Keynote Speakers

HE Graça Machel
Full Name
Job Title
Chancellor
Organisation
African Leadership University
Speaker Bio
Her Excellency Graça Machel, an accomplished international advocate for women and children’s rights, serves as the Chancellor of ALC. She was also the Minister of Education in Mozambique and led a movement to cut the illiteracy rate by 22 percent and to increase the school-going population from 400,000 to 1.6 million. Her Excellency was awarded the InterAction Humanitarian award in 1997 and was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the request of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007. In 2018, she was awarded the World Health Organization’s highest honour, the WHO Gold Medal, for her enormous contributions to the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents.

She has also founded various organisations that work to ensure the rights of families and communities across Africa. These include the Graça Machel Trust, an NGO which protects women and children’s rights and promotes women’s leadership across Africa. The Trust also runs the Graça Machel Scholarships for Women. She is a Founding Member of the Elders, an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights. As she lends her expertise to several organisations in a governance role, Her Excellency Graça Machel is also the Founder of the Foundation of Community Development and the Zizile Institute in Mozambique. She serves as Board Chair of the Africa Child Policy Forum, Board Chair of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, Board Chair of United People Global as well as Executive Chair of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. Her Excellency Graça Machel is a Board Member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Education Above All. She is Board Chair Emeritus for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and is a UNICEF Young People's Agenda Global Advisory Board Member. She is Chairperson of Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust and a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. She also sits on the Jack Ma Netpreneur Advisory Board. ALC is privileged and honoured to have Her Excellency Graça Machel as our Chancellor. We are confident that her experience in education will be of tremendous value in strengthening ALC’s governance and helping us achieve our goal to develop the future leaders of Africa.
Pamela Gillies
Full Name
Job Title
Principal and Vice Chancellor
Organisation
Glasgow Caledonian University
Speaker Bio
Professor Pamela Gillies is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the Glasgow Caledonian University and has held this post since 2006. She is a Founding Member of the African Leadership University Global Advisory Council. Professor Pamela is also a Board Member in various organisations including the RFK UK Human Rights, Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing and Glasgow Caledonian New York College. Additionally, she was a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 2002; the Academy for Social Sciences in 2005; the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015; Commonwealth Fund of New York and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow in 2007.

As part of a long list of her remarkable achievements, Professor Pamela Gillies is a Trustee of the Caledonian College of Engineering based in Muscat, Oman where 50% of the graduates are women. In addition, she was awarded the honour of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen of England for her contributions to the fields of education and public health. Some of her most notable works in the aforementioned fields are Member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Programme on AIDS (1989-90); Visiting Professor and Scholar in Health and Human Rights at Harvard University (1992-3) and first Executive Director of Research at the Health Education Authority for England (1996-99). Serving as the founding patron of a school for sex worker’s children in Domjur, Kolkata, Professor Pamela Gillies has researched and written extensively on HIV/AIDS as well as health development, inequalities, and social action.