Prof. Hawa Tundui Petro

MU DVC | Conference Chair;

Prof. Hawa Tundui Petro is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic, Research and Consultancy at Mzumbe University and Chair of the 8th ACOSCM. An Associate Professor in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, she holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship from the University of Groningen, Netherlands (2012), and an MBA from the University of Agder, Norway (2004). She has worked at Mzumbe for over two decades, holding various leadership positions, including Associate Dean and Dean of the School of Business, and has served as an external examiner for Sokoine University of Agriculture, Moshi Cooperative University, and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her research addresses entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprises, gender and women's entrepreneurship, and access to finance. She has led the entrepreneurship project under the VLIR-UOS programme and contributed to the DANIDA-funded Crowdfunding for Youth Entrepreneurship in Tanzania (C4YET) project, which examined how crowdfunding can widen access to finance for youth-led businesses. As Conference Chair, she combines institutional leadership of the host university's research agenda with subject expertise on inclusion - how SMEs, women-led and youth enterprises are brought into formal value chains - which maps directly onto the conference's focus on inclusive supply chains.

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Prof. William John Mwegoha

MU VC | Distinguished Guest;

Prof. William John Mwegoha is the Vice Chancellor of Mzumbe University, the institution hosting the 8th ACOSCM. An environmental engineer by background, his academic and research work spans environmental management, pollution control and sustainable development. Under his leadership, Mzumbe has positioned itself among Tanzania's leading public institutions in digital transformation, supporting government and higher-education partners in adopting national digital systems, while expanding its international research and academic partnerships. As host Vice Chancellor, he brings an institutional perspective on the research capacity, digital skills and partnerships that underpin resilient, inclusive and sustainable supply chains in Africa.

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David Ndelwa

LSCM Practitioner | Keynote Speaker 1;

Mr. David Lusan Ndelwa is the Founder and Group CEO of Simba Group, which he established in 2015. He began his career in procurement and supply chain management and has over 20 years of experience in the sector. Mr. Ndelwa has grown Simba Group from a single venture into a group of 17 companies operating in the healthcare, energy, technology and industrial sectors across Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates. Its logistics arm spans road, rail, sea, and air freight; warehousing and storage; distribution; primary and secondary movement; and reverse logistics.

Earlier in his career, he held procurement roles at the National Microfinance Bank (NMB) and served as Africa Regional Procurement Champion at Millicom International Cellular. Operating across five countries and four freight modes, he brings an operator's account of what it takes to build resilient, competitive cross-border supply chains in Africa, and where the practical constraints still bind.

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Hon. Dr. Gladness Salema

LSCM Academic & Practitioner | Keynote Speaker 2 & Panelist;

Hon. Dr. Gladness Salema is an elected Member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), representing Tanzania in the Fifth Assembly since November 2024. Prior to joining the EALA, she served as a Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the University of Dar es Salaam Business School, where she built more than 17 years of experience in teaching, research and consultancy. She holds a PhD in Logistics from Molde University College, Norway, and master's degrees in business administration and in public health from the University of Dar es Salaam. Her research interests include health supply chain performance and resilience, buyer-supplier integration, lean practice in medical commodities supply chains, supply chain governance and inventory data quality, and sustainability in healthcare supply chains. She has published in top-tier journals in the field of logistics and supply chain management, including the International Journal of Procurement Management and the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management. As a consultant, she designed and evaluated health commodity and procurement systems for FAO, UNDP, UNFPA, the Global Fund-supported Empower program, REPOA, FSDT, and the Ministries of Health and Industry and Trade. Her keynote, Logistics and Supply Chain Resilience in the Age of Digital Transformation, confronts a concern that cuts across every sector in the region - technology keeps advancing, yet stockouts, spoilage and border delays persist - and asks where Africa's resilience agenda is truly heading in the age of digital transformation.

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Dr. Mwajuma Hamza

LSCM Practitioner | Keynote Speaker 3;

Dr. Mwajuma Hamza is an award-winning executive and has served as Executive Director of the Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC) since 2021. With over a decade of experience in project management, policy advocacy, and inclusive economic empowerment, she is a leading advocate for women and youth entrepreneurship in Tanzania. She holds a master’s degree in international Trade and a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from the University of Dar es Salaam.

Under her leadership, TWCC has expanded its national footprint through regional chapters and delivered initiatives including cross-border trade empowerment programs running since 2015, which have reached thousands of women and youth across more than ten border points and regions; Bid for Success (B4S), a capacity-building program equipping women and youth to access procurement opportunities in major government and foreign investment projects; ISOKO, a digital marketing and trading portal now serving over 23,274 registered users; Tunza Duka, an online inventory management platform; and Twende Sokoni Africa, preparing women and youth to leverage AfCFTA opportunities.

She has also championed a Youth Wing to support and empower young men alongside women. Her recognition includes the CEO Award (2022), Outstanding Leadership in Entrepreneurship (2023), Managing Director of the Year - Top 100 Executive List (2025), Women in Management Africa Recognition (2025) and an Honorary Award by Power Women (2025), and she is a Certified Financial Educator through the Bank of Tanzania financial inclusion program (2025) and a Certified Director of the Institute of Directors Tanzania (2026). For a conference examining inclusive supply chains, she brings an enterprise-level view: what prevents small, women-led suppliers from entering formal logistics and cross-border value chains, and what strategies can address existing bottlenecks.

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