What Do the Newly Elected Namibian President and Her Cabinet Have to Do with Our Leadership Conversation Tomorrow?

This ORADA Leadership Conversation with Kele Boakgomo, CEO of Yugrow, will take place tomorrow and reignite our conversation about how, with the power of our ingenuity and technology, we have the agency to solve the world’s - and by extension our - most urgent problems.

Dear Leader,

We continue to bring together global leaders, organisations and professionals to explore the ways we can leverage the opportunities that technology, data and AI solutions present while also prioritising ethical and responsible practices. 

The answer to the headline question is the Power of Decision Making and Our Own Agency. With estimates for the closure of the global gender gap in excess of 134 years, we’re going to need more than business as usual in our decisioning and actions make the situation just. As exemplified below, change can follow quickly from decisiveness and the OG version on ‘agentic power’!

The recent election of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as Namibia’s first Female President and her subsequent cabinet formation is a powerful case study in decision-making power and agency.

President Nandi-Ndaitwah has built a cabinet truly remarkable for Southern Africa—and a rarity worldwide:

👏🏾 Female Deputy President selected.
📊 57% Female Cabinet formed.
🔑Women entrusted with critical ministries: Finance, Foreign Affairs, Mining, Education, and Health. * Multigenerational representation achieved.

🏛️ Add to that, parliament elected a woman as speaker of the house.

We celebrate these bold moves! 💪🏾🥳

To be clear, this isn't an article about politics or the formation of governments; it’s about THE POWER OF DECISION MAKING to catalyse change.

Namibia is pushing us to ask a critical question:

CAN WE CATALYSE THE CLOSURE OF THE GENDER GAP IN THE WORKPLACE?

In my home country, South Africa, while women are better represented in the workplace and in leadership (supported by the availability of child care and familial support), we’re yet to see a female president (let alone a female president - deputy president duo).

In Germany, the gender gap in the work place is wider, driven by limited availability of child care and rigid definitions of what it means to be a good mother. Yet, we've had a female Chancellor.

Why the disparity⁉️ It seems to come down to a need to overcome collective beliefs about "readiness."

How often have we been denied good leadership because it didn’t fit the “expected” gender package - being told the nation, organisation, company, [fill the gap] is not „ready“?

It's time to stop denying our societies good, strong leadership based on gender (etc.)

Next to overcoming beliefs about readiness, we need to exercise our agency. Problems and effective solutions stem from decisions and actions that are made by individuals. When we stare down the abbys of 132 years to get to a position of social justice, we need to remember that we have agency and it’s ours to exercise.

As women and allies, we need to:
🙅🏾‍♀️ Overcome social and workplace expectations to put our hands up when it comes to housework in the work place and at home, while keeping our hands down when it comes to taking on leadership positions and making bold moves.
👩🏾‍💼🦸🏽‍♀️Take inspiration from leaders like President Nandi-Ndaitwah and overcome the expectation not to pick a female number two when we take on leadership positions.

While we still have a lot of work to do in addressing collective notions of readiness in our societies, we are excited to be talking to Kele Boakgomo, CEO of Yugrow about the power of decision making and agency tomorrow. The conversation will include talking about the decision to found Yugrow; leveraging the power of tech, data and AI to rethink and redesign leadership development programmes to truly empower women and accelerate the road to equality.

Ahead of the ORADA 2026 Conference to be held from 08 - 09 October 2026, we’ll be hosting leadership conversations (just like the one with Kele, more below), round tables and masterclasses. We’ll be driving the conversation in line with the ORADA 2026 Theme: Responsible AI Innovation Made Easy. The ORADA Leadership Conversation Series brings you fireside chats with leaders leveraging tech to realise pioneering personal and market leadership.

And so, it is with great pleasure that we invite you to join us in the leadership conversation with Kele Boakgomo. We’ll be unpacking:

• Kele’s leadership journey as well as her passion and motivation for founding Yugrow;

• What it takes to build from 0 to 1, then scale -after a long corporate career;

• The innovation process that’s allowed Kele and the team at Yugrow to leverage technology, data and AI to make pioneering moves in the behavioural tech and leadership development fields; and

• Diversity, equity and inclusion, what it will take to move the needle - especially considering the current macro-political climate.

The conversation titled, Leveraging Tech to Transform Human Trajectories, will take place on Wednesday, 29 October 2025 (13:00 SAST | 12:00 CET). Register to join us!

Learn more about Kele Boakgomo, our guest, and her company Yugrow below.

About Kele Boakgomo

Between 152 and 134 years - that’s the estimate range of time it will take to close the gender gap in the work place, according to leading sources like the World Economic Forum. So this noble goal seeking to only realise, in our society, what most of us know to be true - equality and equity - will only be realised in our children's children’s lifetime, at the earliest. This wasn’t something that merely flabbergasted Kele and Yolanda, it’s something they decided that they couldn’t accept and took it upon themselves to solve for it - founding and scaling YuGrow to accelerate the closure of this gap.

Get to know Kele

Kele Boakgomo is the Co-Founder and CEO of YuGrow, a pioneering behavioral tech platform dedicated to systematically addressing the economic gender gap by empowering women's development journeys through a personalized, digitally managed career development pathway and community. In this way, Yugrow enables and supports women in accelerating their growth in the workplace. Her work applies rigorous behavioral science principles and cutting-edge AI algorithms to tailor growth programs, reflecting her core belief that technology is the ultimate equalizer for transforming human potential and solving complex socio-economic challenges. This current focus on micro-level change is informed by her distinguished corporate experience as a leader in global strategy.

Kele served as a Managing Director at Accenture, before which she held several roles over the years at the firm beginning with Consulting Analyst at the beginning of her career, leading up to senior manager all the way to Managing Director and Board Member. During that time she lead, amongst other roles, the Accenture Future Leaders Programme to enable internal leadership development as well as the Innovation Services Unit to help large organisations navigate and respond to the demands of digital and new technology disruption.

Kele’s qualifications include successfully completing her Executive Master of Science in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, a Master of Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and a Bachelor of Science in Informatics from the University of South Africa (Unisa). Kele additionally serves, and has served, on several boards, including TymeBank and the Chartered Medical Aid Fund (CAMAF) boards.

About YuGrow

YuGrow is a powerful Behavioural Tech platform dedicated to helping women break down personal and professional barriers to drive significant career growth. It enables this development through a personalised system of micro-actions, structured growth challenges, and high-impact coaching. Recognising that corporate life and a sharp, unrelenting focus on career growth can be both lonely and demanding, the platform also provides a vital support network and community, allowing women to find and grow with their tribe.

Visit the ORADA Conference site to learn more about the ORADA Responsible AI Conference. Join the 2026 waiting list to be amongst the first to be notified when we release early bird tickets and run ticket promotions!

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