Dorcas Makgato is Botswanan businesswoman. She was born in

Serowe, Botswana Serowe (population approximately 60,000) is an urban village in Botswana's Central District. A trade and commercial centre, it is Botswana's third largest village. Serowe has played an important role in Botswana's history, as capital for the Bama ...

and grew up in the capital city

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

. She served as a Minister in the Cabinet of Botswana. She was also one of the young hopefuls that marked the 10th anniversary of Botswana's independence with a march past for the first President in 1976. From 2019 she has been serving as Botswana's

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Education

She attended

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

in the UK from which she graduated with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Hons in General Management in Catering Systems.

Career

Makgato was

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

Export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

and Development and

Investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

Authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...

between 2007 and 2009 where she identified barriers to investment and lobbied the Botswana Government to make changes for an improved investment climate, involving greater engagement and interaction with critical stakeholders and the private sector. She used her role as the authority's CEO to overhaul the organisation's working structures and improve its practices which led the company to become one of Africa's most admired investment promotion authorities. Before joining the investment authority, Makgato worked for

Barloworld Limited Barloworld Limited is an industrial brand management company, founded in South Africa. Once a large conglomerate with many unrelated businesses, ranging at various times from mining, information technology and building materials to motor vehicl ...

as director of corporate services between 2001 and 2007 and was also the executive director of the

Nashua Nashua may refer to: * Nashaway people, Native American tribe living in 17th-century New England Places In Australia: * Nashua, New South Wales In the United States: * Nashua, California * Nashua, Iowa * Nashua, Minnesota * Nashua, Kansas City ...

franchise and was responsible for the strategic direction and performance of the company. Lastly, before joining Barloworld she was Head of the Commercial and

Human Resource Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...

Divisions of

Air Botswana Air Botswana Corporation is Botswana's state-owned national flag carrier, with its headquarters located in Gaborone. It operates scheduled domestic and regional flights from its main base at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. Air Botswana ...

. Her experiences have been helpful in Makgato's former role in the trade and industry ministry. One of her main goals was to strive to make

an attractive place to do business on a global scale. She hoped to use her position to help the country pursue sustainable industries and trade. Since assuming the ministry position in 2010, she has strengthened the relations between Botswana and its neighboring countries in southern and eastern Africa, while introducing initiatives to reinforce Botswana's identity in the

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

industry and that of the country as a whole. She was the Minister of Health and former Minister of Trade and Industry in 2014.

References

External links

Facebook page
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Botswana businesspeople Botswana women chief executives Botswana chief executives Alumni of the University of Sheffield 21st-century women politicians {{Botswana-bio-stub