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.
Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he’s been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years. Ron Edmondson […]
As host of National Geographic Channel’s Emmy-nominated series, Brain Games, Jason Silva Legacy Project will guide you through the twists and turns of your grey matter. Through a series of man-on-the-streets and experiments, Silva will be joined by top experts in the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and psychology, who will give you the “why” […]
Lizé began her life as a singer-songwriter with her first break as a nine year old in the hit musical – Annie. Whilst still at school she then signed her first recording contract with David Gresham Records, South Africa and at 21 years of age she entered South African Idols and landed herself a finalist […]
Rob Caskie Legacy Project shares his Stories of human trials and triumphs never go out of vogue, and mesmerising storyteller extraordinaire Rob Caskie, with his walking stick and trademark shorts, brings them alive like no other. Often in the settings where such stories unfolded, in South Africa and abroad. Rob Caskie Legacy Project In a […]
Penny Mallory TLP is one of the UK’s top female motivational speakers, drawing her experience from her years in Motorsport as a Rally Driver, and as a Performance Coach within various sectors. Penny is living proof that building Resilience and Mental Toughness are vital if you are to thrive in this world. Penny has worked […]
Andile Khumalo is the the ex Chief Investment Officer of MSG Afrika, a media and communications group. He is also the founder of I am an Entrepreneur, an online platform to find and assist entrepreneurs in South Africa. Andile was named one of Mail & Guardian‘s Top 200 Young South Africans in 2012. Andile Khumalo […]
Driven by purpose, fueled with curiosity, and actualized with a glimmer of moonshot thinking, this Nova leads powerful conversations, intuitive councils, and pioneering round-table think-tanks that refines the way business, leadership, branding, consciousness and purpose fuse together in order to create thriving markets. In fact, it’s her very own global movement to create a purpose-driven-ecosystem […]
Joanne Harris (MBE) was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche . Since then, […]
These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.
Our Mission
© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME
