Latest News

2015 Tutu Fellow Zukie Siyotula has been appointed as a Chairperson of the Board by York Timber Holdings Limited. York Timber Holdings is a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed company that is the largest solid wood processor producing lumber and plywood in South Africa with a wholesale distribution network as well. Their clients include truss engineering manufacturers, corporate and independent retailers, remanufacturers, furniture manufacturers and construction contractors.

Zukie serves on a number of other Boards including African Bank, Bidvest Group, Toyota, Ogilvy & Mather, Salungano Group and Conduit Capital Limited. 

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has re-appointed 2012 Tutu Fellow James Mworia to a second term as the Chancellor of Machakos University.  James is the CEO Centum Investment Company, the largest listed investment company in East Africa, with approximately $1.8 billion USD in direct and third party assets under management. 

Machakos University was founded in 1957 as a Technical Rural Training School by the then colonial Government. It was converted into Machakos Technical and Trade School in 1958, Machakos Technical School in 1967, Machakos University College in 2013, and chartered to Machakos University in October 2016.

 2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer has been selected as the next President of Calvin University, a private evangelical university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The university is his alma mater and he has close ties to the university. Wiebe graduated in 1997 as a second-generation Calvin student and is married to Joanna Bachew, who graduated from Calvin in 2003. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution based on the Calvinist tradition, and named after John Calvin, the 16th-century Protestant Reformer. 

Born and raised in Jos, Nigeria to Dutch missionary parents, Wiebe earned his Ph.D. in African History from Yale University.

2008 Tutu Fellow Nitesh Dullabh has been appointed as Partner, Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change (CS&CC) at Environmental Resources Management, or ERM.  He began his new position in April 2021.

ERM is a leading sustainability consultancy, and the global sustainability and climate change practice provides innovative advisory services from Board engagement to operationalizing sustainability.  Environmental sustainability has become a business-critical issue for many enterprises. Nitesh intends to building on his sustainability experience and leverage ERM’s business process transformation capability, deep subject-matter expertise, and experienced teams.  This includes assisting local and global clients to integrate environmental sustainability practices into the fabric of their organizations for continuous improvement and to unlock business value for current and future generations.

2014 Tutu Fellow Ladé Araba says she is excited to serve on the United Nation’s Technical Working Group on Energy Access. It will be responsible for developing an actionable global roadmap to achieve universal clean and affordable energy access for all, by 2030, something she says "is no mean feat”. She said in announcement on LinkedIn that she was thrilled to collaborate with a “formidable team of sector experts”.  Ladé is the Managing Director for Africa at Convergence Finance. 

Lade also expressed her enthusiasm about participating in the upcoming UN High Level Dialogue on Energy. The summit will take place in September this year, in New York.

2010 Tutu Fellow Bright Simons has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Salzburg Global Seminar. He will play a role in helping with their programs and business practices.  His appointment began in March 2021.

Commenting on his appointment, Bright said that “few organizations in the world today are as committed to the ideals of global public diplomacy as Salzburg Global Seminar.”
Victoria Mars, the Chairperson of the organisation, expressed her approval by saying: “we are thrilled to welcome Bright Simons to our Board of Directors. He represents a new generation of African entrepreneurs supporting social good through sustainable enterprise. As a Salzburg Global Fellow, Bright personifies our mission in motion: ‘Challenge current and future leaders to shape a better world.’

2007 Tutu Fellow Takalani Musekwa has been appointed as Group Head of Reward at Discovery. Discovery Limited is a South Africa-based financial services group that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Musekwa is a Master Reward Specialist registered with The South African Reward Association (SARA) and a Chartered HR Practitioner registered with the South African Board for People Practice (SABPP). He previously served as the Head of Remuneration and Benefits at the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and as its Chief HR Officer (acting) between 2010 and 2021.

2006 Tutu Fellow Kunyalala Maphisa has been appointed as an Independent Non-executive Director to the Board of PPC Cement and a Member of its Investment Committee and the Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee. The appointments were made as of the beginning of February 2021.

Kunyalala is co-founder and Principal Partner for Brighton Wealth Subsaharan, a South African based investment and advisory firm with a diversified investment portfolio. She is also the President of BWASA, the Business Women's Association of South Africa, the largest association of professionals and businesswomen in South Africa.

2014 Tutu Fellow Mokena Makeka was appointed Principal at Dalberg, and Director of the South Africa Office commencing January 2021. In his role, he will have a particular focus on the following areas: cities and urban development; the built environment and natural infrastructure; digital communities, innovation and entrepreneurship; transport and renewables; green livelihoods; forest economy; beyond smart cities and spatial and social transformation through design.

Dalberg Global Development Advisors is a strategy and policy advisory firm. Founded in 2001, it specialises in global development.

2008 Tutu Fellow Nitesh Dullabh has been appointed to serve as a director on the governing board of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP). The ISSP is the world's leading professional association of sustainability practitioners.

Nitesh is a global environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainabilty development goal (SDG) expert, and has over 20 years experience in facilitating Fortune 200 companies with their global expansion projects in developed and emerging markets.

2006 Tutu Fellow Kunyalala Maphisa has been appointed to the Council of the University of Cape Town. The appointment, which was made by the Minister of Higher Education, Bonginkosi (Blade) Nzimande, was made on 19 June 2020.  UCT Council members typically serve for four years.  Under the law governing the university, the Minister is entitled to appoint up to five people to the Council and the council's members recently began their 2020-2024 stint. 

The Council governs the university and its responsibilities include determining the mission, objectives, goals, strategies and policies for the progress of the institution. Kunyalala is a UCT alumnus, obtaining both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the university.

2015 Tutu Fellow Landry Signé has been appointed to head a new programme at Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management, that has been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and Globalization 4.0 Initiative. He is the new professor and Founding Co-Director of the inititiative. 

The Director General and Dean of Thunderbird, Sanjeev Khagram, says that the school is excited that Landry is joining them. He said Landry 'is a terrific scholar, respected worldwide for his grasp of the political economy of growth, sustainable development, governance, fragile and failed states, regional integration, and business in Africa.

2008 Tutu Fellow Siza Majola has been appointed Managing Director of Crawford Schools, reporting to the Group CEO of the AdvTech Group. She has held a number of key senior positions, with the most recent being Executive of Human Resources at ADvTECH. Siza spent the earlier years of her career working for the international mining giant, Rio Tinto as a Project Geologist and later as Senior Manager for External Affairs for the Africa region. Crawford Schools is a large South African private schools organisation comprising 22 schools from pre primary to college level. It says that it seeks to deliver academic excellence and to build graduates to become well-rounded and confident global influencers.  The organisation is more than two decades old.