The rapper and marijuana enthusiast appeared to grant his endorsement to GOP candidate Paul on his Facebook page late Monday, posting a picture of Paul with the headline “Smoke Weed Everyday” (pictured). Snoop Dogg — born Calvin Broadus — included the message “Because I said so” with his post.

Broadus — whose most recent marijuana-related arrest occurred earlier this month, at the Texas border town of Sierra Blanca — is presumably drawn to Paul due to the libertarian-leaning candidate’s stance on drugs. Paul, an advocate of smaller federal government, was a co-sponsor of the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, and supports the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008.

It’s unclear whether Broadus was aware of Paul’s reported history of signing his name to racially-charged newsletters in the 1990s. (Though Paul’s name appears on several pamphlets containing racial rhetoric, he told CNN in December that he was unaware of the controversial passages at the time of their publication, stating, “I’ve never read that stuff. I’ve never read — I came — was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written.)

Though Paul’s chances of grabbing up the GOP nomination appear to be distant, the Texas congressman does appear to be developing quite the stable of musician endorsements — late last year, country singer Kelly Clarkson caught criticism after singing Paul’s praises.

“I love Ron Paul. I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance,” Clarkson said in a tweet. “If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he’s got my vote. Too bad he probably won’t.”

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The evolution of a multimedia activist : Rev. Al Sharpton

At 57, the Rev. Al Sharpton is a long way from the young, overweight firebrand and street activist, known for his perfectly coiffed ‘do and his closetful of multicolored jogging suits — the provocateur whom some people wanted dead.

On a chilly January day 20 years ago, a drunken man with a steak knife stumbled through a mass of protesters in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and plunged it into Sharpton’s chest. The man, Michael Riccardi, said at the time that he thought killing Sharpton would make him a hero in the neighborhood.

It was the bad old days of racial strife and violence in New York City, and Sharpton, a Baptist minister and local activist, had gone to the neighborhood with busloads of angry black protesters after the death of 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins, who was beaten by a mob of whites and then shot.

Sharpton survived the stabbing, but the years that followed brought new character assaults and controversies: the aftermath of the Crown Heights Riots, the Freddie’s Fashion Mart killings, his arrest while protesting on Vieques Island and tax issues related to his National Action Network.

Today he is a lean and dapper multimedia activist, who has carved out a public and political niche that few if any black activists have ever enjoyed. He hosts a daily talk radio show based in New York; leads the National Action Network, a social justice organization headquartered in Harlem that, since its founding in 1991, has seeded chapters in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., and Atlanta; and more recently, has become the face of the cable news show “Politics Nation” on MSNBC. (He still has the perfectly coiffed ‘do.)

“When I was a kid coming up, we’d say you can’t talk to the man, but we are the man now,” Sharpton told the Huffington Post on a recent afternoon as he readied to take the set of “Politics Nation.” “I think, to me this is like the second part of my life.”

Fans and critics are tuning in at 6 p.m. each night to see him on MSNBC, the left-leaning answer to Fox News and the Tea Party set. He’s an avid blogger, tweeter and social networker, a hybrid activist/pundit with a platform that extends beyond his traditional black base and well into the mainstream.

“Twenty years ago, I was stabbed. I just started the National Action Network, and we were in the middle of trying to redirect what was going on [in society] at the time,” he said. “Twenty years later I’m healthier,” having gone from over 300 pounds at his heaviest to just over 175 pounds now, thanks to a healthier diet and daily exercise. And he said the financial issues related to his National Action Network, which had fallen behind on its taxes, have been resolved.

While other hosts at MSNBC, like Rachel Maddow, are unapologetic in their political opinions and have allowed them to color or direct their message, Sharpton’s status there is quite different. Rarely has a major network handed over precious airtime to not just a non-journalist, but a non-journalist who is still very much a working activist and organizer.

“We are breaking the mold,” Phil Griffin, the network’s president, told The New York Times in September, when Sharpton took over the show from host Cenk Uyger. “Anything he does on the streets, he can talk about on air — we won’t hide anything.”

