KIGALI - THREE Rwandans have been named among the emerging generation of East African leaders. The list, to be released today, has been compiled by the African Leadership Initiative (ALI) East African Foundation.

Rosette Chantal Rugamba, 46, the Managing Director of Songa Africa LTD, a tour company, Andrew Rugege, 54, the Chief Operations Officer, MTN Rwanda and Richard Mugisha, 40, Founder and Managing Partner, Trust Law Chambers, Kigali, were named in the ALI East Africa III Fellows class of 2010.

The ALI Fellowship is designed to capture the energy, talent and resolve of an emerging generation of leaders in Africa and to inspire them to move from success to significance by engaging in the foremost challenges of their countries and their times.

It brings together entrepreneurial executives and professionals under the age of 55 who have already achieved conspicuous success in their chosen fields.

The new ALI Fellows in East Africa will meet four times over a two-year period and will undertake individual community service commitments.

"We are delighted with this year’s class of ALI Fellows, the third in East Africa since 2002. The fellows represent our collective hope for a better future where community sense, ethics and values will play a central role in the executive decisions of those in whom we vest the power to lead, be it in business, politics or civil society,”

"With all the leadership challenges that are playing out around us, in the region and all over the world, the launch of this class could not have occurred at a better time.” said Ali Mufuruki, the Chairman of ALI East Africa Foundation.

The ALI-EA 2010 class consists of emerging corporate leaders from the EAC as well as one individual from South Africa. Burundi does not feature anywhere.

The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) is a collaborative project of seven partner organizations in Africa and the United States – The Aspen Institute (United States), CETA Construction Services (Mozambique), the Databank Foundation (Ghana), Infotech Investment Group LTD (Tanzania), LEAP Africa (Nigeria), The Letsema Foundation (South Africa), and TechnoServe, Inc. (United States).

The aim of the foundation is to foster values-based, action-oriented leadership in Africa.  There are currently some 280 African Fellows from Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

The ALI Fellowship is part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) now comprising over 1300 Fellows from 43 countries, all of whom are committed to applying their entrepreneurial talents to address the foremost challenges of their organizations, communities, and countries.  ALI launched the first class of East African fellows in 2002.

Ends