Rosa Whitaker
President and CEO
Before launching TWG, Rosa Whitaker served as the first ever Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for Africa in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton. In this capacity, she developed and implemented the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and other bilateral and multilateral trade policy initiatives for Africa.
She started the USTR’s Office of African Affairs and was the lead U.S. negotiator for trade agreements with African countries. Under her leadership, the U.S. was credited with a string of unprecedented initiatives to enhance American trade, investment and economic cooperation with African countries.
Before joining USTR, Ms. Whitaker was Senior Trade Adviser to Congressman Charles Rangel. In that position, she was one of the hands-on architects of AGOA and helped develop the Africa Trade and Investment Caucus in Congress. She was responsible for advising Congressman Rangel on a broad range of issues related to the World Trade Organization, Africa and China.
As a career diplomat, she served in Africa and the State Department’s Office of International Energy Policy. She also served as Executive Director of the Washington Office of International Business. Over her career, Ms. Whitaker has built an extensive network of contacts in the U.S. government and business community, as well as in the public and private sectors throughout Africa. Her leadership in designing and implementing initiatives has brought numerous trade and investment opportunities to Africa.
Ms. Whitaker is a member of the Executive Board of Mercy Ships, a global faith-based charity that has operated hospital ships in developing nations for 20 years, providing medical care to the poorest of the poor. In 2010 she joined the Board of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), an organization working to strengthen democracy around the world through private enterprise and market-oriented reform. Ms. Whitaker has lectured at National Defense University and at MIT, and previously served as Vice Chair of the US-South Africa Business Council. Among her many honors, in March 2008 Bennett College for Women named her a Woman with the Audacity to Excel, along with legendary civil rights pioneer Dr. Dorothy Height and three other African-American women leaders. In 2002, she was named Woman of the Year in International Trade by the Women in International Trade organization.
Her other honors include the 2001 Africa-America Institutes Award for Promoting U.S.-Africa Trade Relations and the Annual Achievement Award from the U.S. Association of Importers of Textile and Apparel in 2000. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Trade by Consumers for World Trade in 2003.
She holds masters and bachelors degrees from the American University in Washington, D.C. and has completed studies in England and Italy as well as at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. In April 2008, Ms. Whitaker married Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, overseer of Christian Action Faith Ministries.
Aubrey Hruby
Managing Director
First as Director of Trade and Investment and now as Managing Director at The Whitaker Group, Aubrey Hruby has helped to facilitate nearly $1 billion in investment in Africa. She works with the governments of African nations to design and execute innovative trade and investment strategies and with leading US companies to enhance their operations in Africa. With a strong belief in business-led growth, she has created successful public-private partnerships in the agricultural, energy, manufactured products, and healthcare sectors. Ms. Hruby also continues to work to ensure that Africa is kept on the US foreign policy agenda, especially in the area of trade.
Prior to joining TWG in October 2005, Ms. Hruby was an international trade specialist at The Barnett Group LLC. There, she worked with corporate clients to design successful public affairs strategies that marshaled U.S. government/foreign government resources and partnerships with media and non-governmental organizations to resolve trade problems in the Middle East and Africa. In this capacity, she completed extensive customs analysis, tracked regional trade agreements, hosted foreign delegations, and provided emerging-market intelligence to corporate clients. She also worked as an assistant to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2004-2005.
Ms. Hruby holds a Master of Arts degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and BAs in Economics, Political Science, International Relations and History from the University of Colorado. She speaks regularly on African business issues and has addressed the American Bar Association, the Society for International Development, the International Studies Association and the International Security and Arms Control Annual Conference.
Eliot Pence
Director
As a Senior Associate in TWG’s corporate consulting practice, Eliot Pence provides comprehensive consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, leading industry associations and international non-governmental organizations. Working at the intersection of policy and business, Mr. Pence’s work focuses on designing and implementing foreign market entry strategies, conducting political and commercial due diligence as well as executing brand communication strategies. Mr. Pence works closely with several senior African government officials, as well as senior executives and has direct experience working in over 10 African countries, including Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Africa. His work spans a variety of different sectors, including agriculture, health care, technology, energy and financial services. Most recently, Mr. Pence has been invited to participate in the White House task force on the private sector’s response to climate change in the developing world. In collaboration with a consortium of African CEOs, African government leaders, and civil society leaders, he is looking at how commodity exchanges can be leveraged to help African countries adapt to increasingly volatile weather patterns. Before joining TWG, Mr. Pence worked for the Division of Political Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC and with the World Bank in Nairobi, Kenya. He has an MA from Yale University and BA from the University of Victoria.