Ratings for “Politics Nation” have grown ince Sharpton took over. According to TVNEWSER, “Politics Nation” was second in the ratings for cable news programs in its timeslot for both total viewers and viewers between ages 25 and 54 — behind Fox News Channel but ahead of programs on CNN and the Headline News Network. His ratings jumped from 655,000 viewers a night in October to 767,000 in November, according to Nielsen.

Sharpton also enjoyed access to President Barack Obama and the White House. While other black political and media figures like Tavis Smiley have used their platform to criticize President Barack Obama, Sharpton — who himself has run for Senate, for mayor of New York City and the presidency — has been an outspoken supporter.

“It is true that activists have not previously been given the kind of platform that Sharpton has,” said Richard Prince, a blogger and journalist who covers blacks in the media on the website, Richard Prince’s Journal-isms. “But neither have other activists transformed themselves into people with an inside track at the White House or become expert practitioners of the talk-show game.”

Sharpton’s transition to the political mainstream might also be an indicator of a move away from racial protest politics toward a generation of activists who don’t see black issues in isolation from wider, systemic problems. “There’s a philosophical power struggle going on in black America between the old-school protesters and the post-ideological pragmatists,” the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, a senior policy advisor to the Church of God in Christ, told the Washington Post last year. “Al Sharpton learned more quickly than many others that the ascension of Obama meant the end of protest politics.”

“Al Sharpton,” he continued, “has grown from the premier politician of protest to the ultimate political pragmatist.”

Sharpton said that back in the old days, “[he] could have never imagined meeting with senior-level officials and members of the president’s cabinet, let alone that we would have a black president,” Sharpton said. “It’s like unreal, and then you get to the end of the year and MSNBC offers this deal — it’s a situation that some of the older civil rights leaders never had.”

“America has grown and I’ve grown,” he said. “After a while, you take so many hits. And people after a while say, ‘You know what? He wouldn’t stay there if he didn’t really believe in what he was doing. I’ve done 90 days in jail [for protesting on Vieques Island]. I’ve been stabbed. That didn’t even happen to many people in the ’50s or ’60s.”

He continued: “So yeah, you can take your shots, say I’m an opportunist. But no opportunist or someone seeking publicity is going to go through all of that.”

Sharpton credits his mentor and father figure, James Brown, for giving him the confidence to be himself, no matter what.

Brown once told him, “If you continue to be faithful, sooner or later you’ll break through,” Sharpton said. So though he had for years been a thorn in the side of — and pariah to — the mainstream, Sharpton said that he kept fighting for what he believed in, very publicly and in his own style.

“I never wanted to lose my authenticity. You can make it and still be you. I didn’t want to be someone else to make it,” he said. “I still wear my hair the same way. I’m still the same Al Sharpton. You just mature.”

He said that Brown, King, Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. and a number of other activists paved the way for him.

Jackson, who first met Sharpton when he was just a boy, called his rise “the great American dream.” Sharpton was preaching at the age of four and toured with the gospel great Mahalia Jackson.

“I met Al when he was 12 years old. Many kids his age wanted to play ball. He wanted to lead,” Rev. Jackson said. “He was motivated and inspired; he took the long road. He didn’t inherit anything. He earned it.”

When Sharpton was 15, Jackson named him youth director of Operation Breadbasket, a program that worked to address employment issues in the black community.

“I have watched him grow,” Jackson said. “And I am so very proud of him.”

As Sharpton has evolved, so have his fights. He still rallies around social justice issues like the fight to save Troy Davis’ life, police brutality and black unemployment. But, he says, “the fight now is for “the minds of the country.”

“We’re fighting the Tea Party and those energized by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh,” Sharpton said. “The Edmund Pettus Bridge of today is Fox TV. We have got to continue to fight those on the anti-civil rights side.”

He has situated a number of bright young minds to key positions throughout his National Action Network, including his daughter, Dominique, 24, as membership director and Tamika Mallory, NAN’s executive director, whom he started grooming when she was 12.

“What I’m dealing with is not looking at the rear view, and looking at the windshield and the next 20 years,” Sharpton said. “James Brown once told me that he wanted to leave when they still wanted him and that it’s better to be missed than for people to feel that you are in the way. I hope that I’m out here a long time. I know that I have at least another decade, and I’m going to ease off before they say, ‘He needs to get out of the way.’”

