Board Members

He chairs or serves as trustee at several NGOs, including City Year South Africa (founding co-chair with Murphy Morobe since 2004), PAST, Claude Leon Foundation, SG Menell Trust and the Carrick Foundation, and serves on the Council of the University of the Western Cape. He also serves as a board director on two wine estates: Klein Constantia and Glen Dirk, and currently serves as a volunteer on the fundraising team of the Solidarity Fund (COVID-19 2020).

She is passionate about inspiring people to be their best, building resilience and using her influence to address societal challenges e.g. youth unemployment; diversity, equity & inclusion. In the last decade, she has positively contributed to driving transformation in the organisations she has worked in. Dr. Masoga has had several speaking engagements through conferences, seminars and roundtables. Her ability to use storytelling in addressing complex and sometimes sensitive topics makes her relatable. An organisational Psychologist by profession, Dr Masoga holds a Doctorate in Consulting Psychology. She also completed an Executive Development Programme through Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in London. It is this combination of sound academic rigour and a successful corporate career at executive levels that makes Dr. Masoga a sought-after executive, academic, speaker, coach and mentor. Dr. Masoga is a Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Massmart. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Cape Town. She is an Expert Panelist for the 2021 Edition of the GDIB (Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks). She is a Director of City Year (SA), a youth service organisation founded in 2005 with the aim of reducing youth unemployment through offering opportunities for young people to serve by supporting disadvantaged schools with after school support programmes. Dr. Masoga was born and raised in Soweto, South Africa and understood at a young age that education was the only way to beat the odds stacked against her and other people of her generation. She is married with 4 children, the family loves travelling, creating memories and enjoying new experiences.

In this role, Shanuah is responsible for developing and implementing legal strategy in alignment with City Year's mission, vision, values, and culture. In addition to leading City Year’s Legal Team, she also oversees its insurance program and serves as Co-Clerk of the City Year Board of Trustees. Shanuah brings to the General Counsel role years of experience in a broad range of disciplines, including finance, governance, strategic planning, and process re-engineering. Previously, she served as Deputy General Counsel for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency and was charged with overseeing legal services in support of all aspects of the agency’s affordable housing mission, including lending transactions, compliance and risk management, and defensive litigation. From 2001 through 2011, while with Textron Financial Corporation, Shanuah held a number of positions – Division Counsel, certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Division President where she was responsible for managing a leveraged lease portfolio, loan serving unit, and insurance subsidiary. Shanuah was a member of the company’s Executive Committee. Shanuah, a native of Cleveland, Ohio has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Vassar College and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center. She is active in her Boston community and serves on the boards of the New England Baptist Hospital and Trinity Boston Connects. She has previously served as a director of the SpeakEasy Stage Company, the Sportsmen’s Tennis Club, and Rosie’s Place, the first women's shelter in the United States. Shanuah is a member of the Massachusetts bar.

Since serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduating from Holy Cross, Connolly has been a leading voice for the idea that a year of service should be a common expectation and common experience of every young person, and has built a career around growing citizen service as a strategy for solving critical issues and developing the next generation of leaders in the U.S. and abroad. During her 20 years at City Year, Connolly has served as a member of the organization's leadership team, directing the organization's public policy, public affairs and international work and led the creation of the organization's two international affiliates in South Africa and the United Kingdom. As a co-founder and President of Voices for National Service, she has led the effort to expand and strengthen the federal investment in national service and played a key role in the development and passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which was signed into law in 2009.  In 2015, Connolly was named to the inaugural class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, a joint initiative of the George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George W. Bush and Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential libraries. In 2016 the College of the Holy Cross honored her with a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree accolade bestowed on alumni, in recognition of professional distinction in the service of justice. In 2017 Connolly published her first book, In the Service of Others: America At Its Best, a collection of compelling stories from those who have served in national service programs across the country, in their own words. She also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, 9/11 Day of Service, Freedom Now, City Year South Africa and City Year UK, and on the Advisory Board for the Eli J. & Phyllis N. Segal Citizen Leadership Program at Brandeis University.

He is also an officer at the Chamber serving as senior vice president. Eisner represents the Chamber’s interests in Africa through its U.S.-Africa Business Center, the business community’s leading advocacy group aimed at strengthening U.S.-Africa trade relations. He directs the strategic activities of the USAfBC as it engages with senior-level U.S. government officials, international business leaders, and African governments. In addition, he heads the Chamber’s U.S.-South Africa Business Council and the U.S.-Cote d’Ivoire Business Council. Previously, Eisner was head of operations for the Chamber’s International Affairs Division while holding the position of vice president, African Affairs. Before that, he was deputy chief of staff at the Chamber where he oversaw the Executive Office and was the senior staffer to the Chamber’s president and CEO. Eisner has held a number of leadership roles at the Chamber, including special assistant to the president and CEO and director of programs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, formerly known as the National Chamber Foundation. Before joining the Chamber, Eisner held positions in the political arena, most notably his work on Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and his reelection to the Senate in 2004. Eisner spent time in international politics working for the International Republican Institute in Malawi, Africa, where he trained political parties on communications and campaign tactics leading up to Malawi’s 2004 presidential elections. Earlier, he was director of business development for the Kronk Boxing Gym, one of boxing’s leading management and training firms. His duties included promoting and training former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Eisner graduated with a degree in political science from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He is a former member of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa. He currently serves on the advisory board for City Year South Africa, the Coalition for Development Reform, the Africa Leadership Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center Africa Program Advisory Council, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory Council. Eisner lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their daughter.

