ALU Foundation Council

With a shared belief in the future of Africa, the ALU Board of Trustees and Executive Council consists of a distinguished team which brings decades of experience in education, consulting, finance, human resource management, international affairs and technology.

The Board of Trustees and Executive Council strive to learn, grow, and share their varied experience in shaping the education of future leaders at ALU. The ALU Board of Trustees meets twice a year in the months of May and October. Whereas, the Executive Council meets weekly for meetings and thrice a year for an all-team retreat.

Christopher Bradford

President, Morehead-Cain Co-Founder, African Leadership Academy

Chris is a co-founder of African Leadership Academy. He brings a hybrid background in business and education to his work designing and building educational institutions of excellence. He previously worked with Procter and Gamble, the Boston Consulting Group and at Oundle School. Chris, an alumnus of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, is the current President of the prestigious Morehead Cain Foundation.

Peter Burdin

Journalist, Former BBC Africa Bureau Chief

Peter Burdin is the BBC's former Africa Bureau Chief and World Assignments Editor. He’s reported on major international news stories from Africa, China, the Middle East and India, and has won several awards for his journalism including a Sony Award for his documentary series “Return To Sarajevo”. In addition to writing on African affairs for publications on the continent, he lectures in International Journalism at the African Leadership University and the University of Central Lancashire and works with charities dedicated to improving educational opportunities across Africa, including the Tutu Foundation UK, Southern Africa-UK Trust, and Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA).

Zelda Denny

Investment Professional, Oppenheimer Partners

Zelda is an Investment Professional at Oppenheimer Partners and serves on the board of Medical Specialist Holdings. With extensive experience in FMCG and healthcare sectors across East and West Africa, she specialises in M&A advisory, equity capital markets, and transactions in sub-Saharan African countries. Zelda is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a former investment banker with 13 years of experience at top firms like Standard Bank, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs.

Nazrawi Ghebreselaise

Co-Founder & CEO, Kana Television Founder & CEO, Ethiopian Metropolitan Gallery Founder & CEO, Stratix Studio

Nazrawi (Naz) Ghebreselasie is the CEO & Co-Founder of Kana TV, Ethiopia's leading entertainment channel with 47% market share and the founder & CEO of Ethiopian Metropolitan Gallery, Ethiopia's largest contemporary art gallery, and STRATIX STUDIO, a design thinking agency. He is known for his innovative content creation and commitment to combining the sciences & arts to create innovative solutions. Naz holds a B.SC in Physics, and an M.SC in Mathematics.

Yoeal Haile

Co-Founder & CEO, Sava

Yoeal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sava, a fintech business helping businesses manage their finances and access affordable credit. He was previously the founder of Aspira, the largest BNPL player in East Africa and before that the Chief Strategy Officer at ALU where he helped the founding team establish universities in Rwanda and Mauritius. Prior to that, he was an Equity Derivatives trader at Merrill Lynch, spending time in their New York and Hong Kong offices.

Aminata Kane

Vice President, Mobile Financial Services at Orange Middle East and Africa

Aminata Kane Ndiaye is the VP for Mobile Financial Services at Orange Middle East and Africa, overseeing mobile money and fintech activities across 17 countries. From 2018 to 2022, she was the CEO of Orange Sierra Leone and the Chairwoman of the Board of Orange Mobile Finance Sierra Leone to which she increased the market share from 39% to 52%. In 2020 she was named ‘CEO of the year’ by the AfricaCom Awards.

Nglan Niat

Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Dangote Industries Limited

Nglan is the current Chief HR Officer of Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate. Nglan previously served as Director of Human Resources at Schlumberger Africa. She has over 17 years of experience in various facets of Human Resources Management. Her work assignments have been in Africa, Canada, the United States of America and France. She has an MBA in Human Resource Management from HEC Montreal.

Brian Rosenberg

Visiting Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Brian Rosenberg is currently visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. From 2003 until 2020, he served as the 16th President of Macalester College. He is the author of Whatever It Is, I'm Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education, published in 2023 by Harvard Education Press.

Veda Sunassee

CEO, ALU & ALC

As an educator at heart, Veda has spent a decade in several roles with the African Leadership (AL) Group, first as an Entrepreneurial Leadership Faculty at the African Leadership Academy before later serving as the Founding Dean of the African Leadership University (ALU), Rwanda for 2 years. Veda is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of ALC & ALU, overseeing operations across both the Mauritius and Rwanda campuses while steering the institution's new 5-year strategy to become a ‘distributed university’ across the world. He has helped develop the leadership model of central to the mandate of the AL Group- to develop 3 million African Leaders by 2035. During a sabbatical that he took in 2019, Veda co-founded NiaDelta, a Leadership and Education consulting firm that advises corporate C-suites as well as education leaders.