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SNL’s Keenan Thompson ribbed MSNBC host Al Sharpton with a goofy imitation of the Reverend’s over-the-top persona. “President Obama has been pushing this payroll tax hollaback — excuse me, tax holiday!” Thompson exclaimed. “Which has helping middle class folks up and down America and these Republicans now talking about how it’s bad for this and that and the other. Here’s my question — do these people have rocks in their heads?”

RELATED: Al Sharpton’s New ‘Lean Forward’ Ad Is About Republicans Stealing Blueberry Pie

Thompson goofed on Sharpton’s idiosyncratic mannerisms, and jokingly called the Republicans blueberry pie-stealing Nazis. The skit’s coup de grâce came at the end though where Thompson quoted near-verbatim Sharpton’s legendary teleprompter flub . “But resist, we much… we must… and we will much… about… that… be committed.”

Watch Thompson channel the MSNBC host below via NBC:

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This come after Tyrese was kicked out a Delaware radio station for expressing his concern during an on-air interview. He was told to leave by the programming director who later demanded an apology after threatening to ban his music.

In an exclusive interview with HelloBeautiful, Tyrese got very personal on why his stance remains secure and why he will never apologize for simply saying something about a world-wide issue with which everyone should be concerned!
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A reforestation project that paid poor women to plant trees is just one example of how Maathai, a Kenyan, empowered and educated local African people, particularly women.

“She was a fearless champion of nature and women,” Mark Tercek, president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy, told The Huffington Post.

On a panel last Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York City, Tercek described the key role that forests play in flood control and water quality — a lesson that has been learned the hard way, repeatedly, around the world. It took a major flood that ravaged homes, topsoil and fish stocks throughout the Yangtze region two decades ago for China to recognize that a standing forest was worth three times its mere value in timber.

Overall, forests, watersheds and other ecosystems provide an estimated $33 trillion in essentially free goods and services for communities around the world. But because these services are typically excluded from market calculations, widespread environmental degradation continues more or less unabated.

“Many people think nature is nice because of its spiritual value, or they like hiking, or they want to preserve it to hand it off to their descendants,” said Tercek. “These are all good reasons, but there are some really practical reasons to value nature too.”

Tercek is overflowing with practical examples. In an effort to thwart poaching in Kenya, his organization helped persuade villages to appoint local men to work as rangers. As poaching rates then dropped and the wildlife returned, tourism revenue rose. With less threat of violence from poachers, the village women also felt safer. In fact, one told Tercek that she was sleeping without her shoes on for the first time in her life.

He also tells a story about Quito, Ecuador, where a few years ago local business leaders were contemplating a major investment in a water filtration plant. He and his colleagues persuaded the city to invest instead in conservation efforts to secure clean water, such as changes in farming methods in the villages upstream. Sewing machines were one of the early purchases. They allowed women to stop grazing sheep — a common practice that leads to deforestation — and start making clothes to sell at local markets. The village people continue to work together with city leaders to determine how to spend the upstream conservation fees, imposed in lieu of filtration taxes.

Today, not only does nature keep Quito’s water clean, but it does so at a lower cost than so-called grey infrastructure.

“This was beautiful habitat that we would want to protect anyway. But now the argument was different. It was an economic one,” Tercek told HuffPost in an interview after the meeting. “And it worked.”

“People are getting it,” he added. “Conservation pays for itself. No philanthropy needed.”

The Nature Conservancy plans to replicate the water conservation initiative within 30 other watersheds around Latin America.

“The potential is enormous,” said Marta Echavarria, founding director of EcoDecision, an environmental business promotion firm that worked with Tercek’s team in Ecuador, and another member of last Thursday’s panel. “Any mechanisms where we could link livelihoods and the conservation through water can really bring people together.”

The island of Dominica offers another case in point of how investing in natural infrastructure can benefit economic development. On one side, the Dominican Republic is home to vast stands of forest. While it is still a poor country, its economy is growing thanks in large part to a strong tourism industry. The other side of the island, however, tells a starkly different story.

