Leadership that
speaks for itself.

Deborah Elizabeth is an international consultant who has spent more than a decade on the ground across Africa, building relationships, navigating complex markets, and watching extraordinary women lead with vision that the world was only beginning to see.

Long before Women United Foundation existed, she was already in the work. And in those years, she recognized a gap that would not leave her. Women of real influence, access, and insight, operating without the structures to turn that power into lasting opportunity.

That observation became a conviction. That conviction became a platform.

She founded Women United Foundation to close that gap and built NEXUS, the African Women Business Union, and the Women's Prosperity Alliance as the engines to make it real. Today, as Founder and Global Executive Chair, she leads an organization that convenes some of the world's most influential women, First Ladies, business leaders, and global decision-makers, and gives that influence the structure, the strategy, and the platform it has always deserved.

She did not wait for the world to create the right platform. She built it, named it, and made it real.

H.E. Ana Dias Lourenço is not simply a First Lady. She is an economist, a former senior architect of Angola's national planning leadership, and one of the most substantive women operating at the intersection of state power, development finance, and international institutional engagement on the African continent.

Her presence within Women United Foundation is not ceremonial. As Co Chair of Global Leadership and Strategic Affairs, she brings the kind of credibility that cannot be borrowed or built overnight. She has sat in the rooms where national economies are shaped, where development capital is directed, and where long range policy decisions are made. She brings all of that with her.

For Women United Foundation, her role means something specific. It means that when the platform speaks to governments, to institutions, and to the world's most serious financial and development bodies, it speaks with the weight of someone who has operated at that level her entire career.

H.E. Ana Dias Lourenço does not add prestige to this platform. She raises its ceiling.

H.E. Dr. Fatima Maada Bio serves as Global Spokesperson and Strategic Ambassador of Women United Foundation, bringing public leadership, continental reach, and international visibility to the platform.

As First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, she has built a record of sustained, on the ground advocacy that goes well beyond ceremonial leadership. Her Hands Off Our Girls campaign has become one of the most recognized initiatives in West Africa, addressing gender-based violence and the protection of women and girls with urgency and consistency.

In February 2025, she was elected President of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development at the 29th General Assembly of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, chosen by her fellow First Ladies across the continent. She hosted a landmark high level dinner at UNGA80 in New York in 2025, bringing together presidents, First Ladies, development partners, and global institutions.

Her record is not measured in titles. It is measured in lives her work has reached.

H.E. Antoinette Sassou Nguesso serves as Honored Patroness of Women United Foundation, bringing distinction, moral authority, and one of the longest records of sustained humanitarian leadership on the African continent.

A teacher by profession, she has dedicated more than four decades of her public life to the welfare of the Congolese people and the broader African community. In 1984 she founded the Congo Assistance Foundation, dedicated to health, education, development, and vocational training that has received international acclaim for its humanitarian work.

Under her leadership the foundation has worked to reduce HIV prevalence across the country, supported cardiac care for children from poor families, advanced cancer treatment infrastructure, worked to combat sickle cell disease, trained women for senior leadership roles, and engaged in efforts to end female genital mutilation.

At the international level she has served as President of the African First Ladies Peace Mission against conflicts, bringing her commitment to stability, peace, and the protection of vulnerable communities to the continental stage.

Her decades of humanitarian service to the people of Congo make her presence within Women United Foundation a true honor.

H.E. Dr. Débora Katisa Carvalho serves as Cultural Ambassador for Fashion and Creative Industries at Women United Foundation, where she plays an active leadership role in advancing CREATE GLOBAL.

Born in Praia, Cabo Verde, she is a woman of deep cultural roots and long-standing civic commitment. Long before becoming First Lady she was already an activist, working across causes including climate change, sustainable development, gender-based violence, child protection, and social solidarity. The role of First Lady did not create her sense of purpose. It gave it a larger platform.

Through CREATE GLOBAL she helps position fashion, media, design, and creative enterprise not simply as cultural expression, but as industries with the power to shape perception, expand market presence, and open long term economic opportunity for African creators and communities.

Culture, conviction, and a genuine commitment to her people. She brings all three to this platform.

H.E. Dr. Fatoumatta Bah Barrow serves as a member of the First Ladies Leadership Council of Women United Foundation, bringing grassroots humanitarian commitment and sustained public advocacy to the platform.

Since assuming the role of First Lady in 2017, she has built a record of on the ground action that reaches into the most vulnerable communities in The Gambia. Her work spans maternal and child health, gender-based violence prevention, education access, poverty reduction, and support for women and youth.

Among her most significant contributions is the launch of national hotlines for gender-based violence and child protection cases, and the establishment of a shelter for survivors of gender-based violence, where she has also supported vocational training to help women rebuild their lives with dignity and independence.

