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2014 Fellow Ladé Araba has been appointed as the Managing Director, Africa, at Convergence Finance, a global network that generates blended finance data, intelligence, and deal flow to increase private sector investment in developing countries. Prior to this, Araba was the Africa Region Representative also at Convergence Finance.

Araba is also the Co-Founder/President of the Visiola Foundation which empowers African girls and young women through education, training, and mentoring in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

2013 Fellow and Tanzania's Environment Minister January Makamba, is championing plans to ban the production, importation, sale and use of all single-use plastic bags in Tanzania by July 2019, to help tackle pollution from non-biodegradable waste.

The East African nation is the latest country to make a formal commitment to phase out single-use non-biodegradable plastics, which have been identified by the United Nations as one of the world's biggest environmental challenges. Of the 9 billion tonnes of plastic the world has produced, only 9 percent has been recycled, according to U.N. estimates.

2018 Fellow Judy Sikuza was the guest speaker at the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Humanities graduation ceremony that took place at on 10 April 2019.  Judy, who is the Deputy Executive Director of the Nelson Mandela Rhodes Foundation, spoke at the first of five Faculty of Humanities graduations.  She said academic success at school and studies at an Ivy League institution had not prepared her for joblessness.

The first in her family to matriculate, and armed with an MA from Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar, she found herself camping on a friend’s couch months after she had graduated. Application after application was rejected.  It was a humbling lesson that she, too, was not exempt from the hard blows of life, despite all her achievements.

Two 2012 Fellows, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, the Director of Marketing & Digital Media at Pepper Publications Limited, and Vincent Bagiire, the Permanent Secretary in the Ugandan Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and National Guidance, have been appointed by President Yoweri Museveni as part of a 32-member team of experts picked from different sectors to spearhead Uganda’s journey in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Members of this National Task Force were selected from innovation hubs, the private sector, academia, civil society, Uganda’s development partners, and the government.

2014 Fellow Linda Kasonde has been elected to a senior role on the governing body of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. She was elected Vice President for Africa in April at the Commonwealth Law Conference in Livingstone, Zambia.   She is also the first woman President of the Zambia Law Association in the country’s post-independence history.

The theme of the conference was: The Rule of Law in Retreat? Challenges for the Modern Commonwealth. This conference has always been a unique event for the commonwealth legal fraternity -  which is spread over several continents - as it offers a space to discuss topical issues they might otherwise not be able to easily do.

2018 Fellow and founder of MathsGee, Edzai Zvobwo, has been selected as a Champion for Agenda 2063 during an advocacy ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa, hosted by the African Union Development Agency - NEPAD. He is one of five distinguished champions recognised for their entrepreneurial actions, resilience, and activities in progressing towards the goal of Agenda 2063.

NEPAD (now rebranded to AUDA) targeted 2019 as the year in which it popularises #Agenda2063 through #TheAfricaWeWant campaign to serve the African people.

The African Leadership Institute has a very strong cohort of emerging African leaders for the prestigious Tutu Leadership Fellowship for 2019. Amongst nearly 250 nominees of outstanding quality from more than 30 African countries, 23 of Africa’s highest potential young leaders were selected to take part in the programme. Including the candidates nominated by our sponsoring organisations, the candidates represent 12 different African countries, ranging in age 25 to 39 years of age, and span several industries. The selected candidates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s youth.

The biographies of the 2019 candidates follow:

The global streaming giant, Netflix, has recognised the talent of 2016 Fellow, Dorothy Ghettuba, and appointed her their Manager for International Originals.  The appointment of the award-winning Kenyan CEO of Spielworks Media comes after Netflix announced in 2018 that it would commission original shows from Africa by 2019.

This move was intended to increase demand for the platform among viewers from Africa and eventually reduce the cost of access. “Telling our African stories. Onwards and Upwards,” said Ms Ghettuba in an Instagram post announcing her appointment.

2013 Fellow François Bonnici has been appointed to head up the Schwab Foundation in Switzerland, one of the leading social entrepreneurship foundations in the world and the sister organization of the WEF.

Over the last year, the Schwab Foundation Board has moved to adapt the Foundation’s focus to the scope and complexity of social challenges and the evolving dynamic of the social entrepreneurship landscape, putting an emphasis on moving the field forward collectively towards more systemic social change.

2010 Fellow and President of mPedigree, Bright Simons, has been selected as one of the winners of the 2019 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. His company was also awarded a grant of US$1.5 million for being selected.

Organised by the Skoll Foundation, which supports and invests in social entrepreneurs and innovators solving the world’s most pressing problems, the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship recognise and reward transformative leaders whose organisations disrupt the status quo and drive sustainable large-scale change.

2017 Fellow, MC and Chocolate City label executive, MI Abaga, has helped usher in his company’s partnership with Warner Music Group in the US.

In the deal, the two companies will enter into an arrangement that sees Warner Music injecting funds into Chocolate City’s operations and also use its extensive network to promote artists on the label. Music from these artists will join Warner Music’s repertoire, and they will receive the global support of the major label including distribution and artist services via ADA.  MI will continue to lead Chocolate City as the EVP of imprints alongside co-founders Audu Maikori and Paul Okeugo. The Chocolate City team will also continue to develop local artists and support the management of WMG’s global superstars across Sub-Saharan Africa.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa extended an invitation to 2013 Fellow and human rights activist Catherine Constantinides to attend the SADC Saharawi Summit in South Africa in March 2019. Catherine has for years worked on behalf of the Saharawi, who live in territory occupied illegally by Morocco. 

The SADC Solidarity Conference with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic started with a call for unity to ensure the right to freedom and self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara. It was attended by several heads of state, who took a stand for the Saharawi and expressed their support for decolonisation of the region and self-determination for Western Sahara on the basis of the values and principles that have guided the quest for independence throughout Africa.

2006 Fellow Palesa Kadi has been appointed to chair the ICASA hearings on sport broadcasting rights. Palesa is a media activist, researcher and has worked as a regulator in the broadcasting and telecommunications space, where she serves as an ICASA councillor. ICASA is South Africa's broadcast regulator. 

The hearings - and issue - is politically sensitive, as big-draw sport is currently mainly broadcast on expensive pay channels, locking out many ordinary South Africans from being able to watch sport on free-to-air TV.

2018 Tutu Fellow Aminu Umar-Sadiq has been appointed as an Executive Director and Member of the Board of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, or NSIA, by President Muhammadu Buhari. This appointment sees him move from his previous role as Senior Vice-President and Deputy Head of Infrastructure, also at the NSIA.

In 2018, the NSIA Board established a Direct Investment Committee for review and oversight of investments in core domestic infrastructure sectors such as motorways, agriculture, healthcare, power, and education. Aminu has significant experience in investment banking, private equity and public finance, including his most recent role at the NSIA.

2018 Tutu Fellow Adebola Williams has been named a 2019 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Adebola, who is the founder of RED Media, was selected from thousands of applications from across the world following a rigorous vetting process designed to identify global leaders and young visionaries working to shape the future through inspired leadership.

Created in 2004 by Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, as a way to help the world meet increasingly complex and interdependent challenges, Adebola Williams will join an elite community of the world’s next-generation leaders in influencing decision-making through the contribution of new ideas, perspectives and energy.