“Haiti is a disaster,” said Tercek. The biggest difference, he noted, is that Haiti didn’t take care of its natural capital, including forests, topsoil, reefs and fish stocks. Or, as he put it simply, “They screwed themselves.”

Meanwhile, efforts started by Maathai in Africa are helping to fend off a similar disaster. Her Green Belt Movement has now planted more than 30 million trees and helped nearly 900,000 women.

“Maathai understood the value of nature — in particular, the value of trees — and she understood the role of the common people, especially women,” said Tercek. “The conservation movement doesn’t have enough heroes like her.”

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The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza said, “I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative.” He added, “So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple.”

Despite the comments, Cain signaled he sees “good news” in the situation in that he believes one-third to 50 percent of black Americans are “open-minded.” He explained, “I meet them every day. They stop me in the airport. And so this whole notion that all black Americans are necessarily going to stay and vote Democrat and vote for Obama, that’s simply not true. More and more black Americans are thinking for themselves. And that’s a good thing.”

The remarks from Cain come on the heels of his surprise win in the Florida straw poll. It’s not the first time the GOP presidential contender has made provocative remarks on issues related to race.

Over the summer, Cain suggested Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart mocked him during an episode of “The Daily Show” because he’s a “black conservative.”

According to a Fox News poll released on Wednesday, Cain is running in third place in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The survey shows former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leading the GOP primary pack and Texas Governor Rick Perry running in second place.

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From conservative pundits constant slip-of-the-tongue references to Obama as “Osama,” Glenn Beck claiming the president “hates white people” and even Donald Trump’s over-hyped demands to see the president’s birth certificate, critics have levied some very brazen, almost radical assaults against Obama.

And while some say it’s just politics as usual, others are questioning whether race is making Obama the most disrespected U.S. president in history.

And for those who want to say it’s just partisan politics as usual, or just the kind of thing that goes with being an unpopular president, let’s consider a few low-lights:

The “You lie!” shout during the president’s speech on health care reform before the joint session of Congress in Sept. 2009

The recent posturing, walk-outs and tantrums thrown over the debt ceiling debate, which eventually led to our country’s credit being downgraded.

Newt Gingrich referring to the president as “the food stamp president” and saying that Pres. Obama “knows how to get the whole country to resemble Detroit.”

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn — who supposedly enjoys a warm relationship with the president, saying he doesn’t think President Obama wants to destroy the country, but “his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him as an African-American male” who “received tremendous advantage from” welfare programs.

Congressman Mitch McConnell’s bold proclamation that he wants to be Senate Majority Leader to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Rush Limbaugh saying that he wants to see this president fail. (Note: Limbaugh has modified that statement to say he meant his “policies.” But when it was said, it was less than a year into Obama’s presidency and he was still cleaning up the mess from the previous president’s policies, which Limbaugh had very little to say about during the Bush era).

Former Fox News host Glenn Beck declaring on the air that the president “hates white people” and “the white culture.”

Television personality Donald Trump’s over-the-top taunting of the president, hyping unprecedented demands to see the president’s birth certificate.

The shouts of “We want our country back!” by the Tea Party.

And the frequent habit of not calling the president by his proper honorific: “President Obama”, rather than just “Obama” — by quite a few elected officials, pundits and others.

President Barack Obama asked to deliver his economic speech to the joint session of Congress next Wednesday. House Speaker John Boehner, told him no. He’ll have to do it on the 8th. Boehner cited a scheduling conflict, but the real “conflict” appears to be the GOP presidential debate scheduled for the same date. The president has been forced to capitulate — and will now have to compete with the opening night of the NFL season for viewers.

What may seem like a minor slight underscores the crux of the problem in Washington: A blatant, sustained and unabashed disrespect of the president of the United States of America.

And it is historic.

Never in our nation’s history has a president been publicly denied access to the chamber for an address, according to the House historian. This is just the latest in a string of eyebrow-raising and even historic slights.

This negative “attention” that this president seems to attract cuts across partisan lines. Even before he took office, Joe Biden referred to him as the first “clean, articulate” African-American candidate. (Which we assume was meant as a compliment).

And let’s not forget Bill Clinton, who chalked up Obama’s win in South Carolina to being similar to Jesse Jackson’s wins there in the 80s and then had the audacity to cry foul, saying the race card was played on him when Obama supporters called him out.

