Paul Kagame is President of the Republic of Rwanda. In 2019 he was elected Chairperson of the East African Community and has been leading the institutional reform of the African Union (AU) since 2016. President Kagame is currently Chairperson of the AU Development Agency New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) as well as African Union Leader for Domestic Health Financing. Beginning in 1990, as commander of the forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), he led the struggle to liberate Rwanda. The RPF halted the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, which claimed over a million victims. The hallmarks of President Kagame’s administration are peace and reconciliation, women’s empowerment, promotion of investment and entrepreneurship, and access to information technology, a cause he also champions as Co-Chair of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.

Dr. KY Amoako, is a world-renowned African economist, international civil servant, and leading authority on African development.  He is the Founder and President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) – a premier pan-African policy think tank in Africa. One of its flagship products is the Transformation Leadership Panel (TLP) chaired by the former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Amoako began his career in 1974 at the World Bank and became the Bank’s first Director for Education and Social Policy in 1992. In 1995, Amoako joined the United Nations to serve as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the rank of Under-Secretary-General. As a leading development expert, he chaired the Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa and was a member of the Commission for Africa established and chaired by Tony Blair as well as a member of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health chaired by Jeff Sachs and the Task Force on Global Public Goods co-chaired by Ernesto Zedillo. Amoako holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Ghana, and a PhD in Economics from University of California, Berkeley.

Internationally known as “Africa’s Iron Lady,” Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is a leading promoter of freedom, peace, justice, women’s empowerment and democratic rule. As Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state, she has led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following the nation’s decade-long civil war, as well as the Ebola Crisis, winning international acclaim for achieving economic, social, and political change.  President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf served as the 24th President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, in recognition of her efforts to bring women into the peacekeeping process, and she has received numerous other awards for her leadership. In June 2016, Sirleaf was elected as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States, making her the first woman to hold the position since it was created. Sirleaf began her career in the Treasury Department in Liberia in 1965. In 1979, she rose to the position of Minister of Finance and introduced measures to curb the mismanagement of government finances.

Vera Songwe is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Upon her appointment, she became the first woman to lead the institution in its 60-year history.  As Executive Secretary, Songwe’s reforms have focused on “ideas for a prosperous Africa”, and have brought to the fore critical issues of macroeconomic stability, development finance, private sector growth, poverty and inequality, the digital transformation, trade and competitiveness. She was recently listed as one of Africa’s 50 most powerful women by Forbes and named as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by Jeune Afrique in 2019. Songwe is acknowledged for her long-standing track record of providing policy advice and her wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa. She has written extensively on development and economic issues including on debt, infrastructure development, fiscal and governance issues. She is well published and contributes to the development debate across a broad spectrum of platforms including in the Financial Times. Prior to ECA, she held a number of senior leadership roles with the International Finance Corporation and World Bank.

Born Yvonne Ntombizodwa Machaka in Dobsonville, Soweto in 1965, Yvonne studied Adult Education and also Local Government Management at the University of South Africa. She also studied Speech and Drama at the Trinity College in London and graduated with a Diploma in 1997. Chaka Chaka, in 2009, went ahead to shoot her debut feature film, Foreign Demos, in which she plays the character of Josephine, a lead role. Yvonne has been noted to share the stage with, and performed for leading lights like President Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth I I, Richard Branson, Bono, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey. Yvonne Chaka Chaka is acknowledged as a word-class performer defined by originality, creativity, and consummate showmanship. Chaka Chaka became a Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Roll Back Malaria Partnership. In 2006, she started her foundation called Princess of Africa (a name she received after a 1990 tour in Uganda), which focuses on championing the change in health and education for communities across Africa. Chaka Chaka is the brainchild of Backing Vocalists and Session Musicians Awards. She is the first African female recipient of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Crystal Award. Chaka Chaka has also been chosen as the 100 World Class South African and was voted the 8th most powerful musician by Forbes magazine and also voted among the World’s 100 most influential women by Women Deliver.

Prof Eddy Maloka is Chief Executive Officer of African Peer Review Mechanism since 2016.  President of Convocation, University of Cape Town since 2019 and Adjunct Professor, University of the Witwatersrand since 2014.   He graduated with Bachelor of Arts, (Rhodes University, South Africa), MA Development Studies, (Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland), PhD History (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Post-Doctoral Fellowship in History (Princeton University, USA). His former appointments have been as follows: Special Advisor to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (Republic of South Africa), South Africa’s Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, Special Advisor to the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Advisor: Governance, Public Administration and Post-Conflict Reconstruction (NEPAD Secretariat), African Legacy Delegate, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee,  Chief Executive Officer: Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), Political Advisor to the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government, Political Advisor to the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government.

Jonathan D. Moyer is Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures. He works across various research areas, extending and using the International Futures (IFs) integrated assessment platform. Jonathan studies patterns of human development through funded research for organizations like the African Union Development Agency and the United Nations. He leads the creation of new data and tools to better understand and analyze international relations contributing to reports such as the U.S. National Intelligence Council Global Trends 2030. Jonathan also researches patterns and drivers of state fragility and failure most notably as Lead Co-Principal Investigator on a five-year Minerva grant.

Dr. Nkengasong Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to his current position, he served as the acting deputy principal director (acting) of the Center for Global Health, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), and Chief of the International Laboratory Branch, Division of Global HIV and TB., U.S CDC.  He received a Masters in Tropical Biomedical Science at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and a Doctorate in Medical Sciences (Virology) from the University of Brussels, Belgium. He has received numerous awards for his work including Sheppard Award, the William Watson Medal of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded by CDC. He is also recipient of the Knight of Honour Medal by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, was knighted in 2017 as the Officer of Loin by the President of Senegal, H.E. Macky Sall, and Knighted in November 2018 by the government of Cameroon for his significant contributions to public health. He is an adjunct professor at the Emory School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.  He serves on several international advisory boards including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative – CEPI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) among others. He has authored over 250 peer-review articles in international journals and published several book chapters.