Ali Bongo Ondimba entered political life in Gabon in 1981. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1989 and 1991, and then became a member of the National Assembly before going on to become Defense Minister from 1999 to 2009. In July 2009, he was chosen as the official candidate for the Gabon Democratic Party (PDG) for the presidential election due to take place following the death of his father, the Head of State. He was elected President of the Gabonese Republic on 30 August 2009 and took the presidential oath on 16 October 2009.

Since being sworn in, he has launched a number of large scale economic and infrastructure projects as well as a series of political and administrative reforms, all with a view to turning Gabon into an emerging economy. President Ali Bongo Ondimba is married to Sylvia Bongo Ondimba and is father to four children. He is a keen historian and nurtures two great passions, football and music. He is particularly fond of classical music, jazz and bossa nova and has even composed some musical pieces himself. 

Rachel Nyaradzo Adams is the Associate Director for Africa at Yale University based in the Office of International Affairs. She is responsible for advising and supporting the university’s Africa efforts by working with faculty, students and alumni to develop partnerships between Yale and African institutions. Before taking on this role at Yale, Rachel spent five years building leadership capability in young African leaders both at the tertiary and corporate levels. Her previous work at McKinsey & Company, Johannesburg, saw her designing, implementing and managing an innovative leadership program aimed at accelerating the leadership development of exceptional talent. Rachel is a graduate of Oxford University with a Master of Science in African Studies. She is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, a Mellon Mays Fellow, a Felix Scholar and a Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow.

Michael Adande has been the Governor of the Development Bank of Central Africa (BDEAC) since 2010. He has worked at the BDEAC for 19 years and previously at the International Monetary Fund for 3 years. When he returned to Gabon, he was nominated as the Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance before becoming the head of the Prime Minister’s economic section.

Tutu Agyare is the straight-talking Ghanaian who “baptised” the floor of the London Stock Exchange as the first African to trade on it in his early 20s. He later pursued a successful career at UBS Investment Bank for two decades, where he became head of Europe, Middle East and African investment. In 2007 he set up Nubuke Investments, a company solely focused on African investment opportunities. Today, he is a much sought-after business leader and investor, and one of a handful of Africans who sits on the board of an FTSE 100 company. He is known for confronting critics of the African investment trajectory and challenges them to “wake up and smell the coffee” and realise that the rest of the world is making a beeline for Africa. Having experienced the best of the South and the West, Agyare uses his experience to navigate his way through what he describes as a rich environment for opportunity. Most recently, he was named one of the 100 most influential Africans by NewAfrican magazine.

Akon is an international, multi-award winning hip-hop and R&B recording artist, songwriter and record producer. The Senegalese American has 35 million albums sold worldwide, five Grammy Award nominations, and 45 Billboard Hot 100 songs under his belt. In the aftermath of Akon’ s 2006 release of album Konvicted, Akon garnered the American Music Award for Favourite R&B Male Artist, Teen Choice Award for Breakout Male Artist, three World Music Awards in the categories of Best Selling R&B Male Artist, Best Selling African Artist and Best Selling Internet Artist, and the Billboard Music Award for Artist of the Year. In addition to his own chart-dominating singles “Smack That” and “I Wanna Love You”, he’s made a staggering 300 guest appearances for icons including Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Eminem. Akons latest single So Blue, released in 2013, has already received over 2 million hits on YouTube. The single is from the album Stadium, set to be released this year. He is currently selling out shows globally, most recently in Bangladesh in March, 2014.

Clare Akamanzi is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), a Government institution in charge of accelerating economic growth and development of the country. Before this, she was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Business Operations and Services at RDB. Prior to this, Ms. Akamanzi, a trade and investment lawyer, was the Deputy Director General at the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA). She was also Rwanda’s commercial Diplomat in London and a Trade Negotiator in Geneva at the World Trade Organization. Ms. Akamanzi has served on several boards in the country.  She is the founder of Prosave, a 100 member savings cooperative that promotes a savings culture among Rwandans.  She is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, and named as one of the young female business leaders in Africa by Forbes Africa.

Anas Alami is the Managing Director of the Caisse de dépôt et de gestion (Groupe CDG). In 1993 he founded the Upline Group. In 2005 he was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Casablanca Stock Exchange Company and in 2006, he served as Managing Director of Barid Al Maghrib (Poste Maroc)
. He graduated from the Mohammedia Engineering School (EMI) of Morocco. He holds an 
MBA in Finance and International Affairs from the Stern School of Business of the University of New York.

Pietro Amico holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Faculte Polytechnique, Mons (Belgium) and a degree from the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD (France). He also holds various certifications in marketing, finance, and strategy from other Belgian universities and European training centres. Mr. Amico currently serves as the CEO of Eramet Comilog and General Representative for Eramet in Libreville, Gabon. From 2012 to 2013, he served as the CEO of Erachem, specialized in agrochemicals and specialties industries including hazardous waste recycling activity. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Amico served as the Executive Vice President of Erachem in Paris. From 2000 to 2007, he served as CEO of Guangxi Eramet Comilog Chemicals Ltd. (China). Mr. Amico has served as President and Founder of the European Battery Recycling Association from 1998 to 2004 and the President of Belgian Association for Progress of Management (APM) from 2000 to 2003. He speaks French, English , Italian and Dutch. He has worked and lived in European countries, the United States, China and Africa.

Stéphanie Antoine graduated with a Masters degree in Journalism from New York University after earning her diploma at Sciences Po Paris. She worked for ABC News and CNBC for five years in New York City and then for Bloomberg in London. After that, she worked as a producer in France for six years for Public Television and private channel M6. She is currently an Anchor for France 24, Business Interview, A Week in Business, and Business Face-Off. She is the Author of DSK at The IMF (Le Seuil 2011).

Elé Asu is a French Journalist born in Calabar, Nigeria. She holds a degree in English and is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies of Strasbourg. She started her career as a project manager for the Ministry of Culture in Paris before joining the Canal+ Media Group as a news anchor in 2006. She now also hosts Reussite,  the first french program dedicated to African entrepreneurship; a program consciously aimed at documenting the underrated economic success stories on the continent. 

Cécilia Attias has dedicated her life to service; as a mother, a wife, a committed public servant, an activist, and an ardent supporter of women’s rights.

She served in Neuilly’s city hall and at the Assemblée Nationale before moving to the Ministry of the Interior, where she became deeply involved in women’s rights and issues of domestic violence, immigration, assimilation, and crimes against children. In 2005 she served as Advisor for the Minister of State, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, and in 2005 as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of the UMP Party. In 2007, Cécilia became First Lady of France, and successfully negotiated with General Muammar Ghadaffi for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor imprisoned on Libya’s death row.

Today, Cécilia serves as President and Founder of the Cécilia Attias Foundation for Women. She uses her experience in politics, relationship with global businesses, and knowledge of the communications industry to promote and support valuable work done by NGOs and social entrepreneurs.

Richard Attias is an entrepreneur known as the world’s top community builder for the “thinking elite”. As a global influencer, former Chairman of Publicis Live and Publicis Events Worldwide, he has built a reputation for helping nations and corporations catalyze the exchange of ideas.

Mr. Attias has developed and produced some of the most influential gatherings of global leaders including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Nobel Laureates Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Hawaii, and the Gathering of All Leaders in Sport (Doha GOALS) in Qatar.

Mr. Attias is Founder and Chairman of Richard Attias & Associates (RAA), a global communication strategy firm and The New York Forum, a “Call to Action” platform for global CEOs and business leaders to share ideas and provide solutions for new business models in a post-crisis world. In 2012, RAA launched the annual New York Forum AFRICA in Libreville, Gabon.

A testament to his global skillset, Mr. Attias was recently awarded the 15th Francophonie Summit in Dakar, Senegal in 2014, and the production of the 50th All-Africa Games held in Brazzaville, The Republic of the Congo in 2015. In January 2014, WPP, the world’s largest global communications company took a minority stake in Mr. Attias’ RAA. Born in Fez, Morocco, Mr. Attias holds a degree in civil engineering and a Masters in mathematics and physics.

Jaloul Ayed was appointed Minister of Finance of Tunisia in January 2011 and served in the two interim governments formed following the Tunisian revolution. Prior to this, Ayed was Board Member and General Manager of BMCE Group, Vice Chairman of its Senior Credit Committee, Chairman of BMCE Capital, and Vice Chairman and CEO of BMCE Bank International.

In 1998 Ayed joined the Moroccan BMCE Group to set up BMCE Capital, its investment banking arm. BMCE Capital became one of the leading investment banks in Morocco and the region. He initiated the activities of BMCE Capital in Central and West Africa by creating a subsidiary in Senegal and Cameroon. Ayed also supervised the creation by BMCE Bank of MediCapital Bank, an FSA authorized wholesale bank in London. Ayed chaired the Management Committee of BMCE Group as well as the boards of several fully owned subsidiaries of BMCE Bank Group and FinanceCom.

Ayed founded Argan Invest, the largest private equity platform in Morocco, and held several other senior positions in the FinanceCom Group. He was a Director at Proparco, the French development agency, and Vice Chairman and co-founder of Euromed Capital Forum. 

Miguel joined Citigroup in 2010 as Corporate and Investment Banking Head for Portugal. Since mid-2012 he has also been the head of Investment Banking for Africa, excluding Egypt and South Africa. Prior to working at Citigroup, Miguel was a Senior Country Advisor at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Miguel has an MBA in Finance from City University (Cass) Business School and an Economics degree from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Miguel Azevedo has spent most of his 25 years in investment banking executing equity capital markets and M&A transactions in Europe, Latin America and Africa. In the last 12 months he has been a regular contributor to CNBC Africa, Bloomberg TV and CNBC Europe to discuss investment in Africa.

Mustapha Bakkoury is the President of Masen (Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy), in charge of the implementation of the Moroccan solar plan, NOOR, aimed at establishing a capacity of 2,000 megawatts by 2020. He has been managing the launch of the company and its development since December 2009. In 2013, the construction of the world’s largest solar thermal plant with storage began at the NOOR Ouarzazate Solar Complex. Mr. Bakkoury is an engineer from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées of Paris. He also holds degrees in banking and finance.

Previously, Mr. Bakkoury spent eight years as Head of Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion, the financial arm of the Moroccan government, with a significant presence in the area of ​​institutional savings, pensions, capital markets, and a key player in the operational sectors of tourism, real estate, land-use planning, and development. Before that, he held several senior executive positions in the banking sector, notably with BNP Paribas and BMCI, its related affiliate in Morocco.

In 2012, Mr. Bakkoury was elected Secretary General of the political party ‘Parti de l'Authenticité et de la modernité’ in Morocco.

Dominic Barton is the Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company. In his 27 years with the firm, Dominic has advised clients in a range of industries including banking, consumer goods, high tech and industrial. Prior to his current role, Dominic was based in Shanghai as McKinsey’s Asia Chairman from 2004 to 2009 and led the Korea office from 2000 to 2004.

Dominic has authored more than 80 articles on the role of business in society, leadership, financial services, Asia, history and the issues and opportunities facing markets worldwide.  Dominic is a co-author, with Roberto Newell and Greg Wilson, of Dangerous Markets: Managing in Financial Crises (Wiley & Sons, 2002) and China Vignettes: An Inside Look at China (Talisman, 2007).

Dominic leads McKinsey’s work on the future of capitalism, long-term value-creation and the role of business leadership in society.  This is a set of research initiatives and projects to convene organisations and leaders for constructive action. One such project was a task force on Inclusive Capitalism, which Dominic co-led with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild (sponsored by the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank).  The task force – comprised of business and public leaders in the US and UK – developed approaches for engaging and scaling business actions to address issues that create both social and economic value.

Sophia Bekele Eshete is a business and corporate executive, an international entrepreneur, corporate governance & risk management specialist, an international policy advisor on ICT, internet and development issues, governance and an ICT activist. Bekele has performed superlatively in roles that straddle both the public and private sectors.  She has obtained a truly global experience and maintained a successful career track record spanning over a decade of constant professional activity working for Fortune 500 Companies.  As an entrepreneur, Bekele has founded and run various international start-ups, implementing successful projects as well as launching companies into new markets.   She is also the founder of the widely acclaimed and successful “Yes2dotAfrica” global awareness campaign, the Miss.africa, and Generation.africa gender and youth-focused initiatives.  Bekele is considered a global technology and internet authority.  She was named one of the "Top 20 Inspirational African Diaspora Professional Women in Europe" by ADIPWE in 2014, one of the "50 African Trailblazers – a Future Made in Africa” in 2013 by NewAfrican Magazine, and “African Women to Watch” by Bloomberg.  Ms. Bekele holds an MBA in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Systems from San Francisco State University.  

Larbi Bencheikh earned his engineering degree from the National School of Public Works in Lyon, France. After returning to Morocco in 1983, he worked for the Ministry of Equipment, where he participated in a study for dam construction. From 1994 to 1998, Bencheikh served as director of the Hassania School of Public Works, which under his management became the Greater School of the Kingdom for the first time. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Head of the Ports Department and Public Maritime Domain. In August 2001, he was appointed Director General of the Office of Vocational Training and Employment Promotion (OFPPT), where he launched an ambitious development training project, increasing the number of trainees from 54,000 in 2002 to 340,000 in 2013-2014.

