Mimi Kalinda is a storytelling, leadership and global communications expert with a wealth of experience acquired over 25 years spent developing, implementing and measuring impactful communication strategies across Africa, Europe and the United States.
As well, she is Adjunct Professor of Storytelling at IE University in Madrid, Spain and the author of Echoes of Influence: Harnessing the Power of Storytelling as a Leadership Strategy.
Kalinda is Group CEO and Co-Founder of the Africa Communications Media Group (ACG), a pan-African public relations and communications agency headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with offices in Kigali, Rwanda; Harare, Zimbabwe; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire. One of the most satisfying accomplishments of her career is the part she played in raising $51 million for the African Union’s campaign against Ebola. She is also a business coach for Storytelling & Leadership, a company she founded to help its clients use storytelling in their communications.
Describing herself as a narrative shaper, Kalinda has led workshops on storytelling and narrative in leadership for the Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa program, as well as for the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business: Women in Business Conference, and the Africa Trade and Investment Global Summit 2018, held in Washington, D.C.
She is the Rebranding Africa Champion for Africa 2.0 and was a finalist for the International African Woman of the Year Award at the Women4Africa Awards 2016. In 2018 she featured as a Forbes Afrique Top 40 Under 40 leader in the communications industry and was a finalist in the 2019 Standard Bank Top Women Awards in the Entrepreneur of the Year category. She is an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Program Fellow.
