Social innovator, expert in art and Culture management, Mamou DAFFE is part of a new generation of social leaders whose mission is to design projects and local operations with a strong economic, cultural and social impact. In 2005, he founded the annual Festival sur le Niger. He is the initiator of the innovative entrepreneurial model “Maaya Entrepreneurship”. In 2011, he created the Centre Culturel Kôrè, with a resource center specialized in social art issues, and the IKAM training institute for capacity building of artists and cultural actors in Mali and beyond. After chairing the pan-African network of cultural actors – Arterial Network – from 2015 to 2017, he founded with the great artists and cultural actors of the continent the first African Culture Fund (ACF) in 2018, of which he became the first Chairperson.

George Camille is one of the most prolific and well-known visual artist in Seychelles.

In 1987, he established Sunstroke Studio, a design, fashion and screen print space that trained and employed more than 30 artisans and artists. He then established the first art gallery of Seychelles.

Camille has staged numerous group and personal exhibitions in Seychelles, Mauritius, Germany, Italy and Reunion, and more recently in Beijing, China.

He has exhibited in numerous private collections around the world. He recently represented Seychelles at the Venice Biennale and is the winner of the recent Seychelles Biennale in 2017.

Dr. Frannie Léautier is one of the most illustrious African finance and development practitioners of our times.

As a professional, an academic, and an entrepreneur with a long-standing experience at top executive and board of director-levels, she has been in the business of leading and transforming organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit spheres, including in advanced and emerging economies around the globe.

She served as Vice Chair of the Board, first independent Board Director, and Special Advisor of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB). Dr. Léautier became TDB’s Chief Operating Officer on September 1^st, 2018.

 She is the Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee of the African Risk Capacity (ARC Ltd), a company providing  market solutions to address the insurance needs of African countries against weather related risks likes floods and drought.  

Dr. Léautier has occupied the functions of Senior Vice President at the African Development Bank (AfDB), Vice President at the World Bank Group (WBG) and Head of the World Bank Institute.

She is a well-recognised author and academic, having published numerous books, articles and papers in international development. She is also a graduate of the Harvard University Executive Development Program.

Dr. Léautier received an Honorary Degree in Humane Letters from North Central College in the US, and for her work in infrastructure, she is an Honorary Degree Graduand from Lancaster University in the UK.

In addition to winning various awards, including “Best Manager” and awards for excellence at the World Bank Group, she has been featured several times amongst the New African Magazine list of 100 most influential people in Africa.