- Dr Mo Ibrahim
- Lalla Ben Barka
- Lord Cairns
- Nathalie Delapalme
- Dr Mamphela Ramphele
- Mary Robinson
- Salim Ahmed Salim
- Nicholas Ulanov
Mo Ibrahim is an expert in mobile communications and founder of one of Africa’s most successful companies, Celtel International.
Founded in 1998, Celtel International has brought the benefits of mobile communications to millions of people across the African continent. The company operates in 15 African countries, covering more than a third of the continent’s population, and has invested more than US$750 million in Africa. In 2005, Celtel International was sold to MTC Kuwait for $3.4 billion.
In October 2006, Dr. Ibrahim launched the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to support good governance and great leadership in Africa. In 2007, Dr. Ibrahim stepped down as Chairman of Celtel International to concentrate on this initiative.
Sudanese by birth, Dr. Ibrahim has received a number of awards which recognise his work as an academic, businessman and philanthropist. Among them are the GSM Association Chairman’s Award (2007), the telecommunication industry’s highest accolade, and the BNP Paribas Prize for Philanthropy (2008). In 2008, Dr. Ibrahim was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Lalla Ben Barka is a leading figure in the implementation and reform of education policy throughout Africa. She is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, a position she has held since September 2007.
A champion of education as a means of driving Africa’s long term economic development, Dr Ben Barka served as Director of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa prior to her current position. In that role she provided intellectual, strategic and operational leadership for programmes promoting education across sub-Saharan Africa.
Malian by birth, Dr. Ben Barka has worked domestically as head of the Women Promotion Division of the National Directorate of Functional Literacy and Applied Linguistics (DNAFLA) and the Programme Decennal de Developpement de l’Education (PRODEC).
Dr. Ben Barka has degrees in both Education and Psychology from the University of Paris X, and a PhD in Education from the University of Southern California. In acknowledgement of her ongoing contribution to education, Lalla Ben Barka was awarded the UNESCO Literacy Prize in 1993.
Lord Cairns is currently Chairman of the Board of the UK’s Charities Aid Foundation.
He has had a distinguished business career leading some of the UK’s most successful investment banks. A development economist by training, Lord Cairns was Chairman of Allied Zurich and BAT Industries plc and also Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SG Warburg. He has also chaired Actis Capital LLP (formerly CDC Group plc), one of the largest emerging market venture capital operations, with investments in agriculture, financial services, industry and infrastructure in eighteen African countries.
Alongside Cyril Ramaphosa, Lord Cairns founded and chaired the Commonwealth Business Council at the request of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. The organisation continues to provide a platform for governments and the private sector to work together to increase trade and investment across the Commonwealth, with a particular focus on Africa.
Between 1981 and 1992, Lord Cairns chaired Voluntary Service Overseas, the organisation responsible for placing over a thousand volunteers each year on a range of education, health and infrastructure projects. Lord Cairns has also served as Chair of the Overseas Development Institute, which under his guidance more than doubled in size and significantly increased its range of work.
Nathalie Delapalme is a French senior civil servant specialising in Africa and development policies. She is currently serving as Inspector General at the Inspection Générale des Finances.
Prior to her current position, Mme. Delapalme served the French Government as an advisor on Africa, Development and Humanitarian policies, in the offices of various Foreign Affairs Ministers, between 1995-1997 and 2002-2007. She also served the French Senate as advisor for the Finance and Budgetary Commission, where she assessed a number of public expenditures and policies, notably in the development aid, foreign affairs, defense, education, environment, health and media sectors.
Educated in Paris at the Political Studies Institute and University Panthéon-Assas, Mme. Delapalme specialised in the public sector division and received a post-graduate diploma in applied economics. She focused particularly on the impact of demographic changes and international migrations.
Mme. Delapalme belongs to the editorial committee of the publication Commentaire and sits as a member on the boards of trustees for AMREF-France, Agrisud and the Elle Foundation. She has published several articles on the strategic evolution of Africa and relations between Africa and Europe.
