The Chief Executive Officer of Namib Desert Diamonds (PTY) Ltd (NAMDIA), Ms. Alisa Amupolo, has been appointed by the Board of Directors of NAMDIA for a term of five years beginning on October 1, 2022.
Ms. Amupolo, a citizen of Namibia, holds a Bachelor of Media Studies from the University of Namibia (2008), a Master of Arts degree in International Communications from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, and she is a graduate of the Emerging Leaders Program at the London Business School and the Stanford Seed Transformation Program. Ms. Amupolo is currently a doctoral candidate in business at the Namibian Business School. More than 15 years of relevant job experience belong to Ms. Amupolo.
Ms Amupolo started her career in the media and communication industry, where she served as a trainee/Intern at NBC in 2004. Ms Amupolo became the Public Relations Officer in the Marketing and Communications department at NBC until she left in 2005 to join the Global Fund/Ministry of Health as a Senior Liaison Officer.
In 2008, she moved to Leeds, United Kingdom, to pursue her master’s degree and subsequently found work at the Commonwealth Secretariat as a Research and Support Officer based in London, United Kingdom. She returned to Namibia and joined NCC where CRAN succeeded as a Strategic and Transformation Project Advisor from 2009 to 2012. She also worked as a Governance Consultant, reporting to the CEO at the Namibia Statistics Agency transformation from 2012 to 2013, as well as in the year 2014 on an adhoc basis. In 2014, Ms Amupolo was enlisted as a full-time consultant for Pact Namibia and subsequently joined PowerCom (Pty) as the Chief Executive Officer, where she served until May 2021. Ms Amupolo until recently worked as a full-time consultant on a particular service agreement with the International Telecommunications Union which is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
In addition, Ms Amupolo serves on various boards as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Energy Utilities Assets (Pty) Ltd and The Namibian. Ms Amupolo is also the President of Stanford Seed Southern Africa Chapter Network and was recently appointed as a Commissioner for the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST)
The NAMDIA Board, Management and staff are excited to welcome Ms Amupolo to lead NAMDIA and pledge her our full support to transform NAMDIA into becoming a sustainable enterprise and a premium diamond trader of ethically sourced Namibian Diamonds. We would like to thank all the applicants who have shown an interest in the CEO position at NAMDIA.
The Board of Directors would also like to thank Ms Lelly Usiku who was appointed as the Acting CEO until the appointment of Ms Amupolo. Ms Usiku led the NAMDIA team with dedication and commitment during this transition.
