South Africa’s US Ambassador Welile Nhlapo hosted Global South Africans at a lunch at the embassy on Thursday, May 1. He called the GSA project “a very positive trend in the life of our country”. He spoke following presentations by GSA’s Simon Barber, Homecoming Revolution’s Martine Schaffer and Guy Lundy of Accelerate Cape Town.

Guy Lundy, CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, speaks at the GSA event at Kendall College in Chicago on April 24. To his right is Martine Shaffer of Homecoming Revolution.

The Global South Africans project and partners are putting on a series of events in Chicago, New York and Washington over the next couple of weeks. There’s a reception at Kendall College in Chicago on April 24, co-hosted Kendall CFO David Donnenberg and catered by the college’s famous restaurant school. We’re hosting a tea for GSA members at the New York Stock Exchange on April 29 as a precursor to cocktails on the floor of the stock exchange and the premiere showing of Carol Pineau’s new film, African Investment Horizons. On April 30, the World Bank is hosting a workshop in Washington on mobilizing the South African diaspora. On May 1, there will be a GSA lunch hosted the by South African embassy in Washington at which Ambassador Welile Nhlapo will speak. We will be joined at each event by Martine Schaffer and Guy Lundy of the the Homecoming Revolution.

GSA Richard Rabins discusses the business advantages of being able to talk knowledgeably about cricket on his company blog  — and is quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

Steven Dubner, one half of the Freakonomics team, asks what Houston pensioners and South African schoolchildren have in common. The answer is Cyril Wolf, a GSA. The explanation.

Michael Spicer, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa and member of the IMC’s board of trustees, offers the following sober assessment of what Jacob Zuma’s election to the presidency of the ANC means for SA. Continued

The Financial Mail ran a cover story just before Christmas profiling successful South Africans overseas. Here are links to each of the individual profiles: Stanley Bergman, Vincent Mai, Gail Kelly, Manfred Gorvy, Sean Killa, Clive Calder, Marius Kloppers, Mark Weinberg, David Potter, Roelof Botha, David Altschuler, David King and Sidney Brenner. For some reason, Elon Musk did not make the FM’s list. He did, however, get named as Inc. magazine’s entrepreneur of the year. You can read the Inc. profile here.

It’s a pretty stunning group, though the list only scratches the surface. Vincent Mai and Stanley Bergman, both in New York, have agreed to be part of the GSA initiative.

GSA Richard Rabins is Co-Chairman of Alpha Software in Boston. The company has developed an easy to use e-commerce software package, AlphaStore 2007. As part of the GSA project, Richard is interested in donating the software to help small businesses in South Africa market their products online. Continued

Boston-based Euvin Naidoo is one of the most dynamic advocates for South Africa and its continent you’re ever likely to meet — as this video from the last year’s TED conference in Tanzania amply demonstrates. A Harvard Business School-trained investment banker, Euvin has taken the reins of the South African Chamber of Commerce in America, SACCA. His initiatives include the African Entrepreneurship Platform which aims to put African entrepreneurs in touch with bankers, equity specialists and other investors on Wall Street and beyond. The first meeting is set February 28 at the Harvard Club in New York. Should be quite an evening. Details are on the SACCA site.

The following article by IMC’s US Country Manager Simon Barber appeared in the November 7, 2007, edition of the Mail and Guardian:

Priceless human capital has left South Africa. The Homecoming Revolution and skills-hungry employers are trying to get it back. Global South Africans, a complementary initiative by the International Marketing Council, is harnessing the capital where it now resides.

The GSA project is being piloted in the US. The aim is to build a worldwide network or “brain bank” of a thousand or so of the best and brightest minds in the South African diaspora and connect them to where they can make a difference back home. Continued