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele has spent a lifetime as a leading campaigner for social justice both domestically and globally. She is the Chairperson of Circle Capital Ventures, a venture capital company in South Africa. She sits on the board of directors of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
Dr. Ramphele served as the Managing Director of the World Bank Group between 2000 and 2004, becoming the first African and only the second woman to be appointed to the post. Her responsibilities included managing the Bank’s human development activities in education, health, nutrition, population and social protection.
Prior to joining the World Bank, she was the first woman, and the first black South African, to hold the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. In 2004-2005 she chaired the Global Commission on International Migration organised by the United Nations and several member states.
Dr. Ramphele serves on the boards of major companies including Anglo American plc. She is a Board member of the Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko Foundations. In 2004, Dr. Ramphele was voted one of the Top 100 Great South Africans.
Mary Robinson has been a leading campaigner for human rights throughout her life. She served as the first female President of Ireland between 1990 and 1997. At the end of her tenure, in recognition of her commitment to justice and equality, she was appointed as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position she held between 1997 and 2002.
Dr. Robinson is widely recognised for having developed a new level of engagement between Ireland and the developing world during her Presidency. She was the first head of state to visit famine stricken Somalia, and the first to visit Rwanda after the genocide.
Since leaving the United Nations in 2002, Dr. Robinson has continued to champion developing world issues through the founding of Realizing Rights, an ethical globalisation initiative focusing on developing fair and equitable trade, strengthening responses to HIV/AIDS and shaping more humane migration policies.
Dr. Robinson has received widespread recognition for her efforts in the international arena. In 2004, she was made an Amnesty International ‘Ambassador of Conscience’. She is the honorary president of Oxfam International and a member of the Global Elders.
Salim Ahmed Salim is one of Africa’s most senior diplomats and statesmen. He recently concluded service as the African Union’s Special Envoy for Darfur.
Dr. Salim began his political career in international diplomacy, serving Tanzania in numerous ambassadorial posts, including to Egypt, India, and China, and serving as Permanent Representative to the UN starting in 1970. Six years later, he was elected President of the United Nations Security Council and went on to serve as President of the Thirty-Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 1979.
He returned to Tanzania to take up a major role in domestic politics, holding several senior ministerial positions as well as that of Prime Minister. He then resumed his international work, serving as Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity from 1989 to 2001, overseeing its transformation into the African Union.
As Chair of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, Dr. Salim helped entrench a new era of independence across the continent. A leading figure in the fight against apartheid, he served as the Chairman of the United Nations Security Council Commission on Sanctions against Rhodesia, President of the International Conference on Sanctions against South Africa and President of the Paris International Conference on Apartheid. In recognition of his contribution to Africa he has been awarded numerous national honours from an array of African countries, including Togo, Rwanda and Liberia.
Nicholas Ulanov is a leading strategy and management adviser to the non-profit sector, particularly in the field of governance.
The Ulanov Partnership, which he founded two decades ago, serves leading public benefit institutions globally. It has shared and helped define best practice in the education, foundation, public policy, arts, museum and other non-profit fields in more than twenty countries on six continents.
Before starting his firm, Mr. Ulanov was a media and communications consultant at McKinsey & Company, and CEO of the software publisher, Millennium Group Incorporated. As a consultant in the 1990s, Mr. Ulanov was the architect of Oxford University’s Campaign for Oxford, the first major capital campaign outside the United States, raising more than £300 million pounds and filling some 200 academic posts.
Mr. Ulanov is co-founder of the Royal Institution World Science Assembly, bridging the science and political communities on matters such as potential risks of avian flu and other pandemics. He was NGO representative to the United Nations for the Pate Institute, carrying on the work of UNICEF founder Maurice Pate, and, as a Rhodes Scholar alumnus of Oxford, he remains active in many university-tied activities and higher education affairs internationally.