Current Board Members

H.E. John Dramani Mahama is the former President of the Republic of Ghana (2012-2016) and Chairperson of the Tana Forum Board. Mahama first entered into politics in 1996 when he joined the National Democratic Congress and was elected to Parliament. From there, he climbed the political ranks, starting with his appointment as Deputy Minister in Communications in 1997, followed by Minister of Communications in 1998. He was appointed as Minority Parliamentary spokesperson for Communications in 2001 and for Foreign Affairs in 2005. He was also a member of the Pan-African Parliament and Chairman of the West Africa Caucus based in South Africa from 2004 to 2011. On 7 January 2009, John Dramani Mahama became the Vice-President of Ghana, remaining in the post until President John Atta Mills’ untimely death on 24 July 2012, when, in line with Ghana’s Constitution, he became President of the Republic. Outside of national politics, in 2014 he was elected Chairperson of the African Union’s High-Level African Trade Committee (HATC) and also head of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS). In 2016, during the World Economic Forum, Mahama was appointed co-chair of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Advocates Group assisting the UN Secretary-General in the campaign to achieve the SDGs by 2030, and in 2017, Mahama presided over the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission to Liberia as head of mission.

H.E. Dr. Joyce Banda is President of the Joyce Banda Foundation and the former President of Malawi from 2012 to 2014. Dr. Banda was Malawi’s first female president and Africa’s second. An entrepreneur, activist, politician and philanthropist, Dr. Banda is a champion for the rights of women, children, the disabled, and other marginalised groups. She is a recipient of more than 15 international accolades including the 1997 “Hunger Project Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger” shared with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique.

Lassina Zerbo, a Burkinabé statesman and scholar, held the position of Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister from 2021 to 2022. Before assuming this role, he served as the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Catherine Samba-Panza was interim President of the Central African Republic from 2014 to 2016. She was the first woman to hold the post of head of state, and the eighth woman in Africa to do so. Prior to becoming head of state, she was Mayor of Bangui from 2013 to 2014.

Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi is the former United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria. He is also a member of The Elders, a group of world leaders working for global peace formed in 2007 at the initiative of late President Mandela. Amb. Brahimi also served as a Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General (2004-2005), Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (2001-2004), and Under-Secretary-General for Special Assignments in Support of the Secretary-General’s Preventive and Peacemaking efforts. Amb. Brahimi has also held several national posts in his home country, serving as Foreign Minister, Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Algeria, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Egypt and the Sudan, and Permanent Representative to the Arab League in Cairo.

Ambassador Tekeda Alemu has close to forty years of experience as a career diplomat. He was appointed Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York in January 2011 where he served as President of the Security Council in 2017. Prior to New York he had served twenty years in the capacity of, first, as Deputy Foreign Minister and then as State Minister.

Ambassador Alemu earned a B.A and M.A from UCLA and a Ph.D from Claremount Graduate School. He also taught at Addis Ababa University in the early 90’s with the rank of Assistant Professor.

Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba is a Kenyan who served as the Director of Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission from September 2010 to August 2011 and the Director of The Kenya School of Laws from 2014 to 2017. An eloquent lawyer, he holds a PhD in Laws of the Sea from the University of Ghent in Belgium.