KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

	Fred Swaniker Founder and CEO, African Leadership Academy Fred Swaniker is currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the Founder & CEO of African Leadership Academy, a world-class, pan-African high school that aims to develop future generations of African leaders. A serial entrepreneur, Fred first had the idea for African Leadership Academy while living in Nigeria in 2003 and realizing the urgent need to increase the supply of effective and ethical leaders for Africa. He brings deep experience launching and managing private educational institutions of excellence in Africa. Fred helped launch and has been a director of Mount Pleasant English Medium School, one of the top-performing private elementary schools in Botswana. More recently, Fred founded and led the launch of Global Leadership Adventures, a leadership development program for youth throughout the world. In the three years since launch, Global Leadership Adventures has more than doubled its enrolment and expanded to five campuses around the world (Ghana, South Africa, India, Brazil, and Costa Rica.) Fred also gained entrepreneurial experience when he was founding Chief Operating Officer of Synexa Life Sciences, a biotechnology company in Cape Town that today employs 30 South African scientists Fred brings a unique pan-African perspective to African Leadership Academy. He grew up across the African continent, living in Ghana, the Gambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, and he has lived as an adult in South Africa and Nigeria. During his time as a consultant for McKinsey and Company, Fred provided strategic advice to the management teams of large companies in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa. Fred holds an MBA degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar, a distinction awarded to the top ten percent of each graduating class. Fred also holds a B.A. degree magna cum laude in economics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.

	Irene Charnley Founder & CEO, Smile Telecom Former Executive Vice President, MTN She is currently CEO of Smile Communications Pty (Ltd) a low –cost telecommunications operator providing affordable communications to the “Bottom of the Pyramid” consumers, removing the cost barrier and providing access to those who have never had the opportunity before. She was instrumental in negotiating and acquiring the 2nd GSM license in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in securing one in four GSM licenses in Nigeria. She also successfully negotiated and concluded acquisitions of operation in Cote d’Ivoire, Congo Brazzaville and Zambia. In addition, she identified other value enhancing acquisition opportunities including Investcom, a company with operations in 10 countries, primarily in the MENA region. Irene also spearheaded several strategic MTN Group initiatives such as MTN Banking, a 50% joint venture with a national bank. She was instrumental in negotiating and securing financing for an 18.8% management buy-in into the MTN Group, representing one of the largest black empowerment deals at the time. Prior to MTN Irene was an Executive director of Johnnic Holdings, an industrial conglomerate. In the position, Irene was responsible for the strategy, which ultimately lead Johnnic Holdings to becoming a focused media, entertainment and telecommunications business. She also negotiated a series of acquisitions and asset swaps which resulted in Johnnic acquiring M-Cell (now MTN Group Limited). She achieved a full listing of MTN Holdings through M-Cell Limited and played a leading role in its transformation into one of the preeminent black empowered companies on the JSE through chairing M-Cell Board and the respective HR and Remuneration Committees. Irene achieved the successful closure for the Ikageng share scheme in Johnnic, a first timeshare ownership scheme for disadvantage South African individuals, which provided approximately 32,000 small shareholders with returns of over 400% within a three year time frame. Prior to Irene’s successful business career, she was a key negotiator in the largest trade union in South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers. She is one of South Africa’s most prominent and well-known businesswomen and was voted businesswoman of the year 2000 by the Businesswomen's Association of SA. She was rated by FORTUNE magazine as one of the top 50 businesswomen in the world outside the US in 2001 and 2002. Irene is also the subject of a three-part Harvard Business school case study on leadership.