Bencheikh also served as Secretary General of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation from 2006 to 2009 and as President of the Moroccan Union for Quality from 2007 to 2011.

Amina Benkhadra is the Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines. She served previously as Minister in charge of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment and as Secretary of State responsible for mining sector development. She holds a degree in Civil Engineering of Mines from the National Superior School of Mines of Nancy and a Doctorate in Engineering from ENSM Paris. Her career began in 1982 at the Mines Research and Participation Office (BRPM) where she held several positions of responsibility related to the feasibility of mining projects.In 1994, she was appointed Director of Mines at the Ministry in charge of Energy, Mines, Water and environment, then Secretary of State in charge of mining sector development (1997-1998).

She became Director of the BRPM in 1998, then General Director of the National Office of Oil Research and Exploitation “ONAREP” before her appointment as a General Director of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) in November 2003. In October 2007, she was appointed as a Minister in charge of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment.

Samir has 20 years of experience in ICT and franchising across many countries. He first joined Microsoft Morocco in 1998 as OEM Manager of North and West Africa covering 23 countries. He was later promoted to Partners and Small Business Manager in North Africa. Samir then became Country Manager, Microsoft Algeria and Country Manager, Microsoft Bahrain. During his tenure in Bahrain, he was elected President of the American Chamber of Commerce and contributed to the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and the Kingdom of Bahrain. As Country Manager of Microsoft Bahrain, Samir drove many initiatives around e-government services, e-banking and the development of the national education initiative. In 2006, Samir introduced the Century 21 franchise in Morocco, the world's leading real estate brokerage, and opened 23 branches covering nine different cities of the Kingdom. In 2010, Samir established Morocco's prestigious “Arsenal Soccer School” in Casablanca, training young footballers and creating a new outlook on football and professionalism. In 2011, Samir re-joined Microsoft as Country Manager, Morocco. Samir has signed many partnerships in the education sector, most notably vocational training, as 60,000 unemployed trainees will receive Microsoft training and certifications and 300,000 teachers in the Ministry of Education will be trained and certified on Microsoft Technology.

With work experience of more than 20 years as legal and tax CEMAC counsel at a national and international level, Madeleine is in charge of assisting Deloitte’s national and international clients, especially by supporting major investment projects, restructuring operations, tax and legal due diligence, and social plans of companies in all sectors. She also has a recognized competence in supporting public sector reforms and human resources restructuring. She is the first woman ever elected as the head of the Gabonese Employers’ Confederation (CPG). Madeleine represents about 350 companies generating around 80% of the GDP and employing 90% of the private sector’s employees. She is, as such, a key player of strategic projects initiated by the private sector in Gabon and a major intermediary in discussions between operators she represents and Gabonese public authorities.

Maggy Berre earned a degree in International Relations and Languages ​​Affairs in Paris. After holding several roles in the communications industry, Maggy launched 2CS, her own communications consulting firm. The firm’s mission is to find innovative solutions for businesses while acting as a mix between traditional agency communication and communication services. She has worked with companies including Olam, Le Fond Routier, the PERFED, Mika Services Caistab , Be Tech, and FSL (Freight Logistics Services).

In 2013, Maggy signed a major publishing contract initiated by the Gabonese Ministry of Investment Promotion, Infrastructure, Housing and Planning involving major projects in Gabon. Since January 2014, she has been working on an innovative real estate project focused on combining luxury with ecological design structures. Maggy’s true passions are art, reading, cinema and sport. An accomplished water sportswoman, Maggy is an active member and in charge of communication for Dauphins du Komo. Maggy is very interested in the world of politics and aspires to launch a portion of her business sepcialized in political marketing.

Zanoah Bia is passionate about organic farming, ecological architecture, botanical gardens, the sea, permaculture, training and breeding edible insects. Zanoah Bia is the business developer, editor and creative director of EgoDesign and Ego Magazine and holds a diploma from ESP - École Supérieure de Publicité (Global Design Option), Paris and from the l’Institut de Marketing des Médias in Congo-Kinshasa. He has several years of experience in cinema, advertising, conceptual design, hospitality, and media. He has worked as a creative director in Kinshasa, Brussels, Paris, New York and Montreal. He has also been an assistant programmer for Pathé Films, a visual designer for Vues d’Afrique, and a film distributor and co-director in Montreal and London. He is the founder of KeBö, which publishes EgoDesign.ca and Ego Magazine. He also founded KoBa Green Hotels and KoBa Seeds in Cape Town. He lives in Africa and Canada.

Yves Bigot is a French journalist, TV host and music producer. He has been the Managing Director of TV5 Monde since 2012. He served previously as Deputy Managing Director at Endemol France. From 1983 to 2010, he was a journalist for the newspaper ‘Liberation’ and for Rolling Stone.

He has served as Manager of the Consultative Assembly on Rock & Roll and Pop Music to the Minister for Culture and Communication and Manager of the Association of “Victoires de la Musique”. He was CEO of Initiative Rock, an investment fund, and Chairman of the Board of the “Festival du Cinéma Francophone d’Angoulême”.

Yves is also the author of several books about music. He was appointed Chevalier of the "Ordre des arts et des lettres".

Minister Bouya was born on May 24, 1962 in Mouembe (district of Tchikapika), in the Cuvette region of the Congo, and is a pilot by training.

He is particularly skilled with the Boeing 737 and 727 and the Fokker 28, having received extensive flight training in Miler, France, and Miami, USA between 1987 and 1989. Minister Bouya returned to the Congo after receiving his training and served as the personal pilot of President Sassou N'Guesso, aboard his Boeing 727, between 1989 and 1992.

From 1997 to 2003, he was Transport adviser to President Sassou N'Guesso, and later served as Delegate General for Major Public Works, a position he still holds and one in which he has served brilliantly, advising the President on matters related to transport, civil aviation and shipping.

Methodical and studious by nature, Minister Bouya has,  since September 2012, acted as Minister at the Presidency of the Republic, for Spatial Planning and the Delegate General for Major Public Works. Jean-Jacques Bouya was elected to the National Assembly as the PCT candidate in the riding of Tchikapika in July 2012.

Frank Braeken is the Chief Investment Officer of Amatheon Agri Holding, a Berlin-based company committed to building a leading Agro Foods company operating across Africa. He has an FMCG background - a true global operator. After an early stint with P&G, Frank spent 26 years with Unilever, living and working in nine countries on four continents. His last role up to 2013 was Executive Vice President for the Africa region, with overall responsibility for its €2.5bln operations.  Prior roles include Business Group President for the China Region, Managing Director of Unilever Foods France, and Chairman of Unilever Andina.  After obtaining a law and MBA degree, his early career began in finance. His industries expertise lies in FMCG and African agriculture. His specific operational expertise is in developing markets sales and distribution strategies and systems, FMCG value chain analysis, multi-tier brand strategies for straddling the income pyramid, and talent and organisational strategies that cater to fast growing, developing organisations.

Mel is a finance lecturer at Henley Business School, Africa, part of the University of Reading, UK.  Henley is the only international business school accredited in South Africa and is one of only 1% globally holding international triple accreditation.  The University of Reading was ranked amongst the top 1% of universities worldwide by the Times global higher education rankings in 2012. Henley operates around the world with operations in Europe, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Germany, Africa, Scandinavia, and the Middle East. Mel taught finance and marketing at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Graduate School of Business Administration for 21 years. He was responsible for designing and managing its New Managers Programme and a specialist programme in finance and accounting. As Deputy Director of the Wits Business School’s Centre for Developing Business, he was responsible for the design and presentation of a number of small enterprise development and management programmes. More recently, Mel has turned his attention to social media where he has garnered considerable expertise and knowledge in content production and social-media platform operation and management. He currently manages the Henley social media platforms.

Dr. Shashi Buluswar is the CEO of LIGTT, the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  LIGTT was launched in 2012 to develop technological breakthroughs for combating global poverty and related problems.  Before creating LIGTT, he was a Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where he served as a strategic advisor to a range of institutions in international development including NGOs, corporations, foundations, governments, social entrepreneurs, the UN, and the World Bank on topics including health, agriculture, economic development, human rights, and climate change.  Before joining Dalberg, he was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company.  He holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Robotics and an MBA from Northwestern University.  He also teaches international development at the University of California, Berkeley and is writing a textbook on the topic. He recently made a critically acclaimed documentary film about the India-Pakistan conflict. 

Dr. Nicolas Bussard started his career as an e-commerce university lecturer at Coventry University, England in 1998 at the age of 21. In parallel, he worked on his Ph.D. in IT and passed it at the age of 24.

Soon after, Nicolas established himself as a serial web entrepreneur. Among other companies, Nicolas founded Feedzilla.com in 2004, a personal project that he turned into a world leading news aggregator and news widget platform.

After focusing all of his entrepreneurial life on the western world, in January 2012, Nicolas co-founded and publicly opened www.skilledafricans.com, a professional pan-African social network with 600,000 members. SkilledAfricans enables African job seekers to network, find a job and improve their professional skills. It also allows companies to hire new staff and train their existing employees.

Tafsir Camara graduated in Economics & International Finance from Paris-Sorbonne University (France), specialising in Business Management and Finance.

Upon completion of his studies, Tafsir joined Ernst & Young in Conakry (Guinea) as an auditor. In 1998, he was recruited by Shell as an auditor in the finance department before being promoted to Assistant to the West and Central Africa Regional Finance Manager in Accra (Ghana). His responsibilities included management audit and budget planning. In 2001, after acting as Finance Manager for Shell’s subsidiary in Togo, he managed the financial side of Shell’s entry into the distribution market of the Congolese oil industry (Republic of Congo). In 2004, after holding positions as Finance Manager of Shell’s subsidiaries in the Republic of Congo and Gabon, he was appointed Finance Manager and member of the board of directors of Shell’s subsidiaries in Guinea.

In 2010, he joined BHP Billiton, the Australian multinational mining company, as Finance and Commercial Manager of the group’s manganese subsidiary in Gabon. Tafsir has been SEM’s Chief Operating Officer since 2013.

Salim Cheikh is the Managing Director of SOREAD 2M. A Moroccan public channel leader with a 25% audience share, 2M is a generalist channel with a diverse program focusing on information, documentaries, societal issues, fiction and entertainment.

Prior to his appointment in June 2008, Mr. Cheikh was Managing Director of the Advertising Sales Group for the National Society of Radio and Television (SNRT).

He is the founder and former treasurer of regulator sales of the National Press (OJD-Morocco). Salim Cheikh served previously as Secretary General of the Association of Advertisers in Morocco (GAM), President of Marketing and Communications Committee for the International Chamber of Commerce, and Vice-President of the Centre Interprofessionnel d'Audimétrie Médiatique (CIAUMED).

He holds a Masters degree in Marketing from the University of Toulouse (France).

Mr. Ibrahima Cheikh Diong is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Dakar-based pan-African management consulting and commercial facilitation firm, Africa Consulting and Trading (ACT). Mr. Diong also advises the Middle East and Africa Region Department of the Corporate and Investment Banking Unit of BNP Paribas. He served in July 2007 as Minister, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Senegal. Mr. Diong was appointed in May 2010 as Ambassador at Large and Director General (DG) of the International Cooperation of Senegal. Mr. Diong was appointed in February 2011 as Permanent Secretary of Energy (PSE) of Senegal. He served as the first Chairman of the Board of Senegal Airlines (SAL). Prior, Mr. Diong served as a Manager in the Africa Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and as Regional Coordinator for Africa of the World Bank-managed multi-donor facility, the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF). Prior to the World Bank Group, He worked for Booz Allen and Hamilton (BAH) where he led the Africa privatization business and served as an independent consultant to a number of private, bilateral and multilateral organizations and NGOs. Mr. Diong was a Manager of the Environment Unit of the Dakar-based Pan-African Agency for Research and Consulting (PARC) and the Water Department of the African Network for Integrated Development (ANID). He graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in New York City. He is fluent in English, French, Mandarin Chinese and Wolof.

François Chignac is a French journalist. He joined Euronews in 2001 and currently serves as head of the United Arab Emirates office and correspondent for the Gulf region. His activities have included covering conflicts such as the Malian war, the civil war in Ivory Coast and key events including the Senegalese presidential elections, the African Union summit, the European Union summit, Nelson Mandela's funerals and many interviews with global leaders. Before joining to Euronews, Francois worked for France 3, M6 and French newspapers.

Colin is head of the South African office, a role he has held since joining Goldman Sachs in 2000. In 2008, he was named head of the Investment Banking Division for Sub-Saharan Africa. Colin was named managing director in 2002 and partner in 2010.

In the early 1980s, Colin was involved in South Africa’s constitutional transition. From 1989 until South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, he was an executive director for the Consultative Business Movement. Colin facilitated the International Mediation Forum and helped to negotiate the agreement to facilitate all parties’ participation in South Africa’s 1994 elections.