Paul is a non-executive Director at Dolphin Drilling. Prior to SVP, Paul spent 11 years at Bain Capital where he was a senior professional in the Portfolio / Operations Group. While at Bain Capital, Paul drove operational transformation at portfolio companies across a number of industries including industrials, software, business services and retail. Paul started his career at Bain & Company strategy consulting where he worked in London/Johannesburg across private equity, mining, chemicals, oil & gas, luxury goods and telecoms. Paul has a MEng from St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge University where he studied Manufacturing Engineering.

After he matriculated from Sacred Heart College at Marist Brothers College, Adnaan went on to receive his MB BCh from Wits University. Adnaan later became the managing director of Transvaal Inv. Co. Ltd. Adnaan commutes between Cape Town and Johannesburg to engage in various projects. He is a grassroots philanthropist committed to providing access to opportunities for underprivileged youth. He is actively involved with many community development projects in the Western Cape including Izivungu, a sailing programme for homeless youth. He is married and has two children.

Ish holds a BA from University of the North and a Management Advancement Programme certificate from the University of Witwatersrand Business School. He started his professional career as a schoolteacher, and then became involved in paralegal advice work, advocacy, training, and mediation services through the Wits Council of Churches, focusing on addressing the plight of the homeless and on socio-economic injustice in South Africa. Ish has been a Director of the New Housing Company, the Land Investment Trust, and the Community Bank, and other organizations. He is currently a Director of the National Business Initiative and the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

Currently Reginald is the co-founder of Cornerstone Capital Partners – a private investment and corporate finance advisory boutique based in Sandton. Since its founding, Reginald has helped invest into several industrial companies and currently advises several private equity and South African corporates. From 2012 - 2017, Reginald was responsible for arranging and executing: trade, structured & project financings as well as balance sheet investments in support of GE customer-related projects to drive equipment sales for GE’s industrial business segments. Reginald regularly advised GE customers on bespoke financial solutions in support of GE projects for GE divisions such as: Transportation, Mining, Power & Water, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Aviation and Energy Management sectors. Prior to GE, Reginald was Head of Debt Capital Markets – Origination for Sub-Saharan Africa for Barclays/Absa Capital based in South Africa. He was responsible for winning the largest tender mandate at the time being Transnet’s R30 billion domestic note issuance program. Reginald also held a similar responsibility as Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets – Origination at Morgan Keegan, a regional investment bank based in the U.S. Reginald gained valuable insight into entrepreneurship whilst working at Delta Capital Management’s $100 million expansion-stage focused venture capital fund in Memphis, Tennessee. Specifically he helped Delta Capital Management with exit several investments as part of harvesting program. He began his career at Citigroup in New York in the corporate finance unit responsible for M&A, equity and debt capital raisings and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the debt capital markets unit responsible corporate bond origination and execution in the Media & Telecom sectors where we worked on over 70 transactions during his tenure, respectively. Reginald holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (Chicago, IL), a Master’s degree in International Economics/Finance and Energy & Resources Studies from The Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies (Washington, DC), and an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA). Reginald also completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program (Charlotte, NC) for early- and mid-career professionals.

Tong is responsible for forming strategic partnerships and collaborations to stimulate growth and penetration to new markets for the company. He has a specific passion and interest in driving innovative solutions in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) with a bias towards the African Continent. Tong attributes his personal and professional success to his previous trials and failures. He believes that his past has greatly influenced the persistence of his spirit. It’s not surprising that his mantra is a great African Proverb “Success in life largely depends on how you handle your failures.” Tong holds an MBA from African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) in Rwanda and is currently studying for his Doctorate (PhD) with his research topic within the 4IR sphere. He also obtained a three-year Entrepreneurship Program with Raizcorp through the DaVinci Institute since 2014. He has also studied numerous short courses in Sales & Marketing, Financial Management, Project Management and Business Management through Wits Business School. Tong is now a board member of City Year South Africa amongst other investee companies under InvesTong Group. His greatest motivation is his family, business partners and sisters Isha Mboyisa and Tumi Mofokeng as his greatest inspiration and support system.

She came to the U.S. to attend high school and graduated from Harvard College with a BA in Social Studies in 1985. She graduated from the London School of Economics with a MSc in Industrial Relations. Ms. Zients spent four years in strategic management consulting for Fortune 500 companies at Bain and Company in Boston. She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1991, and worked for a number of years on post conflict development projects throughout Southern Africa, funded by bilateral and multilateral agencies. She served as Executive Director of the Urban Alliance at its founding, a high school jobs and mentoring program for public school students in the D.C. region, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit. She currently chairs the board. She also chaired the board of Women for Women International from 2005 to 2012 and continues to serve as an emeritus member on the Board. WfWI has served over 500,000 women survivors of wars in eight countries around the world since 1993, helping them to move from victims to survivors to economically self-sufficient, active citizens. She chaired the board of Maret School, a K-12 private school in DC, from 2013-2018 and was appointed as Chair of the White House Fellows Commission by President Obama from 2013-2016. In addition, Ms. Zients is a founding board member of City Year South Africa, a youth service community program and is currently still a board member. Ms. Zients also served on the Executive Committee of the U.S. effort to establish the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg and chaired the Mandela 100 USA centenary celebrations in DC in 2019. In addition, she serves on advisory boards for the African Leadership Academy and Liliesleaf in South Africa, and Sesame Workshop in the US. She currently lives in Washington with her husband Jeff and their four children.