Professor Goolam Mohamedbhai, GOSK

Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Mauritius, Former Secretary-General, Association of African Universities

Professor Goolam Mohamedbhai did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester, UK and his postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. He spent his whole academic career at the University of Mauritius where he served as Vice-Chancellor from 1995 to 2005.

He was Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities, and President of the International Association of Universities housed at UNESCO, Paris. He has also served on the Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and was a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations University, Tokyo. 

Professor Mohamedbhai now operates as an independent consultant in higher education, with special interest in Africa. Currently, he is a member of the Board of the University World News (Africa); and he chairs the Regional Steering Committee of the World Bank’s Project on African Centres of Excellence for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Professor Aldo Stroebel

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation and Internationalisation at the University of Mpumalanga, South Africa

Prof Aldo Stroebel is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation and Internationalisation at the University of Mpumalanga, South Africa, and former Executive Director at the National Research Foundation (NRF). He serves as Board Member of South Africa’s Water Research Commission, and as Co-Chairperson of the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN). He is an Honorary Scholar at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, Foreign Fellow of the Ugandan National Academy of Science, a Senior Fellow of the Pan-African Scientific Council, and a founding member of the SA Young Academy of Science (SAYAS). He is a recognised scholar in sustainable agriculture, and acknowledged as a leader in the internationalisation of Higher Education, and research and innovation management. He is the 2022 recipient of the SARIMA Research Management Excellence Award. He obtained his BSc-degree from University of Pretoria, SA; Master’s degree from the University of Ghent in Belgium and a collaborative PhD from University of the Free State (SA) and Cornell University (USA).  He has published extensively and supervised many post-graduate students.

Associate Professor (Dr) Brinda Ramasawmy Molaye

Associate Professor in Sustainable Agribusiness and Agrifood Value Chains, Department of Agricultural Production and Systems, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius

Associate Professor (Dr) Brinda Ramasawmy Molaye did her undergraduate, BSc (Hons) Agriculture (First Class), at the University of Mauritius. Laureate of the Faculty of Agriculture in 1996, she obtained a British Council scholarship to pursue an MSc in Agricultural Management (With Distinction) at the University of Reading, UK. She joined the University of Mauritius as the first female University Farm Manager for 4 years, after which she became a full-time academic staff in the field of Agricultural Economics and Management. She obtained a PhD in Applied Management Sciences in Agriculture (With Merit) at Montpellier Sup Agro, France under a French Scholarship. She was the Head of Department (Agricultural Production and Systems) at the Faculty of Agriculture from January 2019 to January 2021. Her research areas include agrifood value chain analysis and development and agrientrepreneurship. She has a keen research interest in the development of sustainable food systems under the overarching issue of food and nutrition security and in line with UN SDGs (Responsible Consumption and Production and Zero Hunger target). She fosters a multidisciplinary approach in her research projects, and is an ardent believer of translational research as the way forward for universities to address real-life challenges for targeted community outreach activities.

Associate Professor Sunil K. Bundoo

Department of Economics and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Mauritius

Currently Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, at the University of Mauritius.  Has also been the Head of the Department of Economics and Statistics at the University of Mauritius (UoM). Was actively involved in getting UoM promoted to Category B status and thus enabling the launching of the CMAP of the AERC at the University of Mauritius. Has published mainly in the following areas: Capital markets in particular stock markets; financial liberalization; pro-poor macroeconomics; and competition policy. The author has completed several research papers for international organizations such as the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC); the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER); the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD); the Consumer Unity Trust Society (CUTS); the UNU- Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) and the Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies. He was also a visiting scholar at the IMF Institute.

Ms Love Akiimbom Achondo

Alumna, African Leadership College, Mauritius

Love Achondo is a die-hard advocate for quality education and its limitless potential for raising transformational leaders in Africa. Her passion for empowering communities through academic excellence and inclusive education began in her early youth when she devoted her time and skills to contributing to the growth of educational organizations in her Cameroon through volunteering. Driven by a plight for change in educational systems in Africa after witnessing firsthand the devastating effects of an educational crisis in her country, she channeled this passion into curating a mission for empowering internally displaced communities at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, where she recently earned an honors degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership as a Mastercard scholar. Love is currently committed to fostering initiatives empowering internally displaced communities in Africa and worldwide.