In 1994, Colin became a senior consultant for public affairs at Standard Bank Investment Corporation, where he was an advisor to the chairman. He was subsequently appointed director of Corporate and Merchant Bank. In 1997, Colin became a vice president of energy, power and oil for J.P. Morgan’s Investment Banking Advisory Department.

In 1996, Colin was nominated as one of the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders for Tomorrow. He was a recipient of Harvard Business School’s “Business Statesman Award” in 1994 and was named one of Euromoney's World Top Ten “Financing leaders for the 21st Century."

Colin earned a BA in Architecture from the University of Witwatersrand in 1988.

Isabella has 16 years of Emerging Markets experience and joined Renaissance Capital in August 2012 to be responsible for its Africa Solutions business. Prior to that, Isabella was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, running its Emerging Markets Credit Structuring business for the CEEMEA region. Her previous experience includes 10 years at J.P. Morgan, where she held several positions, including as an Executive Director responsible for its Emerging Markets Structuring business for Latin America and CEEMEA and 4 years at Linklaters in their capital markets group, in New York, London and Madrid.

Isabella has extensive experience in executing complex private and public financings, having assisted a variety of borrowers in around the globe raise financing, including Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Isabella holds an LL.M. from New York University, a Graduate degree in Accounting from Fundacao Getulio Vargas and  a Bachelor's degree from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Dr. Martyn Davies is the CEO of Frontier Advisory - a leading research, strategy and capital advisory firm that specializes in emerging markets. Martyn was previously the Founding Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS), established under the South Africa-China Bi-national Commission at Vice Presidential level. He established the first Confucius Institute in Africa on behalf of the PRC Government in June 2004. He has also served as an Adjunct Faculty member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. Martyn was ranked the no. 1 analyst in South Africa in the “Other African Economies & Markets” category as awarded by the prestigious Financial Mail in its Annual Analysts of the Year awards. He was previously appointed as an advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development for its Global Development Outlook project. He is a member of MasterCard’s Africa Knowledge Panel providing strategic advice to the Board of MasterCard. Martyn holds a BA degree in Law, an Honours Degree in International Relations, a Master's Degree in International Relations (University of the Witwatersrand), a Diploma in Asian Studies (Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea), and a PhD in International Relations (University of the Witwatersrand) – all completed by the age of 25.

Christian De Faria, CEO for Africa at Bharti Airtel, is a French national who brings with him over 30 years of rich industry experience across multiple geographies, diverse sectors and organizations including MTN, Telekom Malaysia, Disc Vision, Deutsche Telecom and Grundig. Christian joined Airtel Africa in September 2013 as CEO of Africa operations. His key focus is to increase the revenue market share, enhance network and IT capabilities, ramp up 3G data and Airtel Money as future growth engines, strengthen customer experience by institutionalizing best-in-class processes to build execution excellence and strengthen the Airtel brand in Africa

Before joining Airtel, Christian worked for MTN where he held senior leadership positions including Executive Vice President, responsible for the operations of West and Central Africa and later as the Senior Vice President, Commercial and Innovation, responsible for transformation of the group supply chain function. In his most recent position, he was the Group Commercial Officer at MTN. Christian is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelors of Finance and Administration from the University of Toulouse, France.

Thierry Déau is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Meridiam, a leading independent global investor and asset manager specializing in public and community infrastructure founded in 2005.

He began his career in Malaysia with the construction firm GTM International. He then joined France’s Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations where he held several positions with its investment and development subsidiary Egis Projects, moving up from project manager, then director of concession projects to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Egis in 2001. During his tenure at Egis he headed up international operations for the Egis Group executive committee, served on its risk management committee, and acted as member and chairman on the boards of several subsidiaries.

He is a graduate of France’s engineering school, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Jean-Sébastien Decaux joined JCDecaux Group in 1998. From 1998 to 2000 he worked as a Sales Manager responsible for the launch of advertising campaigns in supermarkets for JCDecaux in the United Kingdom before being appointed City Relations Manager of JCDecaux Italy in 2000. In November 2001, following an agreement between IGP, Rizzoli Corriere della Sera and JCDecaux, he was appointed Managing Director responsible for Street Furniture and Sales Director of IGPDecaux, of which he is also a Board member.

In 2004 he gained responsibility for the Belgian and Luxemburg subsidiaries. In September 2010, Jean-Sébastien was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Southern Europe. In January 2013, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Africa and Israel. He is responsible for all countries on the African continent from Maghreb to the Republic of South Africa, in addition to Israel. Since April 2013, Jean-Sébastien Decaux has been a member of JCDecaux’s Executive Board.

Blogger, Social Media Strategist, Digital Activist, Community Manager and a Travel-Geek. These are many hats Mac-Jordan Degadjor, co-founder of Africa New Media, wears. Africa New Media (ANM) is a media startup focusing on using modern technology and social media tools in re-defining Africa’s media ingenuity with a special focus on Talents, Technology, Women and Innovative ideas from the continent. Mac-Jordan (MJ) is an award-winning Ghanaian Blogger & Social Entrepreneur focusing on helping brands, tech startups, innovation hubs, co-working spaces and social enterprises build their community and mentoring them. He holds a degree in Management Information Systems (BSc. MIS) from Kharkov Municipal University in Ukraine. He completed a Digital Media Fellowship from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the 2013 Internet Freedom Fellowship with the US State Department. In 2008, he joined BloggingGhana – Ghana’s largest community of bloggers and social media enthusiasts using the Internet and the web to produce local content and also promote creativity and innovation among the youth. Mac-Jordan is the editor of the award winning blog www.macjordangh.com, listed as “Best Blog in Ghana” by the Travelers Choice Awards in 2012. He was named one of the “30 Entrepreneurs Under 30” by the Christian Science Monitor in 2013. He is the voice of a new generation of Africans from Ghana and believes in the notion: Africa is the Future!

François is responsible for managing the 20 Canal+ channels aired in Africa and the French overseas territories as well as Channel Acquisitions for the CANALSAT platforms in these regions.

He started his career in 1987 in France as Head of Marketing for Communication Développement, the cable MSO owned by Caisse des Dépôts.  He then joined  MTV Europe (1990) as the Vice President of Business Development for South-West Europe. In 1994, he joined TF1 to launch TPS where he was named Managing Director of TPS Jeunesse. He then launched childrens' channels TéléToon, Eureka ! and Piwi. In March 2007, he joined the Canal+ Group as Vice President of Childrens' Channels and launched Canal+ Family. In 2010, he was named Vice President of TV Business Development for Canal+.  In June 2011 he joined Canal+ Overseas as SVP of Channels and Content.

François holds a Master of Science in Television-Radio-Film from Syracuse University, United States and an MBA from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Lille (France).

In 2009, Adiat Disu founded Adirée, “the premier communications and branding firm, in New York for African and global business leaders in multiple industry segments, from entertainment to fashion, beauty, politics, media, and government sectors” (Forbes Africa).

Since 2009, the conceptualization by Adirée of Africa Fashion Weeks in major fashion capitals has led to a proliferation of similar initiatives and increased interest in African brands. The firm’s premier event, Africa Fashion Week in New York, attracts over 1,500 industry insiders. Adiree also manages the Adiree Sustains Africa Program (A.S.A.P) which provides young professionals and women-owned enterprises with immediate access to business development resources, to help establish African-owned enterprises. Disu has launched the Africa Fashion Council, www.africafashioncouncil.com, to further facilitate sourcing relationships and networking opportunities that will continue to develop the African Fashion Industry on and off the continent. AFC focuses on developing promotional and educational programs (both traditional and digital) for fashion related-brands, building infrastructure, and establishing supply chains and distribution networks on the continent and globally for Africa.

His Excellency Estanislao Don Malavo is the Presidential Counselor for Financial Institutions and CEMAC for the Government Administration of Equatorial Guinea. He is also the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Emerging Equatorial Guinea Symposium. He has served previously as Minister of Finance and Budget, Minister of Labor and Social Security, Vice Minister of Finance and Budget, and Deputy Tax Director. He holds a degree in Economics from San Diego State University (SDSU), California, United States.

Hannah Edinger is a Director at Frontier Advisory where she also heads up the Research & Strategy division. She has led various projects around China and India’s economic and commercial relations with Africa and has been advising South African companies on their internationalisation strategies into Africa and Asia, as well as international companies on their expansion strategies into the region. She has headed research teams for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the International Women’s Forum of South Africa (IWFSA); the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF); and the African Development Bank (AfDB) amongst others. She has also formed part of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) network and completed research for the Department for International Development (DFID), and the Rockefeller Foundation. Hannah has also served as an advisor to the OECD Development Centre and forms part of the BRICS Think Tanks Symposium amongst other think tank initiatives. Hannah has authored and edited various articles, book chapters and publications. She is also visiting faculty at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. Hannah holds a BComm degree, BComm Honours in Economics (cum laude) and a Masters of Commerce in Economics (cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Chinwe Effiong is President - Africa Region, for Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.  As JA Africa President, Chinwe oversees and provides strategic direction for JA operations in 17 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. She also works closely with government and private sector stakeholders to raise awareness and promote support for programs that enable young people in Africa to improve their livelihoods and take control of their future.

Jean-Louis Ekra assumed his current role as President and Chairman of the Board of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in January 2005 after successively serving as the Executive Vice-President and Senior Executive Vice-President of the Bank. Under his leadership, the Bank received investment grade credit rating from the three major international rating agencies: Fitch, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s. Mr. Ekra was re-appointed as President and Chairman of the Board for a second term in July 2010. Prior to joining Afreximbank, Mr. Ekra held senior positions at various financial institutions. He served as Vice-President of International Financial Institutions at Citibank NA; Managing Director at Société Ivoirienne de la Poste et de l’Epargne, the post and savings institution of Côte d’Ivoire; Country Manager for the West African Economic and Monetary Union region at Meridien BIAO, Abidjan; and Partner at DKS Investment. He is currently the Honorary President of the Global Network of Export-Import Banks and Development Finance Institutions. Mr. Ekra holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York University, and a Maîtrise en Sciences Economiques from the University of Abidjan. In 2011, Mr. Ekra was listed among the 100 most influential people in Africa by New African magazine, a leading pan-African publication.

Moulay Hafid Elalamy was appointed Morocco's Minister of Industry and Commerce in October 2013. He holds a Degree in Information Systems from the University of Sherbrooke, where he was also governor of the Faculty of Administration. Mr. Moulay Hafid Elalamy began his professional career in Canada as a senior advisor to the Ministry of Finance of Quebec before moving to the position of Director of Information Systems for a Canadian insurance company. Mr. Elalamy returned to Morocco and joined the ONA Group where he served as Secretary General alongside the Managing Director of its insurance subsidiary. In 1995, he formed his own company, Saham Group, which has become a key operator in finance, insurance, assistance and consumer credits. Saham has acquired two of the largest Moroccan insurance companies and a pan-African insurance group. A well-known figure in the Moroccan economic and social world, Mr. Moulay Hafid Elalamy was also President of the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies from 2006 to 2009.

Yariv Elbaz holds a Masters degree in Finance from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and a degree from L’Ecole Supérieure Internationale d’Adminstration des Entreprises de Paris. He began his career at BNP Paribas as an asset manager. He then founded Paris Keren Finance, an asset management company distinguished by various prizes for the excellent performance of its funds. In 2002, Yariv sold his shares and founded COGEF, an investment firm headquartered in Geneva. Yariv sold COGEF in 2009.

In 2010, Yariv founded YCAP Group, an independent investment management company offering tailor-made investment solutions to institutional investors across pension funds, sovereign funds, insurance companies, banks, financial intermediaries and third party distributors. YCAP Group is based in Paris, Luxembourg, and Lausanne. As of December 31st, 2012, the assets under management represent more than $1.8 billion. YCAP Group’s wide range of expertise covers the main financial assets of fixed income, equities, commodities, real estate, hedge funds and private equity investments. In 2012, YCAP Group launched its two funds dedicated to Africa. Agriland is focused on agriculture related investments and Infra PPP Africa is an infrastructure fund with a PPP approach.

Mike is the Global Mining & Metals Sector Leader for EY.  Mike is one of EY’s most experienced mining and metals assurance partners in the global network, with over 30 years serving clients in the sector. Mike supports key client teams, advising and briefing the CEOs, CFOs and Directors of many of the largest global mining and metals companies. His extensive global experience means he has advised mining and metals clients in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China, USA, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Colombia. As a key advisor to mining companies, Mike has participated in many of the large transactions, IPOs and privatizations that have transformed the industry. These have included Xstrata’s acquisition of MIM, New Hope’s IPO, and the privatization of the New South Wales Government coal assets. Mike is also a frequent presenter at key global industry forums including China Mining, Mines and Money Beijing, the Center of World Mining Congress in Chile and Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Congress in Columbia, as well as at EY’s key global client events. Mike is also a regular presenter on CNBC Asia, Sky Business News, Bloomberg and Dow Jones, and is often quoted in media such as Mining Journal, The Australia Financial Review, and China Daily.

