Gwen Mizell 

Gwendolyn Goosby Mizell is the Senior Director for Corporate Social Responsibility for Ameren Corporation in St Louis MO.  Previously, Ms Mizell served as Director of Diversity and Inclusion also for Ameren.

Prior to joining Ameren, Ms Mizell served as President and CEO of GSM Development, a St Louis-based energy consulting firm which provides energy efficiency and conservation services as well as sells MRO materials to utilities.  GSM Development was engaged with diversity programs at Memphis Light Gas and Water, Laclede Gas and Georgia Power.  Under Ms. Mizell’s leadership, GSM developed an Internship Development program, hiring, influencing and graduating nine (9) interns.  Some of these graduates have gone on to pursue careers at Bain Consulting, Alcoa, Monsanto, UMKC Medical School, and University of Texas Law School.

Ms Mizell began her career in 1986 on a Sales and Marketing Leadership Development program at Westinghouse Electric, spending 13 years building competencies in sales and marketing strategies, proposal preparation, and environmental engineering.  She later worked for both ABB and Calpine Corporations during the deregulation of the California energy markets and developed new power plants to support grid stability.  In 2007, Ms Mizell joined KEMA Consulting as VP Power Generation Services and helped build out a new segment of the consulting business in the Americas.

Ms. Mizell holds a MS in Management and Public Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA and a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Alabama Birmingham.   Ms. Mizell completed a Public Policy and Management summer institute at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.  Recently, she completed a six-month certificate program at Georgetown University in Strategic Diversity and Inclusion.

Ms Mizell currently serves on the St Louis County Workforce Investment Board and the Board of Mathews Dickey Boys and Girls Club.  She serves as Vice President of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE).

She is married to Steve Mizell, EVP and CHRO Merck Corporation and has two daughters, Alyssa and Morgan.

 

Benjamin Ola. Akande, Ph.D.

Senior Adviser to the Chancellor and Director of the Africa Initiative Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri | BenjaminAkande.com BenjaminAkande@WUSTL.edu | 314.565.6242

Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande is Senior Adviser to the Chancellor and Director of the Africa Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis. He was appointed by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton in March 2018 to strengthen and expand the University’s efforts in Africa.

Dr. Akande is a respected economist, scholar and global consultant to Fortune 500 companies and institutions in the higher education space in the areas of strategy, leadership development, corporate responsibility and market positioning. He served as a director of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a $5 billion publicly traded manufacturer of high quality private food labels, including Post, and has consulted for corporations such as Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, SeaWorld, U.S. Bank and many others.

Dr. Akande served as the 21st President of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri from 2015-2017.

As tenured Professor of Economics and Dean of the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University in St. Louis from 2000-2015, Dr. Akande is credited with building the school’s reputation, and positioning it as a globally relevant business school.

Dr. Akande holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma and completed post-doctoral studies at JFK School of Government, Harvard University and Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Dr. Akande currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Argent Capital, a $4 billion asset management company. He is a member of the Board of Enterprise Bank & Trust ($5 billion assets), serving on the Regulatory and Compliance Committee.

With the experience to recognize when to take calculated risks and the confidence to make tough business decisions, Dr. Akande believes that the future belongs to those who can see it. He and his wife, Bola, a pharmacist, have three adult daughters.