In December 2025 she was honored with the UK Black Excellence Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the advancement of women's and children's welfare.

The Gambia calls her the little lady with the big voice. Women United Foundation simply calls her essential.

H.H. Princess Isabella Orsini de Ligne de La Trémoïlle serves as Vice President of European Affairs and Cultural Diplomacy at Women United Foundation, strengthening the platform's reach across Europe through a combination of stature, legal intelligence, and genuine cultural authority.

Born in Perugia, Italy, she graduated in law before pursuing a distinguished international career in film and production, training at the Actors Studio in both Italy and the United States. By marriage to H.H. Prince Edouard de Ligne de La Trémoïlle, she became a legally recognized member of the House of Ligne, one of Europe's most historic noble families.

She and her husband created what has been recognized as the largest ecological hotel complex in Europe, reflecting a commitment to sustainability that extends into her broader public work. She is deeply committed to the advancement of women, including through her film production activities and public platform.

Where law, culture, nobility, and conviction meet, you find Isabella Orsini. That is exactly where Women United Foundation needs to be.

Daphna Edwards Ziman serves as Honorary President of Women United Foundation, bringing decades of humanitarian leadership, international advocacy, and cultural influence to the platform.

Born in Israel and raised on the values of freedom, community, and justice, she built a career that spans film, music, literature, and philanthropy with equal commitment and impact. She is a New York Times bestselling author, filmmaker, writer, director, producer, and Grammy-nominated composer whose work has always carried a deeper purpose.

As founder of Children Uniting Nations she dedicated years to elevating child welfare to the forefront of global consciousness, successfully lobbying to amend the Family Preservation Act to strengthen protections for abused children. She also founded Justice for Women International, a global effort to eradicate violence against women and girls.

In 2025 she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the United Nations 80th Anniversary Gala in recognition of her decades of global advocacy for children and women.

She has spent a lifetime making sure the world's most vulnerable are not forgotten. Women United Foundation is proud to stand with her.

Dr. Martha Tilahun Namundjebo serves as Business Strategy Advisor to Women United Foundation, bringing a level of commercial depth and executive range that very few platforms can claim.

As Chairperson and co-owner of United Africa Group, a privately owned multi-billion dollar conglomerate founded in 1992, she has built one of Namibia's most significant and diversified private enterprises across hospitality, property development, financial services, and energy. Among its most visible achievements is the Hilton Windhoek, the first five-star hotel in Namibia.

She holds two Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of California Santa Clara and Berkeley. In 2015 she was conferred with an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Namibia. She was the only woman recognized with the African Business Leaders of the Year Award from the Corporate Council on Africa in Washington DC.

In 2015 she founded the Dr. Martha Namundjebo Tilahun Foundation, dedicated to nurturing the African girl child as a key architect of society and a cradle of hope.

What she has built in Namibia is a blueprint. What she brings to Women United Foundation is the experience behind it.

Diane Yoo serves on the Global Advisory Council of Women United Foundation and is one of the leaders behind Women's Prosperity Alliance Fund I, an investment fund designed to direct capital into technology and women entrepreneurs.

Her path to this work was not accidental. She has always been drawn to the place where financial sophistication meets meaningful purpose, and she has built her career there deliberately. She understands what it takes to structure investment vehicles that attract serious capital, and she understands what it means for a woman entrepreneur to have access to that capital at the right moment.

Within Women United Foundation she strengthens the financial architecture of the platform. Not as a symbolic presence but as someone who knows how money actually moves, where it goes, and how to build the conditions that bring it toward the right opportunities.

Representation at the executive level still matters. She is doing something about it.

Dr. Saima Rana serves as Chair of Every Child Learns at Women United Foundation, bringing academic authority, education leadership, and the kind of institutional depth that turns a vision into a working system.

Her affiliation with GEMS places her in a uniquely credible position to lead an education initiative built around excellence, access, and long term human development. GEMS operates schools across multiple countries and serves hundreds of thousands of students. She does not just understand education policy in theory. She understands how education systems are built, run, and sustained at scale.

She came to this work through genuine conviction. Born in Pakistan and having built her career across international education environments, she carries with her a personal understanding of what access to quality education means and what its absence costs.

Every mind deserves the chance to learn. She has spent her career making sure more of them get it.

Chantal Pembe serves as President of the African Women Business Union and is one of the most important operational voices within the Women United Foundation ecosystem.

She is a businesswoman from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has built her credibility the hard way, through markets, relationships, and the kind of sustained commercial engagement that teaches you things no boardroom presentation ever could. She understands how business actually moves across Africa, what it takes to build trust across borders, and why women-led enterprise deserves stronger systems and greater access.

