User:LuluParks/sandbox

Introduction
Selome Taddesse Mihertu (1961) is a social activist, entrepreneur and motivational speaker from Ethiopia. She is the Director of the Consortium that runs Yegna - a multi-platform culture brand inspiring positive behaviour change for girls in Ethiopia.

She became a well-known public figure as a government spokesperson during the Ethio-Eritrean war in 1998-2000 and also whilst leading the ‘ande birr le ande wogen’ campaign to raise funds for famine victims in 2003. She was also the first general manager of the reorganised Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency from 1998 – 2002.

Currently, Selome is the Managing Director of the Inter-Action Leadership Program for Africa and owns a consulting business in Addis Ababa, Emerge PLC, where she holds the position of CEO.

Early life
Selome was born in 1961 in Axum, Tigrai, Ethiopia. She is the eldest of five children to Asefash Kassahun and Ato Tadesse Mihertu. Selome’s father taught at the University laboratory school, Baede Mariam and also later established Alem Public Relations.

After graduating from high school at Saint Mary School in Addis, Selome enrolled in the Addis Ababa Commercial School. She later applied for a scholarship to the Soviet Union and spent three years at Minsk University in Russia, studying journalism.

Four years into her studies, Selome and six other Ethiopian students were falsely accused of being anti-revolutionary by the local Ethiopian communist youth association. After attempting unsuccessfully to defend themselves, Selome and the other accused students escaped in 1983 from Russia, through Poland to West Berlin, where they sought refugee status.

Selome spent the next fifteen months in Germany unable to work, study, or communicate with her family back home and eventually sought refugee status in the United States.

A church refugee resettlement organisation in South Hadley, Massachusetts, placed Selome with the family of Mary Jacob, who was the Dean of International Students at Mount Holyoke College. Selome was accepted as a junior at Mount Holyoke College and completed her BA in International Relations at the age of 27.

Career
Selome moved to Washington D.C. to work with the Ethiopian Community Development Council in Virginia run by Ato Tsehay Tefra. When the Derg military government was overthrown in 1991, Selome was recruited to work with the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC as press counselor under Ambassador Berhane Gebre-Christos.

After six years, wanting to work in Ethiopia, Selome was appointed to head up the newly formed Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA). During her tenure, she also started a second television station, TV Africa. During her first two years heading ERTA, Selome also served as government spokesperson for the Ethio-Eritrean war.

After being approached by Meaza Ashenaf, Selome helped to create the Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA), to amplify the voice of women in asserting their rights. She also worked at the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s gender department and it was during that time she led the “ande birr le ande wogen” (One Birr for One Citizen) campaign to raise funds to combat the poverty and famine that threatened in 2002. The campaign raised more than 14 million birr for famine-affected Ethiopians in 2003.

In 2010, Selome was approached by the British Council to be one of five pan-African facilitators to develop a leadership programme for Africa.

Selome Tadesse’s firm, Emerge Consulting PLC, is one of three lead partners in Ethiopia working on the Yegna Project - a multi-channel brand in Ethiopia, targeted to girls and young women.

Career in brief:

 * Founder and CEO, Emerge Consulting P.L.C., Addis Ababa,
 * Ethiopia (2010-present); Managing Director, Inter-Action Leadership Program for Africa,
 * British Council, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Consultant,Gender Department, United Nations
 * Economic Commission for Africa (2003Government Spokesperson, Federal Democratic
 * Republic of Ethiopia (1998-2000); General Manager, Ethiopian Radio and Television
 * Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2000-2002); Press and Political Counselor,Embassy of
 * Ethiopia, Washington D.C., U.S.A. (1994-1998)