africa. He matriculated with distinction before completing a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree at the University of Cape Town. After a year's retreat and community service in an impoverished rural village in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, he returned to study at both the University of Natal (philosophy) and St Joseph's Theological Institute (theology) concurrently, graduating with Honours in Social Sciences (cum laude) from the University of Natal.

In 1997 he joined the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), as part of the founding team of its Parliamentary Liaison Office in Cape Town. At the same time, he co-founded the Jubilee 2000 South Africa coalition for debt cancellation as part of the global Jubilee movement. He served as national secretary, national executive committee member and spokesperson of Jubilee 2000.

He later moved to the SACBC headquarters in Pretoria as its first Secretary for Economic Justice. In 2001, he was appointed as the coordinator of the SACBC Justice and Peace Department. During that time he was instrumental in establishing the Denis Hurley Institute for International Solidarity and Peace.

In 2005, he joined Oxfam as its southern Africa regional media and advocacy coordinator before being appointed as the founding executive director of the Southern Africa Trust. The Trust is an independent regional agency that supports deeper and wider policy engagement between governments and non-state actors to overcome poverty in Southern Africa.

Neville is a non-executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the African Forum on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), a member of the board of the Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection and a senior fellow of the Synergos Institute.

John Githongo

CEO, Inuka Kenya Trust

John Githongo is the CEO of Inuka Kenya Trust fka Zinduko Trust and head of Twaweza in Kenya. He holds an Honours degree in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Wales and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University. In the past he has served as Vice President Policy and Advocacy, World Vision International and Senior Associate Member, St Antony's College Oxford, with whom he is still associated as a Senior Common Room Member. He served as Permanent Secretary, Office of the President of Kenya between 2003 and 2005. Prior to that he was a director of Transparency International-Berlin and Executive Director of Transparency International-Kenya. He has served as an columnist for The EastAfrican between 1995 and 2003 and at various times Correspondent for The Economist among other publications.

His other appointments and distinctions include being a member of the boards of the following organisations among others: Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), Africa Institute for Governing with Integrity and Freedom House. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Transparency International, Berlin and an Advisor to the Mathare Community Resource Centre.

Angélique Kidjo

Grammy Award-winning Artist and Activist

Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo is not only one of the spunkiest, most electrifying performers in the pop world today, she's also one of its most forward and creative thinkers, an artist whose mission has been to explore the relationships of diverse musical cultures. While she has steeped her music in the tribal and pop rhythms of her West African heritage, the Benin-born, Brooklyn-based Kidjo has crossed musical boundaries by blending a variety of styles, including funk, salsa, jazz, rumba, souk and makossa. Angelique also travels the world as a UNICEF goodwill Ambassador. While on the fields in Tanzania, Benin, Ethiopia, Brazil and many other places, she has been helping to raise awareness on girls' education to help eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education. She is the co-founder of the Batonga Foundation, which gives scholarship to girls in five countries in Africa.

Acha Leke

Director, McKinsey & Company

Acha is a Director of McKinsey & Company and Location Manager of the Lagos Office. He started his McKinsey career as a Summer Associate in the Johannesburg office in 1998 and rejoined the Firm in Atlanta in August 1999. He transferred back to Johannesburg in January 2002 to help expand the Firm's activities across sub-Saharan Africa. He recently relocated to Lagos to lead the Firm's newly established office in Nigeria.

Acha's industry work has been split primarily between telecom, oil and gas, and financial services; he has served his clients on issues of new investment decisions, business building, turnaround/growth strategies, and economic development predominantly across SSA (e.g., South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Botswana, Ghana).

