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Keynote Speakers
Morning Keynote Session |
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Haskell Sears Ward Haskell Sears Ward was born in 1940 in the small town of Griffin, Georgia. As a student at Clark College in Atlanta in 1960, he was an active participant in the student sit-in movement carried out by college students during the civil rights movement. He has over 40 years of experience in public and international affairs. Mr. Ward has been an officer of two major African infrastructure investment projects. He was for nearly a decade an officer in Global Alumina, a major energy and mining company. At Global Alumina, he was responsible for managing the company’s relationships with key government officials and non-governmental organizations including the U.N., USAID and the World Bank. He is currently Senior Vice President of SEACOM, a company that developed and launched in July, the first sub-marine fiber optics communications system linking Eastern and Southern Africa with Europe and Asia. Mr. Ward began his professional career as a volunteer in Kenya in 1962 with a Non-governmental organization, Operation Crossroads Africa, for which he later became a staff member. In 1963, Mr. Ward was a member of one of the first groups of Peace Corps volunteers, posted to Ethiopia. He also worked for the Ford Foundation (in New York City and Lagos, Nigeria), where he specialized in economic development programs and strategies for the Middle East and Africa. He served on the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department during the Carter Administration under Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. With the rank of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, he was the responsible officer on the Policy Planning Staff for the development and oversight of the Department’s Africa policies. Following his tenure at the State Department, he served as Deputy Mayor of The City of New York in the Administration of Edward Koch. Mr. Ward served on the board of directors of the American Council on Germany and was a long time member of the Trilateral Commission. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Corporate Council on Africa. He is also a member of the International Advisory Committee of the American Cancer Society. He is the author of African Development Reconsidered: New Perspectives from the Continent, widely used as a college textbook on African development issues. Mr. Ward received his undergraduate degree from Clark College in Atlanta and his graduate degree in African Studies from the University of California in Los Angeles. He is married to Leah Sears, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. |
Afternoon Keynote Session /Leadership Excellence Award Winner |
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Tope Lawani Tope is co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private equity firm with approximately $1 billion in assets under management. Helios pursues growth equity, leveraged acquisitions and structured investments in companies across Africa, with a focus on the sub-Saharan region. From 1995 to 2004, prior to forming Helios, Tope was a Principal in the San Francisco and London offices of Texas Pacific Group, a leading global private equity firm managing over $50 billion in capital. Tope is also a former Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Development Analyst at the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California. He serves on Boards of Directors of First City Monument Bank PLC, Continental Outdoor Media (Pty.) Ltd., Helios Towers Africa Ltd., Equity Bank Ltd., and Finacity. He also serves as a member of the Harvard Law School Dean’s Advisory Board and on the Overseers' Visiting Committee of the Harvard Business School. Tope, a Nigerian national, received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Harvard Law School and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Closing Keynote Session |
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Dr. Anna Mokgokong Born in Soweto, matriculated at St. Theresa’s High School in Manzini. Dr Mokgokong obtained her BSc in 1978 from the University of Botswana and qualified as a medical doctor in 1984 from MEDUNSA. She practiced as a community doctor for a number of years before leaving her thriving practice to become the formidable entrepreneur she is today.
Currently, she is the Executive Chairperson of Community Investment Holdings and holds a number of non-executive positions in companies including:
She also serves on the Boards and subsidiaries of a number of prominent companies operating across a wide spectrum of business sectors. Active in education and the public sector, she was the Chairperson of UNISA during the merger process and has been appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to serve a five-year term as member of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, where she was the current Deputy Chairperson. Dr Mokgokong was also appointed by the late, Hon. Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to the Health Charter task team.
One of only 300 recipients world wide of the Star Group “Leading Women Entrepreneur of the World,” she was recently nominated as the Honourable Chairperson of the Women of the Year Forum for 2007. She has also received the following consecutive international awards as the outstanding businesswoman of the year in the following countries:
· London, UK - 1998
· Paris, France - 1999
· South Africa - 1999
· Monte Carlo, Principalities of Monaco - 2000
· Venice, Italy - 2001
· Madrid, Spain - 2002
· Paris, France - 2003
· Sydney Australia - 2004
· City of Tshwane Mayoral Award - 2004
She had been appointed to serve as member of the Advisory Board of the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World and is honorary chairperson of this organisation for 2007. She was President of SAWEN (South African Women Entrepreneurs - the mother body of all businesswomen in the country) and President of the IWFSA, the International Women’s Federation of South Africa.
Dr. Mokgokong was appointed as Non- Executive Chairperson of Cape Diamonds Plc in 2008. Cape Diamonds is a listed company on the London Stock Exchange (AIM). She has also been recently appointed as Executive Chairperson of Community Energy which has offices abroad in Lugano, Switzerland and Milan. She served on the Board of SEDA (Small Development Enterprise Agency) as Chairperson of for the past three years as well as on the Land Bank Board.
In 2008 Dr. Mokgokong received the Chancellors Medal from the University of Pretoria for her outstanding entrepreneurial spirit. In April 2009 The University of South Africa (UNISA) bestowed upon her an honorary doctorate degree, honris causa commerce.
In October 2009 Dr. Mokgokong was appointed by the Hon Minister of Defence & Military Veterans to serve as a Commissioner on the National Defence Force Interim Commission.
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