After two years at the faculty of Law at the University of Yaoundé, Denise joined the International School of Journalism in Yaoundé, where she was the only woman in the class of 1981. She first joined Cameroon radio, followed by the Cameroon television station CRTV, launched in 1985. She became Editor-In-Chief and the first anchorwoman for the 8:30 pm news, a position that she held for eight years. In 1994 she joined TV5 as the head of Africa programs. Four years later she became regional director for Africa, a position she holds to date. She continues to host two political programs while simultaneously overseeing the distribution and marketing initiatives of the channel in Africa. She contributed widely to the development of TV5MONDE which has been the most watched channel in Africa for the last twenty years. An advocate of "francophonie" and an expert on African societies, she examines them weekly on Radio France Internationale. She has been recognized globally for her work, including in Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and France where she was named the 2013 Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

As General Manager for Morocco and Francophone Africa at Visa, El Ouazzani is responsible for the growth and development of the company’s electronic payments’ business in these markets and for pioneering into new opportunities in Francophone Africa. In his role, he manages strategic relationships with key financial institutions, industry partners and government bodies.

Mohamed Touhami El Ouazzani joined Visa in 2006 in marketing and communications for the Middle East and North Africa region and ran integrated campaigns across GCC, North Africa and Levant. Prior to joining Visa, he headed up marketing and communications at Goodyear for several years and was Professor of Marketing and Communication at l’Ecole Supérieure de Gestion and l’Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion in Casablanca. He is also a certified Dale Carnegie management coach.

El Ouazzani holds an MBA in Marketing and Marketing from Paris and London Ecole Superieure de Gestion.

Ebenezer Essoka has had over 30 years of banking experience in Africa.  He joined SCB in 1986 and is currently Vice Chairman, Africa. Prior to this appointment, he was Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, South Africa and Southern Africa. Ebby holds an MBA in Finance as well as a Diploma in International Business from Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey, USA and has also attended senior development programs at INSEAD, London Business School, Templeton College, Oxford University and Cambridge University. He has served on 12 SCB subsidiary Boards.  He is currently Chairman of SCB Cameroon, Chairman of SCB Securities, South Africa and previously Chairman of SCB Côte d’Ivoire and Non-Executive Director of ten others including Nigeria and Pakistan. Ebby has served on the Presidential Investor’s Advisory Council of Ghana.  In South Africa, he has served as Director on the Main Board of the Banking Association; was Vice Chairman of the International Bankers’ Association and Council Member of Business Leadership SA. In addition, he serves on the Global Advisory Council of the London Business School and is a founding member and trustee of the Global Reach Network Foundation, an organisation focused on bridging opportunity gaps for individuals and communities worldwide.

A native of Paris, Laurent Fabius is the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and the National School of Public Administration (ENA). In 1978, he was elected Deputy for Seine-Maritime, and has been re-elected to the position since. He has also held the positions of Budget Minister (1981-1983), Minister of Industry and Research (1983-1984), Prime Minister (1984-1986), Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry (2000-2002), and President of the National Assembly (1988-1992 and 1997-2000). Fabius is a specialist in economic and financial issues, European affairs, international relations, painting and sculpture. He is also the author of six books including Le Cabinet des Douze – Regards sur des tableaux qui font la France, Editions Gallimard (2010), winner of the Prix Montaigne award.

A veteran in the beauty industry and pioneer of the bridal make-up profession in Nigeria. Tara founded House Of Tara (HOT) as a student at Lagos State University.  Since then HOT International has grown from a small idea into a franchised brand, now cornering the pan-African beauty market. In a series of firsts, she set up the first make-up studio and established the country's first make-up school. While the nation was still catching its breath, she launched the Tara Product line, a brand that promotes ethics and ethnicity, by empowering young women for economic independence without moral compromise.  In her capacity at HOT, Tara has trained over 2000 women to be makeup artists, and has empowered over 3000 young women through her Orekelewa Beauty Representatives' Initiative. Declared a "phenomenal success story that [will] truly inspire and motivate young women in Nigeria and beyond," Tara Fela Durotoye's life is an iconic success story in Africa. Her accomplishments, achievements, and awards are equal in number and prestige. 

Dr. Kala Fleming is a Research Scientist in the IBM Research - Africa Lab, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. She develops solutions and leads projects that improve urban water security, agricultural water management and public health. She also serves as the IT Specialist Professions Lead for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, where she champions professional development of core IT staff. Prior to joining IBM, she set up The FHWGroup, LLC, a Washington, DC based research and advisory firm that supports community development by focusing on youth, business and natural resources.

Over the last 10 years, Kala has worked with a range of water stakeholders in the US, Caribbean and Africa. She has advised local governments and has partnered with federal agencies, NGOs and the private sector to forge initiatives that advance human development and the protection of natural resources. Her prior engagements with leading organizations such the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Campbell Soup and American Water provide the deep cross-sector insights that she leverages to drive innovation in her current role.

Dr. Fleming earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of the Virgin Islands in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

With more than 20 years of experience in the inception and management of financially or economically themed magazines and journals, Dominique Flaux created the financial weekly journal “Les Afriques” in 2007 for African and European investors. The journal was then transferred in 2011 to a team based in Morocco to transform “Les Afriques” into a magazine. After this transition, he became a major player in the creation of the “Agence Ecofin”, a news agency that provides daily information on all major sectors of the economy in Africa including finance, agribusiness, energy, mining, telecom, communication, and law. As Secretary General of the EMA Foundation, which he created along with other media professionals from Switzerland, he has organized nine editions of the EMA Invest Forum held in Geneva. The Forum has welcomed numerous heads of state, government officials, ministers, business managers and international financiers.

Professor Jonathan Foster-Pedley is Dean and Director of Henley Business School, Africa, part of the University of Reading, UK. Henley is the only International Business School accredited in South Africa and is one of only 1% globally holding international triple accreditation. The University of Reading is ranked amongst the top 1% of universities worldwide by The Times Global Higher Education Rankings 2012. Henley operates around the world with operations in Europe, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Germany, Africa, Scandinavia, the Middle East and elsewhere. For 15 years prior to joining Henley, Jon taught strategy, leadership, action learning, international business and creativity at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business for the MBA and other programmes. He designed and directed the executive MBA and numerous leadership and corporate programmes, headed up executive education and ran an elective in strategy, design and creativity. Jon has taught at a number of other business schools while also running his own successful education and consulting company. He has participated in corporate university design and learning design initiatives around entrepreneurship. In 2007 he launched MBAid – a social entrepreneurship initiative that uses MBA and executive education participants to work with social causes in Africa. He completed an MBA at Ashridge, UK in 1990. 

A visionary leader with a deep understanding of the economic and social challenges facing Latin America, President Fox is one of the world’s most important voices on the contemporary geo-political landscape and the role of business in the developing world.

When elected to the presidency of Mexico in 2000, Vicente Fox
 broke the stranglehold that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary
 Party had held on the State for seven decades. A charismatic 
reformer, Fox is credited as playing a vital role in Mexico’s 
democratization and with strengthening the country’s economy. 
During his tenure, Fox succeeded in controlling inflation and
interest rates and in achieving the lowest unemployment rate in all of Latin America.

He studied Business Administration at the Universidad Iberoamericana. He then pursued a Top Management Diploma at the Harvard Business School.

Gao is Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Secretary General of China Daily. He became a member of the China Daily Board in 2006. Gao joined China Daily in 1987 and has worked as a reporter, editor, editorial writer, and head of opinion for the domestic news department and editorial office of China Daily. He served as President and Editor-in-Chief of China Daily Online from 2007 to 2009. Gao is a 1987 graduate of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he obtained a Bachelors degree in Journalism. In 2004, Gao received an LLM degree from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Yair Gaon has over 25 years of experience in establishing and managing technology-based businesses worldwide. He has an extensive background in raising private equity, international business development, strategic planning, project implementation, and establishing partnerships with global integrators. Over the last decade, Mr. Gaon has spent a substantial amount of time in Africa pursuing his vision of narrowing the gap between infrastructure and human capital across emerging countries and their global counterparts. To bring this vision to life, Yair founded Falcon Eye International (FEI) and is the company's President and CEO. The company, which has offices in Gabon, delivers complex, state-of-the-art projects in various fields, such as energy, water, agriculture, education, health, and homeland security (HLS), utilizing a large network of international partners.

Prior to founding FEI, Yair was the CEO of Personal Explorer, a startup which developed breakthrough mobile travel applications, with an operation license from National Geographic. Previously, he was the President of Destinator and led the company to be one of the world's largest suppliers of GPS navigation software. Mr. Gaon graduated cum laude from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) with a B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Since 1993, Grant has been instrumental in assisting rural and undeveloped BOP (base of the pyramid) communities improve their access to water – a basic human right. Starting in IT, he switched to a more humanitarian role and founded the Hippo Water Roller Project. The project seeks funding and support to empower millions of women and children, who struggle daily to carry heavy containers of water to their homes, by providing this internationally acclaimed and appropriate technology. Designed in Africa for Africa, the social impact benefits derived from this 90-litre Hippo Water Roller include reduced suffering, better health and hygiene, and improved education and economic opportunities. While Grant did not invent the Hippo Water Roller, he added much value through the introduction of improvements and accessories including the Irrigation Cap designed to assist small-scale farmers irrigate their crops more efficiently for increased productivity and income generation. Grant’s persistence in building the brand and determined approach to Governments, NGOs, corporations, and donors has resulted in improving at least 300,000 lives in 21 countries throughout Africa. Born and raised in South Africa, this social entrepreneur is a passionate family man, actively seeking partners to scale-up distribution to transform Africa.

Etienne Giros was appointed Deputy Chairman of CIAN, the French Council of Investors in Africa, in 2013. CIAN is a business association of companies investing in Africa whose members represent 75% of the business volume between France and Africa. He joined the Bolloré Group in 1991 as Chief Financial Officer for Africa. In 2000, he was named Head of Development and in 2006, he was appointed Head of the Press and Governance. He was appointed Secretary General and Chairman of the Board in 2007. He has also served as CEO of the polling institute CSA. He holds a Master of Economics from IEP Paris.

Jon Gosier is a respected data scientist, designer, and writer. As the Founder of D8A Group (d8a.com) he and his colleagues use predictive analytics to help officials keep cities safe. He's also the the Founder of Appfrica (appfrica.com) which helps introduce multinational enterprises to African consumer markets. Over the past decade Jon has championed private sector involvement in Africa in many ways. He's an active angel investor in several African technology companies and is the co-founder of many other initiatives. These ventures include the tech hub network AfriLabs, the Ugandan co-working space Hive Colab, the pan-African accelerator Apps4Africa and Upstream Analytics which uses big data to improve corporate compliance in Congo. He has also held an executive leadership role at other influential organizations including Ushahidi. You can find him on Twitter @jongos or on the web at jongosier.com.

Gagan Gupta is the Senior Vice-President of Olam International Ltd. and is currently Olam’s Country Head in Gabon. He joined Olam in 2009 and has led the transformational growth of Olam in Gabon. He conceptualized the idea of Special Economic Zones and other public private partnerships with the Government of Gabon. The PPP between Olam and the Government of Gabon has been an outstanding success story. With over 15 years of experience, he is a chartered accountant by profession and has attracted more than US$5 billion investment in Gabon. He oversees 4,500 staff based out of six different locations and four business units (Palm, Rubber, SEZ and Fertilizer) representing investment of over US$2.5 billion. He has previously served at global companies including Reebok and Reckitt Benckiser. Olam International is a leading global integrated supply chain manager and processor of agricultural products and food ingredients, supplying various products across 16 platforms to over 13,600 customers worldwide. From a direct presence in more than 65 countries with sourcing and processing in most major producing countries, Olam has built a global leadership position in many of its businesses. Olam is the only Singapore firm to be named in the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Forbes Asia Fabulous 50, an annual list of 50 big-cap and most profitable firms in the region. 

Michelle is the CEO of the WPP Government and Public Sector Practice and the CEO of TNS BMRB, the leading social research agency servicing the UK government. Her areas of expertise include policy formulation and evaluation, public service improvement and strategic communications. She was recently appointed as an external expert to review the effectiveness of No 10 and Cabinet Office communications for the UK government; and in 2013 established the WPP teaching programme at the University of Oxford Blavatnik School of Government, on strategic communications. Michelle regularly facilitates high level policy and strategy meetings across Whitehall. She has enjoyed facilitating many large scale public consultation programmes on behalf of government Ministers and for the Office of the Prime Minister. Michelle is a Trustee of Nesta, the UK’s foremost authority on how innovation can solve major economic and social challenges.  She has sat on numerous public bodies and commissions, including the Green Fiscal Commission. She has a particular interest in social trends and was commissioned by the BBC to develop The Blair Decade, a series of programmes on social change in Britain. Previously Michelle was a Director of The Henley Centre where she worked as a consultant to business and government. Prior to that she completed a PhD concerned with the development problems of the Caribbean region.