Prior to McKinsey, Acha worked for three years as a part-time Consultant at Pacific Monolithics, Inc. and Spectrian Corporation, both in Sunnyvale, CA, on novel techniques to linearize High Power Amplifiers for wireless applications, while completing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. His research at Stanford focused on applying xDSL techniques to wireless broadband transmission. Acha also received an MS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University, as well as a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering summa cum laude, with a minor in Economics, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated as Valedictorian (first Black Valedictorian in the school's history) and was elected to Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu. He is a co-founder and member of the Board of the African Leadership Academy, a co-educational boarding school that aims to develop the next generation of African leaders. He is also a co-founder of the African Leadership Network, an invitation-only network of young African leaders who aspire to bring prosperity to the continent. In 2008, he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF), as Africa's Young Investment Professional of the year at the Ai Investment Awards, and as one of the top 100 movers and shakers in Africa by Les Afriques. In 2010, he was selected by Destiny Man as one of the top 40 men under 40 in South Africa. He is currently a member of the WEF's Regional Agenda Council on Africa. Acha is originally from Cameroon, and is fluent in both English and French.

Dr. Xiaoyun Li

Chief Senior Advisor, International Poverty Reduction Center in China

Xiaoyun, Li was born in December 27, 1961, and is Chinese. He received his first degree in agriculture science from Ningxia Agriculture College in 1981, and got his MS and PhD in agricultural science from Beijing Agricultural University in 1984 and 1987, respectively. From 1987 to 1989, he served as policy analyst for rural development in the State Council of China. During those years, he had participated number of important policy formulations for rural development in China. After 1989, he became the executive director of Center for Integrated Agricultural Development at Beijing Agricultural University. He then continued his postgraduate study in social and interdisciplinary areas in Germany and the Netherlands and has done field work in Tanzania. He further persuaded his PhD in development studies in Catholic University of Nijmegen of the Netherlands and returned to China to continue to build development studies field for education and research.

For more than 20 years, he has made a significant contribution for building development studies education and applied policy research capacity for rural development in China. He has been one of the most influential experts for rural development policies in China and has also directed and supervised most donor interventions in China. His most important works range from poverty reduction, small holder agricultural development, rural finance, local government development and NGOs, natural resources management, participation and gender, and development intervention. Recently, he has been actively involved in China Africa studies, international aid study. He has published more than 30 books and more 200 papers on those topics mentioned above. He has been given many awards, such as the State Council Special Contribution Award and China Poverty Reduction Award. Currently, he is Dean of College of Humanities and Development Studies of China Agricultural University, Chief Senior Advisor of International Poverty Reduction Center in China, Director of OECD-DAC China Study Group, member of Advisory committee of ESRC UK, and senior consultant for the World Bank in Tanzania.

Dr. Richard Mkandawire

Head of Partnerships, Resource Mobilisation and Communications, NEPAD

Prof. Richard Mkandawire is a socio-economist and rural development expert. He is currently the Head of Partnerships, Resource Mobilisation and Communications for the New Partnership for Africa's Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency).

During the past seven years, Prof. Mkandawire has been at the helm of leadership of the African Union's NEPAD programme on Agriculture – that is the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) (www.nepad-caadp.net) which has now been nurtured into an internal rallying point in support of African Agriculture with significant policy shifts and unprecedented commitment from African governments.

In 2009, Prof. Mkandawire was awarded the degree of DSc. Honoris Causa for his leadership in stewarding CAADP to the Regional Economic Communities and the national governments and for rallying global support around CAADP. He has previously taught in the Universities of Malawi, Zambia, and in South Africa. Between 1992 and 1999, he worked with the Commonwealth Secretariat as Commonwealth Youth Programme Regional Director for Africa, where he was responsible for support of national governments in youth policy development and facilitation of microfinancing initiatives, as well as the development of a wide range of livelihood initiatives for young people.

Over the past two decades, Prof. Mkandawire has undertaken a wide range of research and consultancy in such varied areas as food policy and agriculture; gender and development; irrigation development; youth policy analysis and development; artisan fisheries and development; land tenure systems and agrarian development; youth and reproductive health; and youth livelihoods and employment. His major publications include two books: "Food Policy and Agriculture in Southern Africa" and "Livelihood Pathways: Emerging Issues and Challenges for Young Women and Men in Africa."

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane

Winston Hugh Njongonkulu Ndungane was born in Kokstad, South Africa, where he completed his primary and secondary education. As an anti apartheid activist in the 1960, he was eventually imprisoned on Robben Island from 1963 to 1966.

As a cleric in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, he has served as a parish priest, and moved on to facilitate theological education. In later years he served in senior management of the Anglican Church until his eventual election as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996.

