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.
Tessa Plen is a highly accomplished global change-agent for growth and development of individuals, companies and products. She has worked in senior positions at blue-chip multinationals like Colgate Palmolive (associate Director of Innovation) and Unilever in South Africa, Paris, London, Sydney and New York before recently returning to South Africa. She has implemented growth and […]
Nizenande Machi Legacy Project is Relationship Systems Strategist. She creates human-centered frameworks for African development, which when coupled with her knack for relating with people at various levels, has enabled her to advance her Transformative Leadership in Africa agenda. As someone who believes she has a pivotal role to play in reshaping Africa and positioning […]
Andrew is the co-founder and Managing Director of Yuppiechef, and heads up their strategy and technology. After developing websites and intranets for clients since 1999, he founded Yuppiechef in 2006 with Shane Dryden as a part-time venture while they continued to run a small web agency. Yuppiechef has since grown in to one of South […]
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 […]
Tumi Frazier Legacy Project is a passionate South African entrepreneur, a powerhouse in every sense of the word. Through her inspirational leadership, combined with an ambitious vision and an endless source of energy, her company, Tumi Frazier International, is helping to develop thousands of new women leaders in Africa. Tumi Frazier Legacy Project Tumi Frazier […]
Gary Kirsten is a former South African cricketer and the World Cup winning coach of the Indian Cricket Team. He played 101 Test matches and 185 One-day internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004, mainly as an opening batsman. He has recently established a cricket academy named the Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy (GKCA). Kirsten […]
Zainab Salbi | The Legacy Project is an Iraqi-American humanitarian, entrepreneur, author, and media commentator who has dedicated herself to women’s rights and freedom. At the age of 23, she founded Women for Women International—a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving women survivors of war. Under her leadership (1993-2011), Women for Women International […]
Nadine has been known as a key success element in major projects she has worked on. She is a senior executive with 24 year professional experience in the advertising, branding and design industries. Representing her companies at an international level she has managing high caliber national and international clients, projects and brands. Nadine a brand […]
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