Under her leadership, the African Women Business Union is not a networking club. It is a serious platform of businesswomen positioned to connect influence with enterprise, move opportunity across markets, and ensure that the vision Women United Foundation carries has real execution capability behind it.

She is not here to represent African women in business. She is here to advance them.

Dr. Hoda Galal Yassa serves on the Global Advisory Council of Women United Foundation, bringing regional authority in investment, entrepreneurship, and cross-border economic cooperation across Africa and the Middle East.

She has never taken the easy path. From the time she was a student she knew she would build something of her own, and she did, navigating a business environment where a young woman in a leadership position was not always welcomed. She did not change to fit the environment. She changed the environment around her.

As President of the Arab Women Investors Union she has spent years expanding the role of women in serious business and investment activity across the Arab world and beyond. Her presence within Women United Foundation strengthens the platform's reach across the Middle East and North Africa, connecting the ecosystem to investment communities and regional relationships that have taken decades to build.

She built her career in rooms that were not built for her. She is still in them, and she is still winning.

Shawanda Vickers serves as Strategic Advisor to Women United Foundation, bringing entrepreneurial leadership, partnership development, and a grounded understanding of what it actually takes to build something from nothing.

Before she was an entrepreneur she was a high school science teacher. That matters because it tells you something about how she thinks. She is someone who starts with people, who understands how to communicate clearly, how to build trust, and how to stay connected to the human side of what she is doing even as the business grows.

As founder and CEO of Shoo Cosmetics she has navigated one of the most competitive industries in the world and built a brand with genuine staying power. She did not inherit a platform or a network. She built one, relationship by relationship, decision by decision.

She did not wait for the right conditions to build. She built, and the conditions followed.

Zeina Chbeir serves in a Middle East Strategy and Regional Partnerships role at Women United Foundation, bringing business sophistication, regional fluency, and a highly connected understanding of how influence and enterprise move across the Gulf.

As founder of Carré D'art in Abu Dhabi she has built a business positioned within one of the most demanding and relationship-driven markets in the world. Luxury interiors and design in the Middle East is not simply an aesthetic business. It is a trust business. Her clients are among the most discerning in the region and they chose her because she delivers, because she listens, and because she understands that the quality of a relationship matters as much as the quality of the work.

Within Women United Foundation she strengthens the platform's reach across the Gulf, opening doors to partnerships, relationships, and strategic access that would otherwise take a decade to develop.

She built her business where trust is everything. She brings that same standard to this platform.

Charlotte Mwamba serves as Executive Operations at Women United Foundation, the role that keeps everything moving at the level this platform demands.

She has built and run businesses across three continents. In Europe, in Dubai, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo she has navigated different markets, different cultures, and different operating environments, and she has done it with the discipline and attention to detail that serious business requires. Her background in finance and bookkeeping means she understands how organizations are held together from the inside, where the gaps appear, and what it takes to close them before they become problems.

That experience is exactly what an organization like Women United Foundation needs behind the scenes. The convening power, the leadership relationships, the global reach, none of it functions without someone ensuring that every detail, every commitment, and every operational thread is tracked, managed, and delivered at the highest standard.

Charlotte is that person. She does not seek the spotlight. She makes sure the people who deserve it can stand in it without distraction.

Small things are big things at this level. She knows every one of them.

Laird Robertson serves as Legal Counsel to Women United Foundation, bringing a rare combination of legal depth, investment banking experience, and international transactional sophistication to the platform.

As co-founder and principal of Vantera Partners he has spent his career structuring complex transactions for companies and investment firms, working across corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and debt and equity financings. He does not just understand the law. He understands how serious deals are structured, what can go wrong, and how to build the kind of legal framework that protects the platform and the people it works with.

Earlier in his career he served in the Office of the Legal Advisor at the US Department of State, giving him an international and governmental dimension that very few corporate attorneys carry.

Within Women United Foundation he provides the legal backbone that serious global platforms require. When major opportunities, cross-border partnerships, and high-value relationships are involved, he is the person making sure everything is properly structured and protected.

Maître René Verrecchia serves as International Legal Counsel to Women United Foundation, bringing decades of cross-border legal experience and a professional network that spans African governments, European institutions, the United Nations, and the diplomatic community.

He earned his law degree from the University of Rome and has spent his career at the intersection of commercial law, international affairs, and African-European relations. He has served as legal consultant to the Embassy of Côte d'Ivoire in Italy, as legal representative of the Francophone Community in Rome, and has collaborated with the United Nations and its specialized agencies, the European Union, universities, cultural institutions, and international foundations.

He also serves as Secretary General of Comitato Dei 500, a network of leading Italian companies, reinforcing his standing in environments where law, business, and high-level international relationships intersect.

Within Women United Foundation he adds important legal depth and European institutional reach, strengthening the platform's capacity for serious international engagement and complex cross-border partnerships.