While Archbishop Of Cape Town, he has served in many leadership platforms of the World Wide Anglican Communion and has made notable contributions to the work of the communion on issues of Peace and Justice, poverty eradication, trade justice and HIV and AIDS.

He has been involved with the promotion of the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals. He speaks widely on these issues as well as on rebuilding the new South Africa and theological questions. In 2005, together with Kofi Annan and Jeffrey Sachs, he was a speaker in the St Paul's Cathedral, London, series on poverty, 'What can one person do?'

In 2006 he launched African Monitor, a pan-African not-for-profit body harnessing the voice of the continent's civil society in monitoring and promoting the effective implementation of promises made by the international community, and Africa's own governments, for the continent's development.

Njongonkulu Ndungane was appointed Chair of Council of the University of Cape Town in 2008.

In October 2009 Archbishop Njongo Ndungane was awarded the Drivers of Change Award, for his lifelong commitment to place the poor at the centre of social and economic policies.

Ory Okolloh

Public Policy and Government Relations Manager, Google Africa

Ms. Ory Okolloh is the Public Policy and Government Relations Manager, Africa, for Google. She is a co-founder of Ushahidi and served as the organization's Executive Director from inception until December 2010. Ory is also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament.
Ms. Okolloh graduated summa cum laude with a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and with a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She was previously a summer associate in Covington and Burling, Washington, DC, and a Chayes Fellow at the World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity.

Ory is a frequent speaker at conferences including TED, World Economic Forum, Poptech, CGI, Techonomy, Mobile Web Africa and the Monaco Media Forum on issues around citizen journalism, the role of technology in Africa, and the role of young people in reshaping the future of Africa.

Ory currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her husband and her two daughters.

Arunma Oteh

Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria

Arunma Oteh has been Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission since January 2010. She was also elected Chairperson of the Africa Middle East Regional Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions in June 2010.

Prior to her appointment to the SEC, she was Executive Vice President of the African Development Bank Group from 2006 to 2009 and Group Treasurer from 2001 to 2005. She also held other positions in treasury and lending from 1992 when she joined the Bank.

Prior to joining the African Development Bank, she worked in corporate finance, consulting, teaching and research for a number of institutions including the Harvard Institute for International Development, USA, and Centre Point Investments Limited, Nigeria.

She is currently leading a transformation of the Nigerian Capital Markets to enable Nigeria to realize its economic potential. She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Management Team and serves on the board of a number of organizations, including the Pension Commission Nigeria, and the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, the Advisory Board of the Africa Investor and the International Financing Facility of Immunization, a charity organization set up by governments to fast track immunization, a critical vehicle for achieving the millennium development goals.

She holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, Harvard University and a first class honors degree in Computer Science from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. She is the co-editor of the book, "African Voices African Visions."

Rakesh R. Rajani

Head, Twaweza

Rakesh R. Rajani is the Head of Twaweza (meaning 'we can make it happen' in Swahili), a 10-year initiative to enhance access to information, citizen agency and public accountability in East Africa. Until the end of 2007, he served as the founding Executive Director of HakiElimu, an independent organization that promotes citizen engagement in education in Tanzania. Rakesh's interests include the connections between information, imagination and public action; political economy of policy making; and budget transparency and public engagement.

Rakesh advises and serves on several boards, including Revenue Watch International, Aidspan, a watchdog of the Global Fund, the International Budget Partnership, the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa, the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania, and the Hewlett/Gates Foundations initiative on Quality Education in Developing Countries. He has also been a fellow of Harvard University since 1998, most recently involved in its Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS. He has written and/or edited over 300 papers, popular publications and op-eds in English and Swahili.

Rakesh did his university education in the US at Brandeis and Harvard, graduating summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Mandla Sibeko

Founder and Chairman, Seed Capital Investment

Mandla ventured into the media industry by creating his own production company. He served as Managing Director of this successful content and multimedia business, Born Free Media, servicing a wide range of clients such as all SABC channels, the Kaiser Foundation and loveLife.

