Vera Songwe serves as The World Bank’s Country Director for Senegal, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute with the Global Economy and Development and Africa Growth Initiative. Dr. Songwe holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics from the Catholic University of Louvain (CORE-UCL) in Belgium. She was previously a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. In 1997, she joined the World Bank Group as an economist on the Middle East and North Africa. She is also a member of the Mo Ibrahim Governance Advisory Board.
Vera Songwe
My Definition Of Success | Success means achieving everything you strive for and then more. Yes my definition has changed, from considering success as my personal achievements to my actions that have a positive influence on others.
I Am Driven By | The pursuit of excellence, collective excellence. Today this means moving the dial in Africa. Working in Africa for Africa and being part of this moment of hope and change. The desire to want to be part of those who contribute in earnest to making Africa a better place. A place we can be and should be proud of.
A Key Talent | Hard work, persistence and the courage of my convictions. Nothing comes easy and you have to work hard at everything. Success is never ready made or given. With persistence you have the strength to keep fighting for what you believe in, what you think is correct. Hard work prepares you for the challenges, persistence allows you to keep going even when it all seems futile and the courage of your convictions gives you a reason to keep working hard and persisting. It is the result you are looking to achieve, but you must work hard for it. Nothing worth celebrating is ever handed to you freely.
The Principles I Live By | You must do onto others what you expect them to do to you. This is a very simple rule but it is one of the most difficult I find. One does not always succeed but the important thing is to keep trying to live up to it and at the end of every day to ask if you met the goal and how you can do better the next day. This process of self-assessment reminds us we are not perfect but also helps you to keep on trying to improve. It is a positive and constructive affirmation of who I am and want to be.
How I Use My Mind | I am always and constantly asking myself why I do what I do? What are the results I am looking to achieve. The discipline of having a clear result is sobering but also helps you to focus. For every action I take I have an expected result I hope to achieve. Having daily, monthly, yearly targets and working against these targets has been a very good disciplining tool for me. But it only becomes binding if you are honest with yourself.
Lee Colan Legacy Project, Ph.D., co-founded The L Group, Inc. in 1999. Lee’s passion for serving leaders enables him to deliver cut-through-the-clutter tools that elevate leaders and their teams. He was nominated for the 2013 Thinkers50 Award for best management thinker globally. Lee possesses an in-depth understanding of business, people and organizations. He blends this […]
Ugwem Eneyo | The Legacy Project is Nigerian-American engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of SHYFT Power Solutions (formerly known as Solstice Energy Solutions), a venture-backed, award-winning energy technology company. The company is a bi-product of her research as a former Stanford MS/PhD student in Civil & Environmental Engineering. Prior […]
Dorie Clark | The Legacy Project is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of Reinventing You (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013) and Stand Out (Portfolio/Penguin, 2015). A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, TIME, and Entrepreneur. Recognized […]
Sterling Hawkins is out to break the status quo to create what’s actually possible for humanity in our time. He has spent his career igniting new views and inspiring people to act on them. He went on to be involved with the launch, growth or investment in over 50 companies. Today, Sterling reviews over 1,000 […]
Patrick is a social entrepreneur. Believing in the principle of ‘doing good is good business’ he has invested in and is part of a number of successful social enterprises in South Africa including The Indalo Project; Streetwires Artist Collective; Kwalapa Organic Wholefoods Centre; Billboard Information Services & African Manga. He talks & consults regularly on […]
David M. Dye works with leaders who want to build energized teams and get more done. In his motivational leadership speaking, consulting, and coaching David shares twenty years experience in the public and nonprofit sectors including service as an elected official and nonprofit executive. Prior to starting Trailblaze, David served as Chief Operating Officer for […]
Richard St John is a Success Analyst , Speaker , Author and marathon runner. He achieved success as a member of scientific staff at Nortel Networks R&D labs. He’s won design awards, did breakthrough consumer/user research, and masterminded creative production for many of Nortel’s largest product launches. He started The St. John Group, an innovative […]
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