Fred Swaniker, CHAIR

Founder & CEO, and Technologies Founder, The African Leadership Group (ALG)

Fred is the founder and CEO of the African Leadership Group- an ecosystem of organisations that are catalysing a new era of ethical, entrepreneurial African leaders. Over the past 15 years, Fred has founded and led the African Leadership Academy, the African Leadership University, the African Leadership Network and ALX–a next generation leadership development and talent sourcing platform. Collectively, these endeavours aim to transform Africa by developing 3 million African Leaders by 2035. He is also founder of The Room, a talent agency for the world's ambitious doers.

Anna Vaulina

Co-Founder, GrowThink Group

Anna, a co-founder at Growthink Group, a boutique growth consultancy. Anna is a highly accomplished global growth and data executive with a remarkable career spanning over two decades. She excels in leading cross-functional teams to surpass revenue, acquisition, and retention targets, both as an internal and external business leader. Anna has launched digital media brands that have become household names and pioneered behavioural data intelligence in SVOD across the African continent during her tenure at Showmax and Multichoice.

Veda Sunassee

Chief Executive Officer

Veda has spent 9 years in several roles with the African Leadership Group. He first served as an Entrepreneurial Leadership Faculty at ALA before joining ALU’s founding team. In 2017, he moved to Rwanda to be the Founding Dean. Veda is a graduate of Princeton University.

Natasha Traynor

Chief Marketing Officer

Natasha is a global marketing leader with 10+ years of experience in commercial education restructuring marketing departments to meet recruitment targets, accelerate growth and create customer-centered experiences. Natasha holds a BA in Political Science from UCLA and an MBA from Bayes Business School at City, University of London.

Nhlanhla Thwala

Provost

Nhlanhla was previously Academic Director at the Pearson Institute in South Africa. Prior to that, he served as the Managing Director of CTI Education Group and the Director of Wits Language at Wits University. Nhlanhla received his PhD in Linguistics from UCLA.

Hadja Ba

Chief Finance Officer

Hadja’s career spans over 20 years of varied experience in financial management, business leadership and corporate strategy. Prior to joining ALU, Hadja served as CFO of InTouch, a pan-African fintech organisation, and she was previously Africa & Indian Ocean Director of Business Analysis and Projects at Accor Hotels. Hadja holds a MsC from École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (France).

John Hall

Chief Technology Officer

John has 20 years of experience designing, developing, delivering, and sustaining learning technology solutions servicing the needs of retail and corporate markets. Prior to joining ALU, John served as the VP of Program Delivery for eCornell.

Elizabeth Tolu Ojo

Dean of Undergraduate Programs, ALU Rwanda

Elizabeth is a seasoned project manager and environmental educator with over a decade of experience. She is passionate about nurturing the next generation of environmental stewards and empowering them to address critical environmental challenges. Through her work in education, youth development, and environmental conservation, Elizabeth has developed a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of these fields. In addition to her role as Dean, she sits on the boards of Unearthodox and Alon Green Recycling.

Fadzai Hundu

Vice President of People & Culture

With over 15 years of HR leadership experience, Fadzai leads our People & Culture strategy to drive organizational transformation. Her impressive track record at global companies like Bolt, NielsenIQ, BDO, and PwC, combined with her deep understanding of the African talent landscape, makes her an invaluable asset to our team. Fadzai is passionate about creating inclusive work environments where individuals can thrive and reach their full potential. Fadzai holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Arts in Communication with a minor in Human Resource Development from Indiana State University.

Jannek Hagen

Executive Director of Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership

Jannek Hagen holds extensive experience within entrepreneurship support, venture growth & impact investing on the African continent. He has served as an advisor, respectively as a board member, to several impactful ventures across a number of different sectors. ALU's Centre for Entrepreneurship works with partners to amplify its efforts in creating pathways for ALU entrepreneurs through co-creation and -implementation of innovative solutions, for the entrepreneurs to grow their ventures, creating jobs and impact in the communities they serve.

Livingstone Katingima

Vice President of Finance

Livingstone has 15 years experience overseeing strategic financial management, Business Controlling and accounting bringing with him his extensive experience and working knowledge from the Travel IT Industry. He has held key positions including Head of Finance at Amadeus for Nigeria and Ghana, Head of Controlling at Amadeus South Africa (covering South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, and Mauritius), and Finance Manager for East Africa. Livingstone brings to ALU his extensive knowledge and a unique perspective on the African business landscape.

African Leadership University is higher education for a higher purpose.

Download our 2023 Impact Report

ABOUT ALU

Get ready to leadAfrica forward.

WHY ALU

STUDY AT ALU

STORIES