Pilar Mateo Herrero, Doctor in Chemistry and Dr. H.C from Anahuac University in Mexico, has dedicated her scientific work of the last 20 years to improve and save the lives of people affected by vector transmitted endemic diseases, such as malaria, dengue and chagas. This technology is also applicable for diseases in animal health and in agriculture. Dr.  Mateo is a specialist in the micro-encapsulation of polymers for the creation of a broad range of cutting edge high technology products (INESFLY). Incorporating the micro-encapsulation nanoparticles into paints and other products will help in preventing infection from bites and offers an alternative to the current shortage of vaccines and medications. She is the owner of several globally recognized patents. As President of Inesfly Corporation, she has developed Inesfly Africa, a paint factory in Ghana that will supply the continent with INESFLY products that will take on social projects through the Pilar Mateo Foundation. She is also the Founder of the MoMIM, an NGO focused on the improvement of the living conditions of indigenous women. She became an Ashoka Fellow 2011 and is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences.  She is a specialist member of the UNESCO Forum and received the Extraordinary Award from the Defense Ministry of Spain. Her slogan is “let’s put human knowledge into action”. 

Robert Hersov is a senior executive, private investor and entrepreneur based in London. He currently serves as Managing Partner of merchant bank Sapinda, Chairman of the VistaJet Advisory Board, Chairman of Adoreum Partners, Chairman of Taggstar, Chairman of Medikidz, and non-executive Chairman of Paragon Entertainment. From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Hersov was the Vice Chairman of NetJets Europe Ltd., a subsidiary of NetJets, Inc. and a member of the NetJets Europe Advisory Board. Appointed in January 2010, Mr. Hersov is now the chairman of the VistaJet Advisory Board. Mr. Hersov founded and, from 2002 to 2004, served as CEO of Marquis Jet Europe, a private aviation company that he sold to NetJets, Inc. Mr. Hersov founded and served as the Chairman of Sportal Ltd. From 1996 to 1998, he served as the Executive Director of Enic plc, a holding company that invests primarily in the sports and media sectors. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Hersov was the CEO of Telepiu PayTV in Milan, a pay TV and digital satellite company. Mr. Hersov received a B.B.S. from the University of Cape Town and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Amadou Hott has been CEO of FONSIS (Soveriegn Wealth Fund of Senegal) since October 2013 and Chairman of the Blaise Diagne International Airport since June 2013. He has previously worked in New York and London as a Market Risk Analyst and Manager; Associate Director of ABN AMRO, London, Energy and Mining sector covering the Africa region; Director Africa for the Millenium Finance Corporation, Dubai; CEO of UBA Capital in Lagos; Founder and CEO of Afribridge Capital in Dubai and co-founder of Dangote Capital in Lagos; and a Special Advisor to President Macky Sall of Senegal for Investments  and Finance.

Hott has conducted several investment banking transactions for or facing multinational corporations (including Arcelor Mittal, Dangote Group, Virgin Nigeria, France Telecom and Orange), international organizations (African, Western, Chinese and Japanese development banks and agencies) and governments (including DRC, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Gabon and Ethiopia). Hott has Masters Degrees from the Sorbonne University in Paris and New York University.

Ivor Ichikowitz is an industrialist and philanthropist. He is a life-long proponent of Africa and its people and his interests stretch from local community initiatives to international trade and development. Over the last two decades he has been an active investor, employer and industrialist, building numerous successful businesses across the continent. He believes that innovation is the key to Africa’s future growth. As a result his core businesses are within the high value manufacturing and technology sectors. It is investment in these and other heavy industries like mining and energy that positions Ivor at the vanguard of Africa’s re-industrialization. Over the last 20 years he has built successful businesses across oil and gas, defence and aerospace manufacturing, property, retail, tourism, mining, agriculture and sustainable development across Africa. Ivor is the Executive Chairman of the Paramount Group, which he founded in 1994. Under his leadership the business has grown into Africa’s largest privately owned defence and aerospace business. As Executive Chairman of private equity group TransAfrica Capital (Pty) Limited, he directs investments in scientific research and development projects, producing innovative solutions for industry and commerce. He founded the Ichikowitz Family Foundation which supports educational and developmental programmes that empower Africa's young people to seize the new century's opportunities.

Thebe Ikalafeng is arguably the foremost global African brand and reputation architect, advisor and author. Named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African Magazine, he has been to over 50 countries across Africa and the world and worked on over 100 brands, gaining an invaluable and incomparable perspective and knowledge on building brands and reputations. He is the founder of the award-winning brand and reputation firm, Brand Leadership Group, and a non-executive director of Mercantile Bank Holdings, Brand South Africa, WorldWideFund for Nature (WWF) and South African Tourism. He is founder of the Brand Africa and Public Sector Excellence initiatives. Ikalafeng holds BSc and MBA degrees from Marquette University (USA), completed executive education at Wits Business School and Harvard Business School, and is a qualified Chartered Marketer (SA). Ikalafeng is widely recognized and respected in Africa and the world, and has been featured in global and Africa media such as CNN, BBC, CNBC Africa, African Business and New African and quoted globally in matters related to branding, reputation and Africa.

In 1961, Edna Adan Ismail became Somaliland's  first qualified nurse and midwife after training in the UK. She has since dedicated herself to improving health conditions for her people through providing health care for thousands and training health workers. Internationally, she has served the WHO as a nurse and midwife educator and as WHO representative in the Republic of Djibouti until her retirement in 1997. Upon retirement, she personally funded and opened in 2002 the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Somaliland which has become a major referral hospital as well as a teaching hospital for nurses, midwives, and other health professionals. Ms. Ismail became the first and only female Minister in the government of Somaliland when she was appointed Minister of Social Affairs in 2002. From 2003 to 2006, she served as Somaliland’s Foreign Minister. In 2012, she opened the Edna Adan University which trains health professionals. She has received numerous awards, including several honorary degrees. She was made an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University.  In 2010, Ms. Ismail was knighted ‘Chevalier dans l’ordre Nationale de la Legion d’Honneur’ by the French Republic and awarded the President’s Gold Medal from the University of Pretoria. This month, Ms. Ismail is receiving the Renfield Foundation Award and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from University of Pennsylvania.

Mazuin Ismail is the Vice President Technical Global, Upstream Business of PETRONAS. He holds a BS in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom and an MBA from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

His primary responsibilities involve technical authorities and global delivieries for Petronas upstream, which include petroleum engineering, wells, capital projects, and technological and operational excellence. His portfolio includes green and brown field development, rejuvenation projects, high-pressure high temperature (HPHT), integrated gas development, enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) projects, major petroleum infrastructure projects and marginal field development.

With more than 24 years of working experience in the oil and gas upstream business, he has wide experience in the areas of project execution and engineering, governance, business development, strategic planning and change management.

Himmunt Jugduth is the Director General of Tropical Holding SA which is the embodiment of the partnership between the Republic of Gabon and the Mauritian conglomerate Ireland Blyth Limited. The objective of Tropical Holding is to develop a seafood hub in Gabon with projects ranging from the rehabilitation of an existing fish processing plant, the creation of an integrated tuna processing facility, and establishing a ship building yard. Mr. Jugduth obtained a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, United States. He has extensive management experience in production and commercial environments. He has also managed projects in other parts of Africa. 

Rosalind Kainyah has extensive experience in government relations, political risk management, social investment and corporate and environmental law, focusing on the mining and oil industries in Africa.  She has held senior positions with Tullow Oil plc and De Beers and advised governments on policy and legislative matters. She has a BA in English from the University of Ghana and an LLM from University College London.  She was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Gray’s Inn) in 1988 and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 2013 she established Kina Advisory Limited to advise and assist extractive industry and related companies investing in Africa navigate their way through the political and socio-economic opportunities and challenges of working in Africa to ensure the sustainability of their businesses. She sits on the Global Advisory Council of the African Leadership Network and is a Trustee of Resurgo Trust.

Garry Kasparov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in the USSR in 1963. He became world chess champion in 1985 and was the world’s top-ranked player until his retirement in 2005. Kasparov became a leading voice for human rights and democracy in Russia and was named the Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation in New York (2012). He is the author of an acclaimed book on decision-making and speaks frequently on strategy and innovation to companies such as Google, Facebook, and IBM. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School. The Kasparov Chess Foundation was founded in 2002 and promotes chess in education worldwide. KCF now has centers of operation in the USA, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Kasparov is currently running for the presidency of the international chess federation (FIDE).

Born in Guadeloupe, Christine Kelly began her television career in 1992 when she joined Achipel 4, a Guadeloupean channel, as the host of the show "Caribscope " and " RFO Guadeloupe”. She also worked in radio for K.Danse FM. In 1996, she moved to France to study journalism. While pursuing a career in television and radio presentation, she discovered her passion for documentaries. Her first appearance in this capacity was on "Ushuaia TV". Soon after, she appeared in the documentary of François Fillon, former prime minister of France. After 17 years of experience in the television industry, Christine Kelly was appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA). She has received numerous awards including ‘Best Journalist’ from the Blackworld Victories Awards and an award from the European Federation of Black Female Business Owners. In 2010 she was named "Knight of the French National Order of Merit"

Faissal Khdiri is vice president and regional manager, North, West and Central Africa for MasterCard. In this capacity, Mr. Khdiri is responsible for growing business volume with existing and new member financial institutions and collaborates with them to leverage MasterCard’s diverse payment solutions portfolio.

Based in Casablanca, Morocco, Mr. Khdiri is also responsible for developing high impact sales and marketing strategies while driving new product development and promotion to increase market penetration and enhance revenue.

Mr. Khdiri joined MasterCard in 1995 and over the past 18 years, he has held variety of roles, spanning Marketing and Member Relations’ functions across Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the Levant. At MasterCard, he most recently held the position of vice president member relations, before assuming his current role.

Prior to joining MasterCard, Mr. Khdiri worked as Assistant Finance Manager for Banque Courtois – Credit Du Nord Group in France. In that role, he was responsible the financial analysis, sales strategy development and staff management functions of the organization.

Mr. Khdiri graduated with a major in Economic Science from the Université Des Sciences Sociales, Toulouse, France, post which he earned his Master’s Degree in Business Management from the same institution. Mr. Khdiri completed another Master’s program in International Business Management from Institut De Promotion Commerciale, Toulouse and he also secured a Diploma in Business Administration from University of Strathclyde in United Kingdom.

Hicham Lahlou, at the cutting edge of contemporary design in Morocco for many years now, has not only become an emblematic figure of design in Africa and the Arab world, but is also one of the major names of world design and has created collections for prestigious international brands. He works with some of the greatest names in design including Philippe Starck, Hilton McConnico, Roger Tallon, the Campana brothers, Zaha Hadid, Vico Magistretti, Ora Ito, and Matali Crasset. He also develops lines of urban furniture for Morocco’s major cities, takes part in the conception of numerous hotels, business centres, brand identities, packaging and commercial architecture as well as strategic design. He is a designer, interior designer, artist and plastic artist at one and the same time. He is also a visionary who defends the values of progress and takes actions with the aim of promoting the values of design and creation in general.

In 2014, he founded the AFRICA DESIGN AWARD and AFRICA DESIGN WEEK (www.africadesignaward.org / www.hichamlahlou.com).

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rob LeBlanc is Chief Investment Officer at Awethu Project, a pioneering social business incubator and venture capital firm focused on unlocking entrepreneurial potential in Africa’s under-resourced communities. His areas of expertise include talent identification in informal markets, entrepreneurship in informal markets, SME enterprise development, early-stage venture capital, impact investing and social enterprise.

Before joining Awethu, Rob worked for private equity firm C.A. Bancorp in Toronto, Canada, focused on mid-market growth capital transactions. Prior to this role, Mr. LeBlanc worked for global management consultancy Oliver Wyman on market entry and growth strategies for clients in North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. Rob received his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with High Distinction and was named a Baker Scholar. He also received his B.Com with Great Distinction from McGill University. 

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 1999. He transferred back to Johannesburg in 2002 to help expand the Firm’s activities across Sub-Saharan Africa. He relocated to Lagos in 2010 to lead the Firm’s newly established office in Nigeria. Acha’s industry work has been split primarily between telecom, oil & gas, and financial services; he has served a wide range of private, public, and social sector clients on issues of new investment decisions, business building, turn around & growth strategies, and economic development predominantly across SSA. Prior to McKinsey, Acha worked as a 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 Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Acha also received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. 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. He was the first Black Valedictorian in the School’s history.

Dr. Carlos Lopes holds a PhD in History from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Research Master's in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. In 1988, he joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a Development Economist and occupied various positions including Deputy Director for the Office of Evaluation and Strategic Planning, Director of the Bureau for Development Policy and UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe and Brazil.

He then served as the Assistant Secretary-General and Director for Political Affairs of the UN Secretary-General. From 2007-2012, he served as Executive Director for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva and simultaneously at the UN System Staff College in Turin. He is currently the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa and UN Undersecretary-General. He has published extensively, authoring or editing 22 books mostly on Africa and development issues. He received an Honorary PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Cândido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Abdou Maman is a computer specialist in information and communication technology and a social entrepreneur. After completing his studies in computer science, he was appointed Technical Director at the Cabinet APSI (Outsourcing) and Director of Technology and Computing at the 5th Games of La Francophonie.

He is founder and CEO of Tech-Innov Sarl, which commercializes tele-irrigation and its derivatives. He has been honored several times in national and international competitions including the "Contest of the Best Enterprise Project in Niger in 2008" (Grand Jury Award and Innovation Award), 1st Prize of the African Social Venture in 2011, medalist at the Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva (2012) and Ecological Design Contest Francophonie (2013) in Nice. He was also the winner of the contest, "100 Innovations for Development in Africa" during the ​​Africa Forum 2013 in Paris.

