Dr. Florence Wambugu has been the Founder, Director, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International since 2002. She is a plant pathologist with a specialization in virology and genetic engineering. She has an honorary Ph.D. Doctorate of Science from the University of Bath, UK, and she has conducted postdoctoral research at the Monsanto Life Sciences Center, United States of America (USA). For over 30 years, she has dedicated her life to agricultural research, where she has made significant contributions to the improvement of sorghum, maize, pyrethrum, banana, and sweet potato.
Previously, she worked as the Africa Regional Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri Biotech Applications (ISAAA) in Nairobi; Research Scientist at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research in Kenya (KALRO) and Senior Research Officer (Pathologist) and Coordinator of Plant Biotechnology Research at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).
She has published over 100 articles and co-authored various papers, and is the author and publisher of Modifying Africa and Biotechnology in Africa: Emergence, Initiatives, and Future. In 2005, she spearheaded an international consortium that received a USD 21 million global competitive grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
She has garnered numerous awards and honors, notably the Norwegian YARA Prize in 2008, Woman of the Year by Eve Magazine in 2000, Farmers Support Award, Pyrethrum Marketing Board of Kenya in 1990, Monsanto Company Outstanding Performance Award in 1992 and 1993, First Place Medal Winner, Global Development Network Awards, in 2000, among many others.
Chipokota Mayamba Cindy Mwanawasa is the Policy Advisor to the President of Zambia, His Excellency Hakainde Hichilema, and also serves as the Deputy Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit.
Prior to this, she was the Legal Officer and Executive Assistant to the Vice-President of Human Capital at one of Africa’s largest integrated copper mines. In addition to her corporate and political career, she is also an agri-entrepreneur and trade retailer, having set up an innovative livestock crowd-farming venture, which she has grown into a meat retail SME.
She also holds an LLM in Commercial Law from the University of Cape Town and an LLB in English and French law from the University of Kent and the University of Bordeaux IV. In 2019, she was awarded a Chevening Scholarship, enabling her to pursue a Master of Science in public policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ms. Mwanawasa was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Zambia Bureau of Standards in 2018. Furthermore, she co-authored the discussion paper Elections in Africa: Preparing a Democratic Playbook with the South African think-tank The Brenthurst Foundation and is involved in charity work and advocacy for the underprivileged.