Kathlena Walther

Country:

Republic of South Africa

WAAS Designation:

Fellow

Primary Position & Institution:

Special Advisor to Chairman, Econet Foundation

Short Bio:

My 30+ year professional career includes diverse and exciting work almost entirely focused on developing countries across the world, most recently in Africa. My direct experience involves advisory, leadership, research, and/or training in the following areas: • hands-on project design and management in 25+ countries; • C-suite advisory including national leaders; • traditional and social media strategy; • executive writing and editing; • writing books, papers, op-eds, speeches, blogs, reports, training manuals, etc. • social media content creation, editing and platform moderation; • research and policy analysis; • youth entrepreneurship development; • social entrepreneurship; • entrepreneurship prize design and adjudication; • leadership development and mentoring; • advocacy for human rights, good governance, justice and reconciliation; • grant proposal writing, negotiation, implementation and oversight; • election management and observation; • voter education, campaign and messaging development; • conflict management in difficult terrain; • accountable governance; • small enterprise development; • philanthropy advisory; • fundraising advisory (including proposal writing); • marketing and brand management; • cross-functional multicultural team leadership; and • multi-stakeholder relationship management. This sounds like a very long list but I feel it’s not just my profession but my calling to deploy my skills to help uplift the lives of people throughout the world wanting and working to have a better life, as well as support those professionals and organizations with a similar vision. I have family in South Africa (where I am permanent resident), UK and USA (where I am a citizen), as well as an extended family in New Zealand and other parts of Europe.