Koosum Kalyan joined Shell South Africa (Pty) Limited in 1990 as Chief Economist in the Corporate Planning Department.  She was appointed General Manager of Corporate Affairs in August 1995. In 1998, Koosum was appointed on a assignment to Shell International Global Scenarios Team in London to map out the Africa Scenarios.

Prior to Shell, Koosum worked as an Economist at the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in Australia.

Since 2001 Koosum has held the position of Senior Business Development Manager/Exploration, Shell International Exploration. She is an adviser to the South African Government on State Owned Enterprises in Africa, a member of President Mbeki’s Steering Committee on Scenarios for South Africa and a member and co-facilitator of the UNAIDS/Shell Scenario Planning Team on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Koosum was seconded to Prime Minister Blair’s Commission for Africa on a part time basis as Private Sector Liaison and Coordinator for Africa. She has presented many papers on Economic Issues and Oil and Gas in Africa, as well as assisting several governments in Africa on long term planning processes.

She serves on the Commonwealth Business Council Advisory Group.  Koosum also chairs the G8 Business Action Against Corruption in Africa.

Koosum holds Non-Executive Board Directorships at South African Airways, South African Reserve Bank subsidiaries, MTN Group and the Standard Bank Group.

Babatunde Folawiyo holds a B.Sc degree in Economics obtained in 1980 from the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) coupled with LLB and LLM degrees obtained from the famous University College London in June 1984 and 1985 respectively.

He was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Honourable Society of the Inner temple) in 1985. He started his law practice in Nigeria with the firm of Ogunsanya and Ogunsanya from where he resigned in 1989 to become the Group Executive Director of Yinka Folawiyo group, a position he holds to date.

Tunde is also the Managing Director of Yinka Folawiyo Power and in this capacity pioneered the development of Nigeria's first Independent Power Project (IPP), the AES Barge Project in Lagos State. He is director in MTN Nigeria Ltd and Access Bank PLC.

Judith Cone is vice president of emerging strategies for the Kauffman Foundation, where she leads efforts to explore new program opportunities to advance entrepreneurship and education. Prior to her current role, Cone was vice president of entrepreneurship and led a number of the Foundation's signature entrepreneurship initiatives for youth and adults, including one of its largest programs – the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which aims to transform culture on university campuses by making entrepreneurship education accessible to students and faculty across all fields of study. Cone joined the Foundation in 1993 and was responsible for the development of innovative entrepreneurial learning programs, including FastTrac and an award-winning Web portal for entrepreneurs. She also developed Kauffman’s knowledge management practice and played an instrumental role during a restructuring of the Foundation’s strategic focus.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Cone cofounded two management consulting firms with clients such as General Motors, AT&T, and global pharmaceutical firms. Her first career was as a learning disabilities teacher working with disadvantaged children, where she experienced first-hand the pervasive and devastating effects of poverty on children and families.

Cone lectures nationally and internationally on entrepreneurship topics. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Jewell College with areas of concentration in education and psychology, and a Master of Science degree with honours from the University of Kansas. She is on the board of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program, serves as an advisor to several nonprofit boards, and works closely with the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship to advance entrepreneurship education in the United Kingdom.

Salim Amin’s career began in 1992 in Somalia during the now infamous Operation Restore Hope. A frontline cameraman, he worked for many months with all the major news agencies and networks broadcasting live out of Mogadishu. Throughout the mid-nineties he organized coverage of the genocide and subsequent conflict in Rwanda and Congo, working with his father, Mo, around the continent.

In December 2002, Salim provided vital logistical support as well as unique access and research into the Mombasa bombings for CBS and provided uplink services during Kenya's presidential elections.

Salim became Managing Director of Camerapix in 1996 after the death of his father. In memory of Mo, Salim founded The Mohamed Amin Foundation in 1998, now Africa's premier broadcast training school.

With 10 years experience in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, Salim is now branching out to Europe and America in joint ventures and co-productions with leading international broadcasters.

James Wanjohi is the first Head of The Branson School of Entrepreneurship, the first Institution world-wide that Sir Richard Branson (serial entrepreneur chair of the Virgin Group of Companies) has lent his name to. James set up the school in 2006. He is mandated to identify potential entrepreneurs, incubate them and fund them aiming to create more jobs, promote entrepreneurship and wealth creation. This is the first school in the continent set to hone entrepreneurship.

James has extensive experience in supporting entrepreneurship programmes. He was one of the founding consultants in the work that led to the establishment of the South Africa Breweries entrepreneurship programme “Kickstart” wtiich he spent five years managing in South Africa as well as setting up similar programmes in Botswana, Tanzania, and more recently India and South America. In Southern Africa he has supported Government entrepreneurship initiated programmes for Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

He sits in various investment committees and advises some of the private sector entrepreneurship initiatives e.g. Enablis, Technoserve and Endeavor. James is co-authoring a book sponsored by the World Bank on the value of Social entrepreneurship, a case study on CIDA City Campus, South Africa.

Prior to joining the Branson School of entrepreneurship James set up Alpha Strategy consultants where he worked with numerous Public, Private and NGO clients. He is a member of Lions Club of Illovo.

James holds an MBA in Finance and a Masters in Economics (Business economics) from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara; India.