Through the marketing vision and development of groundbreaking technologies, Jeff Martin has spent his career applying innovation to multimedia product design.  He continues to build new mobile commerce channels for the world’s top brands through mobile innovation that leads to consumer behavior modification.Referenced by the San Francisco Chronicle as Steve Jobs’ “marketing whiz and protégé”, Martin spent a decade as a senior executive at Apple, six as head of music, entertainment, and marketing.  Martin played a pivotal role in Apple’s transition from authoring tools standardized by the entertainment industry to a consumer platform for the consumption of entertainment and user generated content.  A direct report of Steve Jobs, Martin was instrumental in the strategy and marketing of the iMac, Mac OSX, and digital lifestyle products including iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes.  In 2001, Martin founded Tribal Brands, Inc., the first company to drive one billion dollars in mobile-based sales for the entertainment industry through several global carrier alliances.  Tribal Brands has since grown beyond its entertainment roots to include mobile platforms and services for consumer brands, government organizations, social investment programs, the automotive, energy, and healthcare industries. 

Guy Maurice is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale, Lyon.

He joined the Total Group in 1983 as a Reservoir Engineer, initially in Paris, then in China and later in Indonesia. In 1993, he was assigned to Total Austral, Buenos Aires, where he headed the Planning Department for three years before returning to Total E&P, Paris as Head of Pre-Project.

From 1997 to 2001, he served in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he headed the Technical Division for the Middle East. Three years later, he was assigned to Venezuela as Director of Sincor Upstream Project, Total E&P Venezuela. In 2004, he moved to Total E&P Congo as the affiliate’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, a position he occupied until September 2008. He was then assigned to Nigeria as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Total E&P, Nigeria and the Total Group representative in Nigeria. On April 1^st, 2014, Guy Maurice was appointed Senior Vice President, E&P Africa.

Certified public accountant Serge Thierry Mickoto started his career at Ernst & Young in the audit and advisory department. In 1994, he joined the Paribas Group, which became BGFI bank a few years later. He successfully occupied the positions of CFO and General manager of the Equatorial Guinea subsidiary. He was also Deputy General Manager of BGFI Holdings. Serge Thierry Mickoto was appointed CEO of the Gabonese Sovereign Wealth Fund in 2012 where he has the major responsibility of fostering the values of the FGIS according to the strategic vision of an Emerging Gabon

J. Andrew Miller (Andy) is a partner and member of Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department. Andy has over 30 years of experience serving a wide range of corporate clients. He focuses on corporate tax services acting as a tax engagement partner for several large multinational energy and natural resource clients.  He has extensive experience serving as a tax specialist in the natural resource industries on due diligence teams for the firm's merger and acquisition practice. In light of his extensive natural resource experience in tax, Andy is the Global Mining & Metals Industry Tax leader. Andy works with the Global Mining & Metals Center of Excellence located in Sydney, Australia. Recently Andy was asked to take on the role as the Americas Area Tax Leader for Industry Services.  In that role he is responsible for coordinating industry related tax services including thought leadership, idea generation and quality management. Andy is a 1978 graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia, earning a BSBA in Accounting. He is a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) in the state of Missouri and a member of the Missouri Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

Christian Mion is part of EY’s Global Mining and Metals team and the firm’s Mining and Metals Advisory Leader for the EMEIA area. Christian is one of EY’s most experienced mining and metals partners in the global network, with more than 23 years at the firm. He began his professional career as an engineer (Mons University). Christian leads many global and regional EY client teams in advising mining and metals companies, both large and small. He has extensive experience in emerging markets, particularly across Africa where he was previously EY’s Country Managing Partner for Guinea (West Africa) and the DRC. Christian also co-leads EY’s initiative to assist Australian investments into Africa. As a key adviser to mining companies, Christian’s main areas of focus are global risk assessment and assisting companies secure investments on the ground. Christian has presented at key global industry forums including Indaba, Adu, China Mining and London Mines & Money. He frequently provides media commentary on mining trends and issues.

Dr. Karl Mootoosamy has an outstanding international track record where his experiences in culture, pedagogy, tourism, sports and diplomacy blend together. He holds a doctorate in humanities with distinction from the Sorbonne and was a visiting professor in arts and literature. Inspired by rich experiences drawn from life and the necessity to foster closer links amongst people, he took the challenge of driving the destiny of the tourism industry in Mauritius as Director of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, a position he still holds to date. A principled and determined man, Karl Mootoosamy has a precise vision of Mauritius and the way he wants to promote the country through the MTPA. Convinced that the destiny of the island lies in a top-quality tourism industry, he has led promotion missions in more than 50 countries around the globe to consolidate and improve the image of the Mauritius destination. In 2010, he was instrumental in bringing the Indian Ocean islands together and creating the Vanilla Islands platform, which includes Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles, Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte. Today, his contribution speaks for itself as the tourism industry has risen to become one of the main engines of growth of the Mauritian economy.

Philippe Mpeck, engineer, holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering from Canada. A multidisciplinary professional, he has held positions as a consultant, director, and coordinator of the International Cooperation and Development Service and coordinator of the building engineering department at Cégep de Trois-Rivières. Recently, his primary focus has been in developing technical and vocational programs and designing training modules for professional colleges in several countries in Africa, including Senegal, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. He holds a Masters in Project Management from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and manages international development projects in Africa, Latin America and France. He has been working for the Cégep of Trois-Rivières since 1989. 

The Honorable Louise Mushikiwabo is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of Rwanda. She previously served as the Minister of Information in the Government of Rwanda. She is an author and public relations executive.  She lived in the United States for 22 years, then briefly in Tunisia, before joining the Rwandan Cabinet in March 2008. She is the co-author of Rwanda Means the Universe (St. Martin’s Press, 2006)—an intergenerational socio-historical memoir and has contributed many articles to newspapers and online magazines. She has given numerous television and radio talks on Rwandan issues, and collaborated on many award-winning documentary films.  She is also the recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Humanitarian Award from American University’s School of International Studies. Ms. Mushikiwabo holds Languages and Interpretation degrees from the University of Delaware, USA.

Born in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dikembe Mutombo is the seventh of ten children born to Samuel and the late Biamba Marie Mutombo. He arrived in the United States in 1987 on an academic scholarship to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Dikembe earned numerous awards during his NBA career including four-time NBA Defensive Player of the year, eight-time NBA All Star and two-time J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award.

Mutombo has been named ABC’s Person of the Week, Essence Magazine’s 2001 Achiever, and Sporting News’ No. 1 Good Guy. Mutombo has been featured in Europe’s TIME magazine, Sports Illustrated for Kids, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Houston Chronicle. Mutombo has previously served on the Advisory Board for the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health and was a board member for George Washington University's Africa Center for Health and Security. He presently serves on the boards for the National Constitution Center Opportunity International and UNICEF. Mr. Mutombo has impacted lives on and off the court.

Anthony M. Mutua is a Kenyan electrical, electronic manufacturing, and design expert. He is the Founder and the CEO of Am-utua technologies and an inventor by profession.  He is the CEO of Greatest Wearable Technology and the Founder and Chairman of the Anthony Mutua Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Kenya. Anthony Mutua has invented some of world’s most clever technologies including the Hutua mobile phone charger. This unique technology generates renewable energy to charge your mobile phone. The Hutua charger is referenced in Google Founder Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen’s book The New Digital Age.

Mutua has won numerous awards including second prize at the innovation contest during the Head of State Summit in Kinshasa, ‘Best Innovation’ from the Innovation Exhibition in Kenya, ‘Best Innovation’ from Africa Aitec in Nairobi, ‘SME Product of the Year’ and ‘Overall Innovative Product, 2012’ from the Kenyan labour trade fair held in Kisumu, Kenya. Anthony holds a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Youssou N’Dour's bedrock in Senegalese music and storytelling remains the hallmark of his artistic personality. After two years in street theatre, Youssou's career took off in 1972 when he was just 13. In 1981, after leaving the Etoiles group in Dakar, Youssou founded the exemplary orchestra Super Etoile. It debuted in 1984 during Africa Fête, the African cultural festival.

By 1996 he was famous worldwide thanks to 7 Seconds, his duet with Neneh Cherry (released in 1994 on the album Wommat, which also featured his cover of Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom), and he recorded Voices of the Heart of Africa with the great Yandé Codou Sène in the pure Senegalese Griot tradition.

His latest album Dakar- Kingston, released in 2010, is a tribute to legendary Jamaican singer Bob Marley and an exploration of musical links with reggae. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Yale University and served as Minister of Tourism in Senegal. In August 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize. N’Dour remains a revered figure in his country and in the ever-growing Senegalese diaspora.

Zemedeneh Negatu is the Managing Partner for Ethiopia and Head of Transaction Advisory Services for Eastern Africa at Ernst & Young. An American of Ethiopian origin, his global clients have ranged from “Fortune Global 500” companies to Latin American multi-nationals to African governments. Across Africa he has advised clients extensively in various sectors including financial services, airlines, telecoms, manufacturing and agro-industry. Zemedeneh is presently advising investors from around the world about investments in Africa. And, this past year, he led a high powered Mergers & Acquisition team which advised on a very successful project for Diageo, plc, the world’s largest spirits company, in one of its largest acquisitions in Africa. Previously, Zemedeneh had led the E&Y; team, which helped transform Ethiopian Airlines to the second largest in Africa and more profitable than all African airlines combined. The firm Zemedeneh leads was recently awarded “Lead Advisory Firm of the Year” for 2012 by a leading UK based financial publication. Zemedeneh was recently recognized as “Pioneer Ethiopian-American Diaspora Business Person of the Year” in Washington D.C. Zemedeneh completed Harvard Business School’s LSE program, received a business degree from Howard University, Washington, D.C. and is a U.S. CPA. 

Fabrice Nze-Bekale was appointed CEO of Societe Equatoriale des Mines, the national mining company of the Republic of Gabon in August 2011. Previously, he spent four years as Director in the Global Telecoms and Media team of Standard Bank Plc in London where he advised major players such as MTN Group, Orascom Telecom Holdings and Portugal Telecom in their M&A activities in Africa. He also arranged several financings for Helios Towers Africa, MTN Group, Vodafone / Vodacom, Econet, GLO and Airtel. Fabrice moved to Standard Bank Plc from Celtel International where he was Group Corporate Finance Manager for three years. At Celtel, he raised equity and debt financing for the group – parent and subsidiaries – across sub-Saharan Africa through local and international loan syndications and bond issues. He elaborated a completely new funding strategy for the group and successfully recapitalised the capital structure of a dozen subsidiaries to the tune of $1.5bn, including the landmark IPO of Celtel Zambia on the Lusaka Stock Exchange. Before joining Celtel International, he worked for six years with Citibank in Gabon where he was Head of Corporate and Investment Banking. Fabrice holds a Masters in Finance and Financial Engineering from the University of Paris-Dauphine, France and an MBA from London Business School.

Auma is the Founder and Director of the Sauti Kuu Foundation. Sauti Kuu is Kiswahili for “Powerful Voices”. The Foundation seeks to give perspective to disadvantaged children and youth by helping them unlock their potential, in particular through Life Skills training and educational opportunities that lead to economic sustainability. The foundation is based on the principle of ‘Self-Help’ and aims to support and motivate the younger generations to take their fate into their own hands and be the makers of their own destiny.

Born and raised in Kenya, she studied in Germany. In fact, her book, And Then Life Happens, was originally written in German! After her doctorate, she worked in the UK for the Children’s Services Department. She then came back to Kenya, where she worked for almost 5 years for the relief organization CARE International.  In 2010 Dr Obama founded the Sauti Kuu Foundation in Kenya, which in 2011 was also registered in Munich, Germany. Why Sauti Kuu? See Dr Obama’s TEDxTalks Vienna presentation Opportunities unlimited – Poverty is no Excuse! at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB7mOnKq2_0 / Management Dr Auma Obama, SH Management, Saskia Hildebrandt, Cell: +49 175 9252610, Email: [email protected] / Bookinfo link:  http://www.amazon.com/And-Then-Life-Happens-Memoir/dp/B00A17NQ94

Joseph Ogutu joined Safaricom as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in May 2005 from Telkom Kenya where he was the Principal Assistant to the Managing Director and Chief Strategy & Regulatory Officer.  He then served as Chief Human Resource Officer from 2008 before taking on the role of Director, Resources Division in the March 2011 company reorganization. In October 2012, Mr. Ogutu was appointed as the Director, Strategy & Innovation Division, where he works closely with the CEO in formulating strategic direction for the business focusing on developing Safaricom’s position as an industry leader in driving innovation in products and services. He also serves as the Chairman of Safaricom Foundation and sits in the Board of TEAMS Limited. Mr. Ogutu has had a dynamic career in the telecommunications industry spanning more than 25 years of which the last 12 have been at Executive Committee level.  During this period, he was actively involved in the reform of the sector including the drafting of the Postal and Telecommunication Policy Paper that led to the restructuring of the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and subsequent establishment of CCK, Telkom Kenya and Postal Corporation of Kenya. Mr. Ogutu is a Kenyan citizen and a graduate of Economics from the University of Nairobi.

