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.
Jon Mooallem is a a contributing writer at New York Times Magazine and writer at large for Pop-Up Magazine. Jon is also the author of American Hippopotamus and Wild Ones. Jon Mooallem Definition Of Success | I used to conflate success with impressing people and accumulating little tokens of prestige. Now, I see success in […]
A Boston native, Asha began playing violin and viola at age six and is a graduate of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School where she studied privately with Boston Symphony Orchestra members Michael Zaretsky and Edward Gazouleas. In 2004, Asha moved to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time music career on her electric 7-string Viper […]
Listed in Forbes as one of five women changing the world of VC/Entrepreneurship, Kelly Hoey is the CMO of Cuurio, a New York City based startup. In 2011, Kelly co-founded Women Innovate Mobile, the first start up accelerator focused exclusively on launching and accelerating the growth of women-founded companies in mobile technology. An angel investor, […]
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership educator, executive coach and speaks throughout North America and Europe. John is the author of more than a dozen books, including MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership, Lead with Purpose, Lead Your Boss, and The Leader’s Pocket Guide. John’s books have been translated into 10 languages. […]
From the window of my top floor office in Cape Town I can see Lions Head and Table Mountain. I can also see the majestic and totally luxurious Cape Grace Hotel, one of the many hotels that Stuart Brand and his family built up over the course of generations, before selling out to the International […]
Josh was born in England and moved to South Africa when he was just two years old. After graduating from the University of Stellenbosch in 2004 Josh tried to set up his own business in Pretoria. He was driven by entrepreneurial spirit, but sitting with an enormous student loan, with no contacts and no network […]
Linda Tucker has a vast spanse of experience which has subsequently resulted in her diverse views. Linda hailed from the realms of international marketing and fashion through a threatening life experience with a pack of lions to her devotion to the conservation of The White Lion. After being rescued by a Tsonga medicine woman from […]
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 […]
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