British Parliament House of Lords
Lord Dr Michael Hastings is Chancellor of Regents University, Former Head of Citizenship at KPMG International. He has also served as a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Diversity and Talent, the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Business and joined the WEF Global Agenda Council on Migration.
He was previously a non-executive Director of British Telecom (on the Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business) and was a Global Board member of Millennium Promise. In 2017 he was installed as the second Chancellor of Regent’s University London. Lord Hastings is a mentor to several Harambeans and Co-Chair of the Harambeans Global Advisory Board.
Executive Chairman, Jonah Capital
Samuel Jonah is a Ghanaian businessman, the Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonah was previously President of AngloGold Ashanti.
Currently, the chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Jonah chairs the boards of Equator Exploration Ltd, Scharrig Mining, Equinox Minerals, Uramin, Moto Goldmines Ltd and Range Resources Ltd. He also serves or has served on various boards, including Transnet, Mittal Steel SA, Ashesi University, Standard Bank of South Africa, Lonmin, the Commonwealth African Investment Fund (Comafin), the advisory council of the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s International Investment Advisory Council on Nigeria, President Thabo Mbeki’s International Investment Advisory Council of South Africa, and President John Kufuor’s Ghana Investors’ Advisory Council. As well as his directorships, Jonah is a member of the advisory board of the London Business School.
Advisor Shell Foundation
Tara helps build entrepreneurial ecosystems all over the world. From delivering fund-raising strategies to agricultural cooperatives in Angola to helping Arabian Gulf governments launch startup investment funds, she has dedicated most of her adult life to catalysing entrepreneurship, especially to growing enterprises in emerging markets and under-served communities in the U.S.
International strategist and impact investment professional with a track record of supporting social enterprise growth, private sector development and ecosystem building across emerging markets, including Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.
Managing Director, Africa Health Holdings
Sangu is CEO of Africa Health Holdings, an innovative company based in West Africa, focused on "building Africa's healthcare future." He also serves as Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation ("GPI"); an investment holding company focused on building world class technology companies in Africa. GPI has backed startups such as Andela, mPharma and Flutterwave, GPI portfolio companies have raised over $900 million in venture financing.
Sangu is a Trustee of the Peddie School, a board member of Ashesi University, a member of the Harvard Medical School Dean's Global Health and Service Advisory Council, Co-Chair of the Leadership Council of Harvard's Center for African Studies, and an advisory panel member for AXA.
Sangu graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Highest Honors) in African Studies and Economics from Harvard College, a Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School, a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Master's in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
President and CEO, Maxwell Stamp USA
Managing Director of the Center for Transformation and Strategic Initiatives, an international, nonprofit group of academic experts and practitioners devoted to improving public administration of economic and regulatory agencies. He also is Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for International Economic Law, where he directs projects and conducts research on the political economy of trade and finance.
Mr. Heath represented the United States at the International Monetary Fund as Alternate Executive Director. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2007, he served on the Executive Board at the most critical time in generations as the IMF guided macroeconomic policies, assisted countries in financial trouble, reformed its governance, and created opportunities for private enterprise and growth around the world. His areas of engagement included international economic governance, financial diplomacy, monetary and exchange rate policies, capital mobility, private sector development, regulation of financial markets and sovereign wealth funds.
Mark has nearly 40 years’ business experience: in the private sector when he owned and successfully sold his business; with a publicly owned small oil and gas company, where he ran a division; and until 2010, as an executive with the global multinational HSBC plc.
He now runs his own company again, Samphire & Associates Ltd, which provides advisory services, especially in regard to Africa, where he has much experience. Over the last ten years, he held many advisory positions and worked on many projects. He has been a non-executive director of, in particular, Phoenix Africa Development Co Ltd (2010-19), in which he was a significant shareholder, and which had an agricultural business in Sierra Leone; Leon Africa, in Zimbabwe (2012-16), a financial services business in which he is still a significant shareholder; and Resolution Insurance in Kenya (2015-15), where he sat as a representative of a major shareholder. He has also sat as an independent non-executive director of the Britain Nigeria Business Council (2007-9) the Business Council for Africa (2009-15) and as an advisor to 2017. He has also been a mentor for the Women-Led Business Programme run by Femmes Africa Solidarité. His mentee is a black South African woman farmer.
He is currently independent non-executive chairman of VSA Capital, a City of London based investment bank, and sits on the advisory board of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE Level 1) investment and advisory firm, Moshe Capital, in Johannesburg.
Corporate Executive Coach and Keynote Speaker
Rene is one of the world’s leading business gurus specializing in leadership, culture, and transformation. He shows precisely how contemporary leaders can inspire their people through a powerful and authentic emotional connection, to do the things that others said could not be done.
As well as one of the world’s leading executive coaches, working with some of the Fortune 500’s top CEO’s and their executive teams, he has also actually been Chairman, CEO, and MD of blue-chip businesses. He speaks with the authority and confidence of the expert practitioner who has seen and experienced it all before.
Russell Southwood is the CEO, Balancing Act, a consultancy company that has focused on telecoms, Internet and media in Africa for the last 17 years. Recent work includes:a feasibility study for an African learning channel; an M & A project for an African operator; a review of roaming regulation for ECOWAS; a briefing paper on TV White Spaces for the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance; and study on Africa’s media deficit.
He is also co-author of a number of African market studies covering (most recently) VoD platforms, music streaming platforms, the implementation of DTT and 4G roll-outs. The company publishes weekly and fortnightly e-letters covering the following topics for the African market: Telecoms and Internet and Broadcast, as well as two newer e-letters, Digital Content Africa and Innovation in Africa.