There was also his Senate mentor Joe Lieberman, who blocked the public option in the health care bill. And the near-deafening silence by high-ranking Democrats, including Senate leader Harry Reid, while all of this is going on.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The question among some of us who love this country and want to see it succeed is what is all of this really all about? Because it just seems as if there is a pissing contest going on, but the only ones getting wet are the American people; many of whom are suffering through the worst economy of their lives.

Some may call this obstructionism. But I think there’s something else going on here. Now I’m not saying it’s racism. But if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck…

At the very least it’s un-American. Because while all of this is going on, Americans are suffering.

This shouldn’t be about President Obama. All 535 lawmakers who were sent to Washington to make a difference must ask themselves this question: is opposing everything this president does for the sake of opposition, or worse for a more insidious reason, helping this nation get back on her feet?

If the answer is no, then they need to knock it off. And if they’re not going to do it, it’s time for the silent majority to do it for them. Enough is enough!

article written By Karen Hunter

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Now, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, a black woman, is chiming in about the reason behind the higher obesity rates. The real question is this, is there any truth to her claim?

Benjamin, who has been criticized for being overweight herself, recently told the New York Times: “Oftentimes you get women saying, ‘I can’t exercise today because I don’t want to sweat my hair back or get my hair wet.’ I hate to use the word ‘excuse’ but that’s one of them.”

Benjamin’s insight on this topic is considered credible because her mother was a hairstylist. Also, she is backed up by a study done by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 2008. The study polled 103 black women in the North Carolina region and found that a third of them mentioned their hair as the reason they shied away from exercise.

Sixty-four of the women had relaxed hair, and half of the participants stated that “they considered changing their hair to make it easier to exercise,” according to a press release detailing the study’s findings.

Hair was definitely a consideration when I was in high school, but I can’t blame my hairstyle for preventing me from developing a regular exercise routine later on in life.

I just never got it until I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, I lay awake night after night regretting every cigarette I had smoked; every cocktail I’d drunk; and every health club membership I had let expire without so much as stepping a foot inside the place after the orientation.

None of this had anything to do with my hair.

In fact, the unruly hair excuse has played out. Today, black women have a lot more alternatives when it comes to maintaining a straight hairstyle. They no longer have to smother their hair with grease and torture it with a hot comb to beat back frizzy or puffy hair.

Because of the widespread acceptance of weaves, extensions and wigs, black women don’t have to deal with their natural hair at all.

When I went for my regular hair appointment on Wednesday, I asked a couple of stylists what they thought.

“I believe it’s true,” said Anna Walton, a stylist at Red Karma Salon at 3523 S. Indiana.

“What happens is clients ask what can they do to prevent their hair from looking a mess. But you can’t prevent your body from sweating,” Walton pointed out.

“I tell them you are either going to be cute and fat or you are going to be slim and you may look a little crazy about the head.”

Lucretia London, also at Red Karma, styles my natural hair. She isn’t convinced that relaxers and other high-maintenance hairstyles are the reason black women are skipping workouts.
“There are still a lot of women with natural hair that are obese,” she told me. “But there are also women who cut their hair off so they can run and swim and do other vigorous exercise.”

London, who works out two to three times a week, wears her own hair in a curly natural style.

“I just think we have a lot of ancestral baggage. We are still broke down from all the things that have happened to us,” she said.

When Benjamin was chosen to stand as the surgeon general, she was ridiculed for being, well, big boned. The extra poundage made her a favorite target of conservative bashers. I’m not joining that chorus, but I think she did a disservice to black women because the hair excuse makes black women look ridiculously shallow.

Yes, there are women whose self-esteem is tied up in their hairstyle, but a lot of women in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods don’t exercise regularly for a variety of reasons, including being unable to afford the high cost of a health club membership.

Additionally, when innocent people are being gunned down in the street, what makes anyone think it is safe for black women to bike, jog or even walk in their neighborhoods?

If the surgeon general wants to help black women get control of their weight, she should challenge the real barriers that are making healthy living a challenge.

Changing the black female obesity rate requires more than a new hairstyle.