Mandla has served as Executive Producer on "90 Plein Street," a TVs series about Parliament, "When We Were Black," a TV series set in 1976, and "Dinner with the President," a talk show hosted by Pieter Dirk Uys as Evita Bezuidenhout.

Mandla is also a founding member of a few investment initiatives particularly focusing on the empowerment of young people, with key investments in food, retail, media and clothing industries. Mandla has been responsible in leading and growing the investment of this portfolio.

Mandla Sibeko also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Paarl Print and Paarl Print, Paarl Labs – the largest magazine and commercial printer in South Africa and part of Media 24 Group. Mandla has set up his own investment business SEED CAPITAL Investments, through which he has various interests in the small business sector.

Through his own investment company, he is partaking in a number of related media, retail, property and e-procurement acquisitions. Mandla is the new owner of the Pick n Pay Family Supermarket in Kliptown, Soweto as part of the new rollout of Pick n Pay stores, as well as part of Mandla's own strategy to invest in townships and rural South Africa.

Mandla also holds a 40 percent shareholding in Icon SA, a partnership with a UK based global stadium and City dressing company that branded the 2006 German Fifa World Cup. We offerred the same service to the 2010 South African World Cup. He is BEE partner with Tone Digital, one of South Africa's leading digital printers in outdoor.

Mandla was one of the first entrepreneurs to open retail giant Pick n Pay in the township by opening his store in Soweto where he supports three charities in Soweto: Child Evangelism Fellowship, Soweto Kliptown Youth Foundation, and the Elderly Group of the Greater Kliptown Development Forum. He also serves as a Trustee Board Member of loveLife, an organization devoted to HIV/AIDS education and awareness-raising. Mandla is currently persuing his Executive MBA at the University of Capetown.

John Ulanga

Executive Director, Foundation for Civil Society

John Ulanga is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Civil Society, the largest support mechanism for civil society organizations in Tanzania.

Prior to joining the Foundation for Civil Society in late 2005, Mr. Ulanga worked with the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF), one of the leading Policy Research Think Tanks in Tanzania as its first Coordinator of Commissioned Studies where he was charged with the responsibility of forming the consultancy department and coordinate consultancy assignments undertaken by ESRF.

Mr. Ulanga is currently the Chairman of the East African Association of Grantmakers (EAAG), an Association of Grantmakers and Philanthropic Institutions in East Africa with its Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya; a Board Member of HakiElimu, a Tanzania Education and Democracy Organisation that works to realize equity, quality, human rights and democracy in education in Tanzania; a Board Member of Tanzania Financial Services for the Underserved Settlements (TAFSUS), a UN-Habitat-supported initiative to upgrade slums and underserved settlements in Tanzania; A Member of the Steering Committee of African Grantmakers Network (AGN), a member of an Independent Advisory Panel of eminent persons in Tanzania advising the World Bank Country Office on their programmes pertaining to the Government of Tanzania. He is also a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, East Africa and the Aspen Global Leadership Network of the Aspen Institute. Mr. Ulanga also has experience working with the public sector through his intensive involvement in Public Service Reform Programme in Tanzania. Mr. Ulanga has held various other leadership/managerial positions in several places.

The Foundation for Civil Society builds the capacity of civil society organisations in Tanzania through providing them with grants, facilitating linkages amongst them and between civil society and other sectors; and enabling a culture of on-going learning within the sector. The Foundation's thematic areas include policy engagement, governance and accountability, and civil society capacity strengthening.

Russell Wildeman

Programme Manager of the Economic Governance Programme, IDASA

Russell is currently the Programme Manager of the Economic Governance Programme and the Director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in Africa. Russell holds a Master's Cum Laude in Political Management from the University of Stellenbosch, and his academic background is in the field of political behaviour and research methodologies. He has been with Idasa since 2000, first joining the organization in his capacity as an education researcher, where his main focus involved examining education finance issues and the implementation of key sectoral policies targeted at the poor. Apart from his interests in the South African education system, he is presently overseeing the implementation of a 6-country project in Southern, Eastern, and West Africa that deals with the right of access to information and the right to education. His own research interests focuses on the notion of effective schools and the implementation of public finance frameworks in post-apartheid South Africa.