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.
Anthony Christov is an art director currently designing the look for films at award-winning Pixar Animation Studios. He most recently art directored WALL•E. He worked in a similar capacity for the successful Finding Nemo animated feature and was the set designer for Cars and The Incredibles. My Definition Of Success | I think success is having […]
Attie van Wyk is the CEO of Big Concerts, South Africa’s largest premier live entertainment company. The company has promoted more than 1600 shows with an excess of 300 international artists to an audience of more than 10 million people. In 2013, Attie was named as the Business Leader of the Year. Music Has Always […]
Dr. Prasad Kaipa,,Ph.D. serves as Director and Member of Advisory Board of Aankhen Inc. Dr. Kaipa served as a member of the Board of Directors of SeeCommerce, Director of the TIE Institute and managing director of Mithya Institute of Learning & Knowledge Architecture. Dr. Kaipa has developed algorithms that allow executives to map the “genetic […]
Chloe Howard was born with a clubfoot. This meant enduring much corrective surgery and not growing up walking and running freely with her peers. From a young age, Chloe learnt to deal with physical and emotional suffering. Her parents wisely instilled in her the belief that she was born special and that God has a […]
Manuel Lima is a designer, author, lecturer, and researcher based in New York City. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Founder of VisualComplexity.com, Design Lead at Codecademy. Nominated by Creativity magazine as “one of the 50 most creative and influential minds of 2009″. WIRED describes Lima as “the man who turns data into art” […]
Richard Cohen is founder and CEO of music media and digital rights company, LoveLive. Founded in 2008, LoveLive brings together brands, broadcasters, digital platforms and labels; combining unique access to music rights with digital and marketing capability to create, monetise and distribute premium music content, and deliver high-impact campaigns across a variety of channels. LoveLive […]
Misha had the idea for Greenpop after racking up 360 000 air miles while doing an advertising job. They wanted to offset their carbon footprint but couldn’t face just handing over money – they wanted to get their hands dirty. Misha gathered like-minded individuals and started a campaign which aimed to plant 1000 trees in […]
It is with thanks to this dedicated author and meticulous researcher that the indigenous South African Nguni cattle, their widely patterned and multi-coloured hides and the poetry surrounding their Zulu naming, have been recorded for posterity in a beautifully crafted coffee table book following a doctoral thesis. Dr Marguerite Poland is revered for, inter alia, […]
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