Francisca Okeke has  B.Sc Physics, (2¹), M.Ed, M.Sc in solid earth Geophysics, Ph.D ionospheric geophysics and PGDE. Her postdoctoral research was carried out at the University of Tokyo, Japan. She has visited and collaborated with University of Nathal, Durban, SA, University of Tokyo, Japan, CPTEC Brazil, and the Harvard Smithsonian Centre, Cambridge, United States.

She has published over 80 articles in reputable journals and many books. She has made significant and outstanding contributions in geomagnetism and EEJ phenomena. She is a Laureate of L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Physical Sciences, 2013. She is instrumental to the academic growth of her Department of Physics and Astronomy as well as development of Physics in Nigeria. She has produced 24 M.Sc and 10 Ph.D students and still  supervises many PhD and MSc students. She was the first female Head of Physics Department and the first female Dean with the Faculty of Physical Sciences.  She is member of the Governing Council of ANSTI and the Regional Fellowship FWIS in sub Saharan Africa. In recognition of her contributions in space science, President Goodluck Jonathan recently appointed her a member of National Space Council of Nigeria. She has proved that physics is not only a male domain, but also a female domain.

Fabrice Ombegue has been Vice-president Africa of Falcon Eye International since 2013.

From 2013 on, he travels around African countries in order to help governments develop and reach their economic independence. He conducted several negotiations that helped establish FEI and its partners’ subsidiaries in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Fabrice started his career at FEI as an Account Manager and successfully conducted one of Gabon most important project ever: the construction of the first Gabonese thermal electrical power plant of 100 million Euros value. He also managed several other projects in the domains of homeland security and agriculture. His wide experience in business (business strategy, business development and business management) wisely works for the realization of the vision of FEI: narrowing the gap between infrastructure and human capital across emerging countries and their counterparts.

Fabrice OMBEGUE was graduated Network Engineer from Technion University (Israel). Before joining FEI, he worked as the head of computer systems department at SNBG (a Gabon leading wood company). He then had the same position in OGAR (the insurance leading company in Gabon).  

Dr Ola Orekunin is a medical doctor, a trainee helicopter pilot and an entrepreneur who founded West Africa’s first indigenous air ambulance service, Flying Doctors Nigeria, which saves hundreds of lives across the region every year. She is extremely passionate about healthcare in Africa and works with various foundations, charities and governments to improve standards of healthcare. Dr. Ola was born and bred in the UK. She studied medicine and surgery at the University of York after which she worked in Acute Medicine across the UK.  She then went on to be awarded the Japanese MEXT scholarship which allowed her to further her studies in Tokyo. She returned to Nigeria to start the air ambulance service which uses a pool of aircrafts and doctors to save lives across West Africa. She is an international speaker who has received multiple awards and nominations. These include the Mouldbreaker’s Award, the THIS Day Award, The Future Award as entrepreneur of the year, New Generation Leader for Africa, Ladybrille Personality of the month, and Vanguard WOW Awards. She is also a TED fellow and has been honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. She is also a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. 

Yaw Owusu founded Gateway Innovations Ltd. to develop and manage the first technology park in Ghana. Mr. Owusu co-authored the book Modernizing Commonwealth Governments published by Commonwealth Business Publications, London, England, 2004. The book, available on Amazon.com, outlines the role of startup incubation and technology parks in transforming Africa's IT economy.

Mr. Owusu has presented papers on innovation in emerging markets over the last 10 years, including the ITU Telecom World 2012 in Dubai, UAE; the 11th MIT Global Startup Workshop, Madrid, Spain and the 8th Annual Africa Business Conference at Harvard Business School. He worked for General Electric and IBM Global Services as a project manager before joining the technology group of the Investment Banking unit at Goldman Sachs in New York. Mr. Owusu studied in the Executive MBA program at Columbia Business School in 2001-2002 and majored in Mathematics and Economics at Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania. He earned a certificate in Planning, Developing and Managing Technology Parks in 2007 from the Shanghai International Business Incubator.

Dr. Pamba works for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as VP, Pharmaceuticals, East Africa and Government Affairs, Africa. He is responsible for GSK commercial operations in nine East African countries.  His role is focused on driving sustainable delivery of medicines and vaccines via innovative business models. He is tasked with directing GSK's external engagement in Africa and establishing innovative partnerships to enhance access to medicines and vaccines across developing countries. Prior to joining GSK, he trained as a physician in Kenya. He worked in clinical care in Kenya at various levels of health delivery including government service, mission hospitals, and research hospitals. He conducted clinical trials on the management of severe malaria in children at the Wellcome-Trust Research Unit in Kilifi, Kenya and has published several papers on malaria. Dr. Pamba set up one of the first HIV Comprehensive Care Clinics in government service in Kenya benefitting from PEPFAR funding. He has a special interest in equitable access to healthcare and overall development in the LDCs. 

Dante Paradiso is Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., of the U.S. Embassy in Libreville.  A Career Foreign Service Officer, he most recently served in Washington, D.C. as the Special Assistant to then African Affairs Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson. Prior to that, he was the Senior Civilian Representative with Brigade Combat Teams Task Force Mountain Warrior and Task Force Bastogne, covering four provinces in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. He previously served as Deputy Political-Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Political Officer in Beijing, and Deputy Foreign Policy Advisor to Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. He started his career with the State Department as an intern political officer in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998, where he survived the devastating bombing of U.S. Embassy Dar Es Salaam that, together with the near simultaneous attack on U.S. Embassy Nairobi, proved a harbinger of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. He is a recipient of a number of State Department Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, a group Award for Heroism, and the Army’s Superior Civilian Service Award. He received his J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles and his B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.

Denver T. Phiri, BSc.(Hons), MSc., DLSHTM, FRSPH, is a Global Health Economist in the Market Access Team for GE Healthcare. His experience as a public health specialist has been gained through supporting economic health strategies for some of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies in the world.As part of his career within the UN, Denver focused on executing MDG related programs for UNDP, Botswana coordinating a core team of partners that included all the other UN agencies and various ministries of government in Botswana. His research experience includes diagnostic laboratory-based research for Roche Diagnostics and the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, an alliance between the Ministry of Health in Botswana and Harvard School of Public Health supporting the country's HIV/AIDS and public health research.  Denver received his BSc. honours degree in Applied Biology and Biochemistry from National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe, MSc. and a DLSHTM in Public Health for developing countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health and serves on the board of Vanavevhu, a youth empowerment charity based in Zimbabwe. 

Jean Philippe Prosper is IFCs Vice President for Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to this position he was IFC Director for Latin America and the Caribbean responsible for all of IFC's activities in the region.

Mr. Prosper joined IFC in 2000 as a Chief Investment Officer for Financial Markets covering West and Central Africa and a year later became Manager of Financial Markets for Sub-Saharan Africa, relocating to Johannesburg in 2003. Shortly thereafter, he relocated to Nairobi as Manager for East Africa. From July 2008 to August 2012, Mr. Prosper was the Director for Eastern and Southern Africa and a co-director of the Africa department. During Mr. Prosper’s tenure with the Africa department, IFC’s investment grew from $140 million in fiscal year 2003 to $4 billion in fiscal year 2012.

Mr. Prosper is the recipient of the two most prestigious awards of the World Bank Group, the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award in 2010 and the Good Manager Award in 2011. He holds an MBA and is also a civil engineer with a degree in Mathematics.

John A. Quelch is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Between 2011 and 2013, he was on leave as Vice President, Dean and Distinguished Professor of International Management at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School).

Professor Quelch has held leadership roles at business schools on three continents: as Dean of CEIBS, China's highest ranked business school; as Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School and as Dean with Vice Chancellor status of London Business School.

Professor Quelch is the longest-serving director of WPP, the world's largest marketing services company, and of Alere, a diagnostics and health management company. He served previously on the boards of Pepsi Bottling Group and Reebok International in the USA and Blue Circle Industries, easyJet and Pentland Group in the UK.

Professor Quelch holds degrees from Oxford University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the CBE for services to British business in 2011 and holds an honorary doctorate from Vietnam National University.

Jorge Quiroga is the former President of Bolivia. His public sector experience includes his roles as Leader of Opposition (2006-2010), Woodrow Wilson Scholar (2002-2003), President of Bolivia (2001-2002), Vice-President and President of Congress (1997-2001), Minister of Finance (1992), and Vice-Minister of Planning for Public Investment and International Cooperation (1990-1992). In the private sector he has worked as Vice-President, Board Member and shareholder of La Paz (1993-1997), with Mintec in the mining sector in Bolivia (1989-1990), and as a Systems Engineer with IBM in Texas (1981-1988).

He is active in the private sector and with many international organizations including his role as Vice-President of “Club de Madrid” with over 80 former heads of state and government, board member of the “Interamerican Dialogue” and “Results for Development-R4D” in Washington D.C., member of the International Advisory Council of the China Economic Club, and various capacities on the “Global Adaptation Institute” and the “Foro Iberoamericano”. He has presided over FUNDEMOS, a Bolivian public policy foundation, since 2002. 

Jorge Quiroga holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from St. Edwards’s University, Texas. He is married with four children. He is fluent in Spanish and English.

A Professor of Accounting and Commercial Law, Issad Rebrab founded an accounting firm in 1968. In 1975, he founded his first company, Profilor, which grew from five employees at its creation to 200 employees just four years later. He is now the head of a diverse group of 25 business unit operations in over 10 industries with strong managerial, financial structures.

The group is present in numerous industries including food processing (five industrial units), flat glass, household appliances and electronics, sandwich panels, retail, electric power, shipping, logistics and overland transport, automobile distribution, industrial vehicles, public works equipment, real estate and construction, and media.

The group is present in France, Italy and Spain and plans to diversify further into Europe and Africa.

In 2013, he took over the French Oxxo group, preserving almost 300 of the 420 employees based in Saône-et-Loire.

Nadia Salah is the Eco-Media Group administrator for two daily newspapers and a radio station. She is also chief editor of the Group’s publications. After studying economics and political science in Grenoble, France, she entered Moroccan press, working at L’Opinion for 10 years, then “La Vie Economique” for one year, before creating the Eco-Media Group in 1991.

Khaled Saleh is a young entrepreneur with a passion for technology and innovation. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from Menoufia University. Khaled is the co-founder and CTO of Mubser, LLC, a technology firm with a social mission. Mubser creates cutting-edge technologies for visually impaired people, allowing them to improve their lives and to become more fully engaged in society. Khaled founded the Embedded System Community, which is considered to be one of the largest communities in Egypt focused on the latest technology trends and innovation in the Embedded System Field and wearable technologies. 

Moussa is a renowned expert in the field of agricultural science and planning.  He is the architect for Senegal’s national policy on agriculture, known as “Senegal Agricole” a Comprehensive Multisectorial Rural Development Program. In the late 1990s he created Agraria Africa, a concept for developing agriculture on a Pan African scale, based on the geophysical and climatic specificities of the African continent. Moussa is also President of Agrina Senegal, an organic, highly mechanised irrigated agribusiness farm that he founded in 1996. He is the Chairman of PanAAC, the Pan-African Agriculture and Agribusiness Consortium, a platform intended to mobilize and engage the private sector involved in the African Agribusiness and Agro-industry value chain. Moussa was recently appointed as the Chairman of Lead Africa, a leadership-training program for Anglophone and Francophone Africa.  He has acted as a consultant on agricultural policy to FAO, UNDP, World Bank, and the Swiss Government. Moussa managed the SYSPRO think-tank of ENDA, the international environmental and development organisation for 20 years since its formation in 1986.  He built SYSPRO into one of Africa’s most highly respected think-tanks. Moussa graduated from the University of Minnesota Borlaug Hall, USA and the Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II in Morocco.

Saad Sefrioui belongs to the fourth generation of a family of businessmen who founded Ghassoul, a venture that he directed from 2004 to 2011 before diversifying into other industries. In 2007, he partnered with Fintrax Group through its subsidiary Premier Tax Free to implement a service tax refund for the non-residents visiting Morocco. Saad Sefrioui then became CEO of Morocco Tourist Refund SA, which has since become a leader in the sector. In early 2011, he joined Addoha, the first property developer in the country. To date, he serves at the CEO of Addoha.

Saad Sefrioui also serves as the Honorary Consul of Poland and is one of the youngest diplomats in the country. He is the President of the Federation of Moroccan Craft Businesses and the Director of the CGEM. In March 2011, His Highness the King appointed him as a member of the Economic and Social Council.

He holds degrees from the University Ponthéon-Assas Paris and HEC Montreal.

Dan Shine is a global executive leader with extensive creative experience in bringing together ecosystems to address global challenges in education, healthcare, poverty alleviation and international development. He currently serves as Curator for The Innovation Hangar, helping Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship to reach scale.  He has held executive positions at Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and as a White House Appointee. Shine was an early technology pioneer in wireless and social media, and the evolution of the consumer Internet.  He is a frequent moderator and panelist on the future of education, mobile technology, and empowering women. He is an active member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders and has held multiple board positions for public and private organizations. His creative expertise links disparate governments, public, and private organizations together. 

Since his appointment as Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2009, Michel Sidibé’s vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths has echoed around the world.

Under his leadership, UNAIDS works to ensure that no one is left behind in the response to HIV and that everyone in need has access to lifesaving HIV services. He initiated the global call to eliminate HIV infections among children and his global advocacy has firmly secured HIV at the top of political agendas. His idea of shared responsibility and global solidarity has been embraced by the international community and has encouraged increased ownership of their epidemics by countries most affected.

Mr. Sidibé has spent more than 30 years in public service. Mr. Sidibé has been awarded honorary doctorates from Tuskegee University and Clark University, as well as an honorary professorship at Stellenbosch University. In 2012 he was named one of the 50 most influential Africans by the Africa Report and one of 50 personalities of the year by the French newspaper Le Monde in 2009.

Fathallah Sijilmassi was appointed Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean in March 2012. He is a graduate in Political Science and holds a PhD in Economics. As a Moroccan career diplomat, he specializes in the field of international relations, particularly with regard to Euro-Mediterranean issues.

He started working in the banking sector as representative of the Banque Commerciale du Maroc in Milan (Italy). His career within the Moroccan administration was then marked by his active role in the negotiations of free trade agreements with the European Union, the United States, and several Arab and African countries.

From 1999 onwards, he has held senior positions within the Moroccan Government, including Director of Multilateral Cooperation (1999-2001), Director of European Affairs, and Ambassador to the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Process (2001-2003). At 37, he was appointed Ambassador to the European Union by His Majesty the King of Morocco (2003-2004) and later to France (2004-2009).

In 2009 he was named CEO of the Moroccan Investment Development Agency, leading its launch and subsequent growth. Fathallah Sijilmassi speaks five languages: Arabic, French, English, Italian and Spanish. He is an “Officier de la Légion d ́Honneur” and “Grand officier dans l ́Ordre National du Mérite” of the Republic of France.

Mark Simmonds was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on 5 September 2012. He first entered Parliament in 2001 and is the Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness. Simmonds was educated at Worksop College and Trent University and was then elected onto Wandsworth Borough Council for the Southfield Ward in Putney in 1990. In 1994, he stepped down to pursue a career in politics, holding positions including Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness (2001-present), Shadow Minister for Education (2003-2004), Shadow Foreign Office Minister (2004-2005), Shadow Minister for International Development (2005-2007) and Shadow Minister for Health (2007-2010). 

At the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Simmonds’s responsibilities include Africa, overseas territories (not including Falklands, SBAs or Gibraltar), the Caribbean (not including Dominican Republic, Haiti or Cuba), conflict issues, climate change, international energy, consular, protocol, and ministerial oversight for FCO services.

Mourad is a Partner and leader of McKinsey & Company's Casablanca office. He has 20 years of experience across Maghreb and Morocco, including nine years at McKinsey & Company. His key areas of expertise are Infrastructure, Regional Economic Development, Public Politics Evaluation and Strategic Planning and Sector Development. He is the co-leader of McKinsey’s Economic Development Practice for Africa and he has extensive experience supporting emerging countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia and designing and implementing high impact economic development programs at national and regional levels. Mourad has strong experience in FDI attraction, export promotion, industrial cluster development, and employment stimulation programs. Mourad has a MSc. in Mining Engineering from Ecole des Mines de Paris (France).

With a background in political economy and international trade, Robert Tashima joined Oxford Business Group (OBG) in early 2007 as an Editorial Manager, becoming a Regional Editor in November 2008. In this capacity, he is now in charge of web and print editorial for OBG’s Africa projects across the Maghreb and Africa. While at OBG, Robert has conducted extensive field research on emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa, focusing on political risk, regulatory issues and foreign investment, primarily in resource-rich countries.  He has given interviews for a number of local media throughout the region, as well as international outlets including the BBC, France 24 and Reuters. Prior to joining OBG, he worked in New York and London, analysing political trends in Central and Southern Africa. Previously, he worked as a legislative aide for the California State Legislature in the United States, where he was responsible for drafting and negotiating tax, trade and business laws. He holds a BA in Political Science and French from the University of California at Berkeley and a Certificat d’Etudes Politiques from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Bordeaux, France.  He received his MSc in International Relations at the London School of Economics. Robert is fluent in French.

Amine Tazi-Riffi is a Director in McKinsey & Company’s Geneva Office. He has been with McKinsey since 1994. Over a period of 14 years, Amine has been leading the effort to establish McKinsey in Francophone Africa, covering both Maghreb and Francophone West Africa in an effort to grow their office in the region. In that capacity, he has consulted for many of the leading private and public institutions in the region, covering a wide range of sectors including government, natural resources, financial services, consumer goods, and telecom, Amine was appointed to McKinsey's Africa Council in 2010. Since 2010, Amine has co-led the Public & Social Sector Practice for the Middle East and Africa. His expertise is focused on socio-economic development and sector development strategies including agriculture, industry, energy, logistics, financial services, and government reform. Amine holds an MBA from INSEAD (1995), an MSc in Electrical  Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994), an MSc in Electrical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (1992), and a degree in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (1990).

Mostafa Terrab has served since June 2008 as Chairman and CEO of the OCP Group, a global leader in the phosphate sector. After his appointment as Director General of the Office Chérifien des Phosphates, OCP’s predecessor entity, in February 2006, he led its transformation from a state administration to a global corporation. Mr. Terrab’s distinguished career has spanned the public, private and university sectors and a range of expert fields.  After earning an engineering degree from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris, France 1979), he received an M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1990) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Between 1990 and 1992 he was an assistant professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, where he held joint appointments in the Department of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Between 1992 and 1998, Mr. Terrab was an advisor in the Royal Cabinet, Rabat, a period during which he also served as Secretary General of the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit. In 1998, he was appointed as the first Director General of the Moroccan National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT). He joined the World Bank in 2002 as Lead Regulatory Specialist in the Global Information and Communications Department.

Dr. Sam Thenya, a medical doctor by profession, is the Group CEO and Founder of the Nairobi Women's Hospital and Gender Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC). Dr. Thenya is a graduate of the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine (MBCHB and MMed (Obs/Gyn degrees) and the United States International University (Masters in Management and Organizational Development). He has more than 18 years of experience in his field as he began his career at the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital as an intern. He was the Chief Resident in the University of Nairobi’s department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Medical Officer at the Nairobi Hospital. Dr. Thenya’s vision for founding the Nairobi Women’s Hospital was, and still is, to strategically respond to the gaps identified within the African healthcare sector by providing healthcare that is financially and geographically accessible through specialized products and services. He is passionate about women’s health and gender violence issues. As as a member of the taskforce on the Sexual Offenses Act (2006), he was so instrumental in its enactment that he was termed as not only a technical expert but also the “male face” of gender based violence. Dr. Thenya is actively involved in various professional forums on health and entrepreneurial initiatives.

Dr. Alejandro Toledo was democratically elected President of Peru in 2001.  During his five-year term, the central aim of Toledo’s presidency was the fight against poverty through investment in healthcare and education.  As a result of sustained economic growth and deliberate social policies directed to the poorest of the poor, extreme poverty was reduced by 25% in five years, and employment rose at an average rate of 6 percent from 2004-2006.  From 2001-2006, the Peruvian economy grew at an average rate of 6-7.5% percent, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America.

Toledo received a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the University of San Francisco California.  He has an MA in Economics, and an MA and PhD in the Economics of Human Resources from the School of Education, Stanford University.

After finishing his term as President, Toledo returned to Stanford where he was a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and also a Payne Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Simultaneously, Dr. Toledo founded and continues to serve as the President of the Global Center for Development and Democracy (www.cgdd.org), which is based in Latin America, the United States, and the European Union.

Serge Toulekima was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Gabon Oil Company in June 2011. Mr. Toulekima attended Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States where he obtained an MS degree in Petroleum Engineering. He has 20 years of experience in the global oil and gas industry and served as Senior Technical Representative for Non-Operated Assets with Chevron Australia. Prior to joining Chevron Australia, Mr. Toulekima worked for Santos Limited in Australia on the Moomba Carbon Storage project. He held various technical positions with the Shell Group in Gabon, the Netherlands and Malaysia. He has also served as Treasurer of the SPE Sarawak section (2005), as a member of the organizing committee for SPE 2005 Asia Pacific International Improved Oil Recovery Conference, and member of the organizing committee of the IPTC (2008) in Kuala Lumpur. 
Mr. Toulekima is a member of the Petroleum Engineering Honor Society (Pi Epsilon Tau), the Engineering Honor Society (Tau Beta Pi) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers

Jean-Noël Tronc worked for the European Parliament, Andersen Consulting and France's Center for Strategic Planning before his appointment to "IT and Internet Advisor" to France's Prime Minister from 1997 to 2002.

After five years with France Telecom/Orange (2002-2007), where he became CEO of Orange France, he spent three years as Chairman and CEO of Canal+ Overseas, running the Canal+ Group's paid television business in French overseas territories and international operations. He was appointed CEO of Sacem in June 2012. He is also Vice-President of GESAC (European group of authors’ societies). He is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and of Essec Business School.

Prior to founding 32 Advisors, Robert Wolf spent 18 years at UBS, holding senior positions including Chairman & CEO of UBS Americas and President & COO of the Investment Bank. He joined UBS in 1994 after spending 10 years at Salomon Brothers as a Vice President in Fixed Income Sales and Trading. Robert is a four-time appointee of President Obama, serving as a member of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness from 2011-2013, the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board from 2009-2011, the Homeland Security Advisory Council's Border Infrastructure Task Force in 2012, and the President’s Export Council since 2013.

Robert serves on two Boards at the University of Pennsylvania: the Undergraduate Executive Board of the Wharton School and the Athletics Board of Overseers. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Worth Magazine named Robert one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Finance” in October of 2013. Robert is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a B.S. in Economics. He and his wife Carol have two children and reside in Purchase, New York.

For nearly 30 years. Jacob Wood has actively promoted the development of local livelihood, employment and education in Nigeria. He is the founder of the West African Unity newspaper, the first Chinese-language newspaper in Africa.

West Africa-based Golden Gate Group was founded in 1995. The two main businesses of the group are the Nigeria Golden Gate Hotel and the Liberia Golden Gate Hotel. Numerous Presidents, Ministers and other government officials from around the world have stayed as guests at these hotels. Golden Gate has diversified its businesses in Africa into real estate, tourism, construction, manufacturing, and international trade.

Today, the Golden Gate Group acts as a trade link between China and Africa. Many Chinese companies have entered into African market as a result Mr. Wood’s businesses. Golden Gate Group’s vision is to build a better future and continue to strive for strong relations between China and Africa.

Paul is the Managing Director for Africa and Middle East at Waterfund and has over 12 years of extensive experience in the energy and commodities sectors across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Prior to moving to Dubai in 2006, Paul spent three years in London and three years in Singapore with the Petroleum Argus group, developing pricing indices used as benchmarks within global oil products markets.

In Dubai Paul worked for Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, responsible for initiating, developing and implementing soft and hard infrastructure projects to enhance trade flows through the Emirate. This involved devising and co-ordinating project strategies and economic models for a broad variety of commercial infrastructure projects in the Emirate. Paul is originally from the UK and graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in philology. 

Zouera Youssoufou is the World Bank Country Manager for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. She is the front-line person in the relationship with the government and conducts day-to-day dialogue with all levels of government, donors and civil society, in addition to overseeing the implementation of World Bank projects. Zouera spent six years at the International Finance Corporation, where she led the Global Women in Business Program (WIN). She was responsible for creating opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the developing world, specifically in access to finance. Zouera joined the World Bank Group in 2005 from Citigroup’s Smith Barney unit in New York and Atlanta where she covered emerging markets and thirteen industry sectors as an Equity Research Analyst. Her previous experiences include working with the European Union on private sector development issues and management consulting with Deloitte & Touche in Ghana.  Zouera holds an MBA in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a BBA in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Isenberg School of Business. 

Lionel Zinsou joined PAI, the leading Private Equity firm in France, in 2008 as member of the Executive Committee. He became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2009. Lionel Zinsou started his professional career as a lecturer and professor of economics at Paris University and was a member of the Department of Industry’s Ministerial office and of the Prime Minister’s Office (Laurent Fabius 1984-1986). In 1986, Lionel Zinsou joined Danone where he held various positions including Group Corporate Development Director, Managing Director of HP and Lea & Perrins (UK and USA) and was a member of the Group Executive Committee. In 1997, Lionel Zinsou joined the Rothschild Bank as General Partner. He was the founder and the Head of the Consumer Products Group, the Head of Middle East and Africa and a member of the Global Investment Bank Committee. A citizen of France and Benin and nephew of a former President of Benin, Lionel Zinsou, as an economist used to be a consultant of the United Nations Development Program and the UNIDO. From 2006 to 2011, he served Benin’s President as Special Advisor. In late 2013, President François Hollande asked him to create and chair a new Public-Private French-African Foundation for Growth.