USAP Zimbabwe Profiles
Since it's inception in 1999, USAP has helped tens of Zimbabwean students get accepted to top notch colleges in the United States. Some have since graduated and are working in various fields in the United States and elsewhere around the world and some have chosen to remain in academia at various instituations in the United States. There are over a hundred USAP students from Zimbabwe alone and each one of them has an amazing story to tell. Below are brief profiles of some of our students just to give you a glimpse of our diversity as a people as well as the diversity of our their career paths and futures.
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Rodney Manzanga
University of Pennsylvania '04
Rodney works for QED Actuaries & Consultants in Johannesburg, South Africa. He heads the Risk Management and Analytics Advisory service, covering Africa. In addition, he is responsible for QED’s marketing, a tough task.
Before joining QED, he was a Director in the Global Enterprise Risk Management department of Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to joining RGA, Rodney worked as an actuary for American International Group (AIG) in Wilmington, Delaware. Before joining AIG, he was a consulting actuary with Ernst & Young LLP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He holds the Professional Risk Manager charter of the Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA) and is also a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA).
A father of three, he is affectionately called Bashi Mpundu—father of twins—by his Bemba in-laws. Rodney was born and raised in Mberengwa in Zimbabwe. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Finance and Actuarial Science.
Rodney loves drawing, photography, reading, and writing Shona poetry.
Andreata Muforo
Grinell College '04
Stanford Graduate School of Business '09
Andreata Muforo currently works with Horizon Africa Capital Ltd in Nairobi, Kenya. She undertakes capital raising activities and provides mergers and acquisitions advisory to East Africa's private companies. Prior to joining Horizon, Andreata worked at the African Development Bank ("AfDB") in Tunisia where she was recruited under the highly competitive Young Professionals Program. At the AfDB, she worked as an Investment Officer and undertook due diligence and participated in the structuring of project finance transactions and private equity funds. As well, she worked directly with President D. Kaberuka and supported him and his Advisors on issues of corporate and strategic significance.
In 2009, Andreata won an essay competition, out of a pool of 650 applicants, which she personally presented to President Paul Kagame on how Rwanda can develop its private sector through domestic entrepreneurship. Andreata is passionate about issues related to the development of the private sector in the developing world, especially in Africa.
Andreata has an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Economics from Grinnell College in Iowa. In her spare time, Andreata enjoys traveling, working with youths, engaging in discussions on Africa's development, and playing board games with her husband.
Memory Bandera
Mount Holyoke College '04
Suffolk University '06
Ms. Memory Bandera is a US-trained Zimbabwean whose specialty is in International Development. She is passionate about human rights and social and economic development issues. Currently, Ms. Memory Bandera is the Deputy Director-Programmes and Special Projects at the International Law Institute-African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE). She is responsible for the ILI-ACLE's ongoing technical assistance projects and advisory services. Currently she is administering the COMESA Enhancing Procurement Reform Capacity Project (EPRCP) in the 19 COMESA Member States; administering OSIEA-funded programmes on International Criminal Law; she is a course manager for the Danida Fellowship Centre program on Democracy, Human Rights and the Human Rights-based Approach to Development; and assists with implementation for Dfid-funded TIRI project towards strengthening the integrity of local council courts through rights-based training-of-trainers in Uganda towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Prior to joining ILI-ACLE, Ms. Bandera worked as the Regional Program Coordinator for East Africa with Youth Action International, a US-based NGO for three and half years. While at Youth Action International, her areas of specialization were Economic Development; Human Rights; Peace Building and Conflict Resolution. Ms. Bandera participated at various levels in the negotiation and implementation of a number of projects between Youth Action International and various professional partners at national and international level. Before that, she worked with the Marketing Science Institute in Boston, USA as a Publications, Research, and Membership Coordinator for two years.
Ms. Bandera is a founding member of the Girl Child Network (GCN) Zimbabwe, a charitable trust and network of girls that aims to give moral, educational, emotional, and financial support to underprivileged girls. In the past decade, the GCN Empowerment Model has been replicated in other countries and has helped millions of girls worldwide. As GCN Zimbabwe celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009, she took it to Uganda and it is now a registered NGO in Uganda. Together with her fellow Mount Holyoke College alumnae, Jennifer Kyker, Ms. Bandera founded Tariro: Hope and Health for Zimbabwe's Orphans (Tariro) in 2003 to address the particular needs of Zimbabwean teenage girls. Young women are at highest risk for contracting HIV, yet many non-profits operating in Zimbabwe focus on younger children, leaving teenaged girls without the critical resources they need to obtain an education. In founding Tariro, Ms. Kyker and Ms. Bandera sought to redress this disparity by providing comprehensive educational support for teenaged girls, in order to enable them to finish a secondary school education and proceed to higher institutes of learning.
Ms. Bandera holds a Master of Science in International Relations from Suffolk University (2006), Boston and a Bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College (2004), in Massachusetts, USA.
Tatenda Chirusa
University of Maine at Machias '04
Tatenda attended the University of Maine at Machias where he studied business with a concentration in accounting and obtained his undergraduate degree in 2003. During his time in college, Tatenda played on the varsity soccer team and was selected to the All-Conference team for all three years that he participated. From 2004 Tatenda attended the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University where he graduated with an MBA with a concentration in finance in 2006. During his time in graduate school, Tatenda was actively involved with the school's international student's club.
Over the last 7-years Tatenda has worked for a financial institution in the Pacific Northwest, holding roles of increasing responsibility, starting as an Analyst to his most recent position as a Vice President and Senior Underwriter/Portfolio Manager of a banking portfolio of mostly privately-owned middle-market companies. Tatenda is a student of business and enjoys working with growing companies from various industries and different life product cycle stages. Tatenda is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute.
Outside of school and work Tatenda loves being active and enjoys the outdoors, hiking, running, working-out, flag-football and soccer just to mention a few.
Olivia Chitete
Ithaca College '04
Olivia currently works at American International Group, Inc (AIG) in the Property-Casualty Technical Accounting Group in New York, NY. Prior to joining AIG, Olivia worked as a legal entity controller at Bear Stearns (now JPMorgan Chase) and as an auditor with Deloitte and Touche LLP, in New York, NY. Olivia is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of New York.
Olivia is pursuing her MBA at New York University's Leonard Stern School of Business. She holds a BS in Accounting from Ithaca College where she graduated cum laude. She was the founding president of the IC chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA). She also interned at the Bausch and Lomb world headquarters in Rochester, NY for two consecutive summers.
An avid runner, Olivia is a member of the New York Road Runners club and has run the New York City Marathon. As a former member of the running divas, she participated in the 2009 River-to-Sea 92 Mile relay, to fundraise for Chiedza Childcare. She enjoys cooking for and travelling with her husband Gene and son Nicholas. They reside in Jersey City and have three dogs; Django, Dasher and Blue.
Brian Bejile
Haverford College '04
Brian is a Bond Trader at Citigroup Global Markets, based in New York City. He is a Managing Director responsible for CLO (Collateralized Loan Obligations) Secondary Trading. He has been trading in this market at Citigroup since 2004.
Brian graduated from Haverford College with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Economics & Computer Science. He is actively involved with his alma mater, having served on Haverford’s Alumni Association Executive Committee as well as its Board of Managers. Brian is also involved in a number of other non-profit organizations in the New York area.
Brian loves painting – in college he considered minoring in Fine Arts until he ran out of classes. He has since progressed to photography and recently transitioned into film. He is currently working on a documentary production. Brian enjoys travelling with his wife Alexandra, and is an avid snowboarder.
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