Mrs. Johanna Cloete – Chair of GEN Namibia since 2015. She is part of a community of doers and makers supporting startups and scale-ups in Namibia. As a professional, she was always interested in community development. After sixteen years in business development in commercial banking, she opted for development banking and investment brokering. A seasoned banker in the government and private sector ventured into the realm of becoming a social entrepreneur, improving the quality of life for many young people who joined the programmes she managed at Junior Achievement. Always representing civil society at many fora like serving on the National Commission for UNESCO in Namibia. Current interests are accelerating startups to contribute to the Economy and making a paradigm shift to support the industrialization process of Namibia. She played an integral part in the growth and development of related organisations involved in SME development such as government structures and at NGO level, development finance, and micro-financial services dealing with diverse client portfolios. She was actively involved at the policy development and implementation level with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry in the SME environment. She completed her Post Graduate Education at Wharton Business School, the University of Pennsylvania (U-Penn), and the Management College of Southern Africa. The Africa American Institute sponsored part of her tuition.