It requires a change in lifestyle.

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Flowing Data reported Monday that the blogger behind FloatingSheep.org created a map of average marijuana prices across the country.

The map is based on data from Price of Weed, a website that crowd sources information regarding how much people are paying to light up. The blogger’s analysis indicates that Illinois, particularly in its northeastern corner, is home to some of the highest prices for green found in the nation.

According to Price of Weed, the average price of a high-quality ounce of marijuana in Illinois is $430.80, while a medium-quality ounce can be purchased for roughly $303.13. The data is based on just under 1,000 submissions. In Chicago, based on recent data, the average price of a high-quality eighth of marijuana appears to hover just under $60.

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The first lady is the world’s most powerful black woman. Obama’s wife continually commands media attention for her intense efforts towards ending childhood obesity and has developed a cult-like following among world fashionistas for her stylish inclinations.

In the past year, she has made official and non-official trips to at least four continents, including a visit to South Africa where she was granted a rare audience with former president and Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

Beyonce Knowles, Entertainer, Designer

Jay-Z’s wife is all grown-up now. She turned 30 this year, and is now taking responsibility for her own business concerns. In March, she relieved her father, Matthew Knowles, as her business manager. She’s earned 16 Grammy awards in her career, runs a fashion label, House of Dereon, and released her fourth solo album, “4”. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 310,000 copies in its first week.

Oprah Winfrey, Media Personality

In May, Oprah bade farewell to her highly successful, syndicated talk show, after a 25 year-stint. She set out to achieve bigger things: In January, she launched her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network. It started out strong, but viewership is floundering. Nevertheless, Oprah remains one of the world’s most powerful media moguls: The Oprah brand owns media interests in TV, Radio, the web, and the 2.5 million circulation O Magazine. Oprah is also the world’s wealthiest black woman. Estimated worth: $2.7 billion.

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

First worked for Xerox in 1980 as a summer intern; joined the company full time in 1981 after obtaining her Masters’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. Worked through the ranks to become Vice- president in 2000, and was named CEO in 2009. Burns was pivotal in Xerox’s $6.4 billion acquisition of business process outsourcing giant, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) last year. Burns serves on the board of American Express and Boston Scientific among other companies.

Helen Gayle, CEO, CARE USA

Started off her career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 1984, eventually became the director of the National Center for HIV, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention. Also served at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation between 2001 and 2006 where she directed the foundation’s HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program. In 2006, took up the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization which actively fights global poverty in 87 countries around the world. Top Priority: Empowering girls and women to bring lasting change to poor communities. Gayle serves on the Board of trustees for the Rockefeller foundation.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President, Liberia

The Harvard-trained economist and Africa’s first female president is seeking to be reelected this October during Liberia’s presidential elections, breaking a promise she made during her 2005 campaign to serve only for a single term if elected. But the odds are in her favour: Successfully negotiated for debt relief from international creditors, including a $4.9 billion debt waiver from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Finance Minister

In July, Okonjo-Iweala stepped down as Managing Director of the World Bank to accept an appointment as Nigeria’s finance minister. This will be the second time she will be in charge of steering the affairs of the Nigerian economy. Between 2003 and 2006 she served in the same capacity during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. She was instrumental in negotiating for, and ultimately achieving, an $18 billion debt write-off from a consortium of Nigerian creditors.

Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita, CEO, ArcelorMittal South Africa

Nyembezi-Heita heads the South African operations of the world’s largest steel company, ArcelorMittal. ArcelorMittal South Africa is Africa’s largest producer of steel, with an annual production capacity of 7.8 million tons. She was appointed as CEO in 2008; took up position after managerial stints at Vodacom Group and Alliance Capital Management. Ms Nyembezi-Heita serves as non-executive director on the board of the JSE Securities Exchange.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Harvard grad is the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, America’s largest health care foundation, with a $10 billion endowment and annual disbursements of $400 million. This year, the foundation is spearheading a campaign against childhood obesity and fighting for tobacco cessation. Lavizzo-Mourey is the first woman and the first African-American to head the foundation. In 1984 she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Joined the foundation in 2001 as senior vice president and director of the health care group; became CEO in 2003.

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