Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was elected a Member of Parliament in South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. She held a variety of senior African National Congress and government posts, including that of Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa from 2005-2008, the first woman to do so. Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka is Under-Secretary-General of the UN, and the Executive Director of UN Women, a post she began in 2013. She is the founder of the Umlambo Foundation, which supports leadership and education. Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka has been a founding Trustee of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation since 2003.