Nathaniel Adams
Senior Associate, Corporate and Public Affairs
As Senior Associate for Corporate & Public Affairs, Nathaniel Adams handles TWG’s engagements with the US and foreign governments, and his expertise covers a range of sectors including energy, infrastructure, and US-Africa trade issues. Mr. Adams previously served as a consultant at the World Bank Group, where he served on the Governance and Anti-Corruption in Infrastructure team, focusing specifically on the World Bank’s power and transportation portfolio. As an independent consultant, Mr. Adams co-led an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of the South African Biofuels Industrial Development Strategy for a prominent South African think tank in 2009. Mr. Adams’ expertise in political risk in Africa was sharpened during his time at the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (East/Southern Africa), where he provided risk analysis to the Security Council during the contentious presidential elections in Zimbabwe in 2008. Prior to his graduate studies, Mr. Adams worked in various capacities for Washington-based organizations including Chemonics International, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank’s Africa regional headquarters. He has traveled extensively throughout Africa.
Mr. Adams received his Masters in economics and energy policy from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and holds a BA in political science from Kenyon College. He speaks French and Spanish.
Dee Benzing
Senior Associate, Global Health
As the head of TWG’s Global Health Practice, Ms. Benzing provides strategic advice and support on engaging in the African health sector to Fortune 500 companies, leading industry associations and international non-governmental organizations. Prior to joining TWG, Ms. Benzing directed the start-up of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the $50 million philanthropic fund set up by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. In that capacity she worked with multilateral organizations and international NGOs on a variety of projects, including a private investment partnership with the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). Ms. Benzing previously managed international grant-making and social impact investing for the Case Foundation, the philanthropic foundation created by Steve Case, the founder of AOL. In that role she directly facilitated over $3 million per year in grants and investments to Africa. Ms. Benzing also has experience implementing public health projects in Africa with Save the Children US and MacArthur Foundation grantees. Her research interests have focused on cost-effectiveness analyses of a variety of health interventions in resource-limited settings, including: ART programs, neglected tropical disease prevention and treatment efforts, and mental health and psychosocial support programs.
Ms. Benzing holds a Master’s of Public Health degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and received her BS from Georgetown University. She has lived and worked in rural South Sudan and speaks several Nilotic tribal dialects. She is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of Haitian Creole.
Ryan Webb
Analyst
Ryan Webb is a graduate of Tulane University where he majored in Marketing and English with an emphasis on Creative Writing. Prior to joining TWG, Mr. Webb was the marketing director for a groundbreaking television show in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), coordinating with local sponsors to design, organize and implement a nation-wide marketing and social media campaign. He was also an on-location creative consultant and field producer for a documentary examining historical conflicts in the eastern DRC. Mr. Webb has previously interned with the American Enterprise Institute on foreign and defense policy studies for Africa.
Susette Kirkpatrick
Analyst
Susette Kirkpatrick is an Analyst at TWG. Before joining TWG, she lived in Cape Town, South Africa and worked for the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), which supports the development of economic policies that promote equitable growth in South Africa and in developing countries around the world. While at EPRI, Ms. Kirkpatrick conducted an analysis, used by the South African government, of social protection programs in each sub-Saharan African nation and detailed the current political situation, social development status, shocks, and vulnerabilities that might affect these countries’ economic policies. In addition to her work in South Africa, Ms. Kirkpatrick interned with The White House Fellows, DreamWorks Animation, and the Fox News Channel. She graduated with a BA in history from the University of Georgia, Athens in 2009.
Gail Whitaker
Senior Advisor, Management
Gail Whitaker has over fifteen years of experience in technology management. She recently served as the Chief Technology Officer for one of the largest civil rights organizations in the U.S. She has served in a leadership role for a number of nonprofit organizations where she was responsible for implementing major technology initiatives. Ms. Whitaker has expertise in technology strategic planning, program management, database management, project management, and financial management. Ms. Whitaker received a Bachelor of Science in business and economics at the American University, Master of Science in labor studies at the University of the District of Columbia, a Master of Science in information systems from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), and is currently enrolled in a Doctorate of Management program at UMUC.
Patricia Barber
Strategic Adviser, Public Relations
Patricia Barber has been writing about Africa for almost 25 years. Born in Zimbabwe, she was the Washington correspondent for the Sunday Times (Johannesburg) and is the author of The Land and People of Zimbabwe. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Rhodes University in South Africa and a Masters in Journalism and Public Affairs from the American University in Washington, DC. She was also the Director of Marketing and Communications for The Anita Lynne Home in Hagerstown, Maryland, and is the co-founder of Izwi Communications, a Washington, DC,-based consultancy specializing in media and communications for and about Africa.