	Obiageli Ezekwesili Vice President of Africa Region World Bank Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili has been the Vice President for the Africa Region since May 01, 2007. Oby joined the Bank from her most recent position as Minister of Education in the Government of Nigeria and with a rich mix of experiences in the private sector and civil society. Ms. Ezekwesili began her career as an auditor and management consultant with focus on financial planning, SME financing, audit and regulatory compliance in Delloitte & Touche. She served as one of the founding Directors of Transparency International as Director for Africa from 1994-1999. She worked with Professor Jeffery Sachs as the Director of the Harvard - Nigeria Economic Strategy program between 2000 and 2002 during which time she was also appointed as an aide to President Obasanjo. In 2003, she went on to serve as Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence. In this capacity, Ms. Ezekwesili spear-headed institutional reforms through the establishment of “Due Process” mechanisms and strategies resulting in markedly reduced procurement costs to Government projects and turnaround time for completion of Government projects while improving transparency. As Minister of Solid Minerals, Ms. Ezekwesili provided leadership in the drafting and subsequent passage of the Minerals and Mining Act, the establishment of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office and the opening of the mining sector to private participation. Ms. Ezekwesili also served as the Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2004 and pioneered the voluntary sign-on of Nigeria to the EITI ++ Principles as well as the first ever process, financial and physical audit of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. As a member of President Obasanjo’s Economic Team, Ms. Ezekwesili was responsible for developing the government’s overall comprehensive anti-corruption, transparency and good governance strategy and it was in this capacity that she negotiated the partnership between Nigeria and the G8 known as the “Compact to Promote Transparency and Combat Corruption: A New Partnership between the G8 and Nigeria” signed by Presidents Bush and Obasanjo during the Sea Island meeting of the G8 in June 2004. Ms. Ezekwesili served as Nigeria’s Minister of Education from June 2006 to April 2007 with the task of leading a comprehensive reform program within the education sector. During this period, she restructured and refocused he ministry for the attainment of EfA targets and MDGs. She also introduced the Public Private Partnership models for education service delivery; revamped the Federal Inspectorate Service as an improved quality assurance mechanism and introduced transparency and accountability mechanisms for better governance of the budget. Ms. Ezekwesili commitment to the transformation of Nigeria as one of the 20 largest global economies by 2020 through education led to the launch of the Innovation & Vocational Enterprise Institutions initiatives with focus on human innovation capacity development as well as the launch of the “Adopt-A-School initiative in conjunction with the Nigerian Stock Exchange in January 2007. Ms. Ezekwesili is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters in International Law & Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, a Masters in Public Policy & Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a Bachelors degree from the University of Nigeria. In 2006, Ms. Ezekwesili was given the national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). She is married and has three sons

2008 ABC Leadership Excellence Award Recipient
	ALLAN W.B. GRAY Founder, Allan Gray Investment Counsel Allan W B Gray, a South African born in East London, qualified as a Chartered Accountant at the age of 22. Following graduation from Harvard University, where he obtained an M.B.A. (with distinction), he was employed by the leading investment management firm Fidelity Management and Research Company Limited, Boston, U.S.A. for eight years, the last four as Portfolio Manager of the Fidelity Capital Fund. In 1973 he decided to return to Cape Town to start, as sole proprietor, the investment management firm Allan Gray Investment Counsel. At this time the "efficient market hypothesis" was popular in investment circles. Central to this theory is that share prices reflect all available information and therefore move in a haphazard manner so the future cannot be predicted in any meaningful way. The conclusion is that it is impossible to consistently outperform the market. Unconvinced by this prevailing view, Allan Gray was confident that he could establish and structure a firm that could deliver superior total rates of return over the long-term. In 1988 Allan Gray departed for London at which time Allan Gray Investment Counsel had six partners, a staff of 36 and R 2.4 billion under management. In March 1992 the firm was incorporated as AGIC Limited. Upon affiliation with the Orbis Group, it subsequently changed its name to Allan Gray Limited. In 1996, Allan Gray acquired Standard Bank Property Trust Management Limited and changed the name to Allan Gray Property Trust Management Limited. Allan Gray established the Unit Trust Management Company in 1998 and in 2000, notification from the FSB that Allan Gray Life Limited had been registered as a long-term insurer, was received. In 2001, Allan Gray met the demand for individual retirement products and in 2003, an Endowment Policy was launched. In June 2005 Allan Gray Investor Services announced the development and launch of an investment platform to offer a broader range of unit trusts to investors. It offers consolidated reporting on total portfolios and the ability to buy, sell and switch between the funds offered.