Mr Sindiso N Ngwenya is the Secretary-General of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the current FANRPAN Board Chairperson. COMESA is a regional economic community (REC) made up of 19 countries in north, eastern, central and southern Africa accounting for about half of Africa's population (400 million). COMESA is the largest of the eight RECs working under the leadership of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Mr Ajay Vashee is a top African farm leader, currently serving as the President of the Zambian National Farmers Union (ZNFU). Mr Vashee was instrumental in the foundation in 1992 of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), a loose federation of farmers' organizations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia, for which he serves as the President as well. He was a member of Zambia's delegation to the WTO Ministerial Meetings in Seattle and Cancún and works closely with the International Trade Department on regional, bilateral, and multilateral trade negotiations, in particular the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Conference (SADC), the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. He represents ZNFU and SACAU in several international organizations, including as a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP).

Ms Chen is the CEO of the Nepad Business Foundation (NBF). She has qualifications in Communication, Public Relations and Business Management. She established a Project Management Office within the NBF, which will facilitate project co-ordination between private sector, government and various development finance institutions. Lynette also serves on the Board of Directors of Enablis as the Deputy Chairperson. Enablis is an entrepreneurship development programme that emanated from the United Nations G8 Dot Force task team in 2001, which focuses on developing a network of entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda was the FANRPAN Board Chair from 2002 - 2004 and is the current FANRPAN Chief Executive Officer, based in Pretoria, responsible for activities in 12 southern African countries. As CEO, Dr Sibanda is responsible for facilitating the development of tools and processes that promote harmonization of policies at regional level. This is achieved by reviewing policies, the legal framework, institutional arrangements and governance processes. Evidence for policy development is generated through policy research with results channeled to member states through the regional secretariats of SADC and COMESA, and directly through national governments, farmer organizations, donors, universities and national research organization, and the agri-business community. Dr Sibanda has worked with rural communities on the use of community theatre as a tool for rural dwellers to contribute to policy development. Nine rural districts in 6 SADC countries were engaged over a two year period. She has an extensive experience in multi-country programme coordination, strategy planning using the LogFrame and problem tree analysis approach; workshop facilitation, leading and management of multi-disciplinary consultancy teams; organizational restructuring and functional analysis for Public Institutions.