About

Mamphela Ramphele

Advisory board member

Co-founder of ReimagineSA

Mamphela Ramphele has had a celebrated career as an activist, medical doctor, academic, businesswoman, thought leader, social anthropologist, and global public servant. She is a co-founder of ReimagineSA, a non-profit organisation dedicated to rebuilding and revitalising South Africa’s societal aspirations; Chair of the Tutu IP Trust, which protects the legacy of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; and Honorary Co-President of the Club of Rome, a global platform of diverse thought leaders who identify holistic solutions to complex global issues.

Ramphele is a change agent rooted in the Black Consciousness philosophy. She was co-founder with Steve Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement, which reignited the struggle for freedom in South Africa. The movement enabled many young people in the 1970s to self-liberate from the inferiority complex imposed by racist oppression, and helped usher in South Africa’s political freedom in 1994.

She was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, a Managing Director at the World Bank, and non-Executive Director of many large companies and civil society organisations.

She is the author of several books and publications on socio- economic issues in South Africa, and has received 23 honorary degrees and numerous national and international awards acknowledging her scholarship and leading role in promoting the empowerment of women, youth and other oppressed people in South Africa and globally.