About Us

Carole Wainaina served as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management at the United Nations between 2014-2017. She is currently Chief Operating Officer for the Africa50 Infrastructure Fund. Ms. Wainaina brings a wealth of global experience at various senior leadership levels including human resources strategy, leadership development, change management and driving organizational transformation.  She has over two decades of national and international, corporate and non-profit leadership experience, having served as the Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Executive Committee at Royal Phillips in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2014.

Previous to that she worked at the Coca-Cola Company as Group Human Resources Director, Europe, and held various progressively responsible positions, also at the Coca-Cola Company based in Turkey, United States, United Kingdom and Kenya.

Ms. Wainaina also served as Chief of Staff to the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and as President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation.  She started her career as a Management Consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Kenya and also served as the Special Assistant to the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Born in Kenya in 1966, Ms. Wainaina has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, majoring in Human Resources Management and Marketing.

William Asiko is the chief executive officer of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF). ICF is a donor-funded international organization that works with receptive governments in Africa to remove barriers to both foreign and domestic investment in their respective countries.

Asiko’s career includes almost 20 years with The Coca-Cola Company . He started as in-house corporate attorney in his home country, Kenya. In this role, Asiko held various positions of increasing responsibility in a number of countries including the United States, Morocco and the United Kingdom, rising to the position of general counsel for Africa in 2001.

In 2007, Asiko was appointed president of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation & director of public affairs and communications for Coca-Cola Africa based in Johannesburg. Asiko has served on the boards ofseveral companies, including the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Egypt and The Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Barcelona, Spain, The Coca-Cola Juice Company of Kenya, and currently serves on the boards of the Africa Leadership Academy, Discovery Learning Alliance and the Africa-America Institute. In 2010, Asiko was appointed by the president of the Republic of Togo to the International Investment Advisory Council of Togo and in that capacity advises the Togolese Cabinet on investment and development matters.

Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Asiko served five years as state counsel in the Office of the Attorney General for Kenya and two years as a partner in the law firm of Hamilton Harrison & Mathews in Nairobi, Kenya. Asiko earned a law degree from the University of Nairobi in 1987, and graduated with an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2005. He is a non-practicing member of the Kenya Bar. William is married to Christine and they have 3 teenage children.

Doug Baker is Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Discovery Networks International. With more than 20 years of domestic and international management experience, Baker is responsible for overseeing DNI Strategy and Research as well as all financial aspects of DNI Finance and Global Brand Solutions, and for leading the division’s regional COO/CFOs in Western Europe, the Nordics (SBS-Discovery), CEEMEA, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific and serve as a key strategic partner to international senior management across the business. Reporting to DNI President JB Perrette, and Discovery Communications CFO Andrew Warren, Baker splits his time between the company’s global headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland and the London office in Chiswick Park.

As Chief Operating Officer, Baker is responsible for guiding the operational structure of Discovery’s international business operations across 218 countries and territories, as well as leading global implementation plans that influence a wide range of cross-functional teams. In addition, he works closely with the division’s Programming, Ad and Affiliate Sales teams to help develop business strategy, share critical business information and best practices while supporting the growth of DNI’s business.

As Chief Financial Officer for the past four years, Baker has overseen revenue, profit and margin growth from $450 million in 2009 to nearly $1 billion operating profits in 2013. Baker has also been a key strategic leader of the company’s major M&A activities, including SBS Discovery Media in the Nordics—the largest acquisition in the company’s history; a majority ownership stake in Eurosport International, the largest pan-regional sports business in Europe and Asia; a majority ownership of J:COM in Japan; full acquisitions of Switchover Media in Italy and Fatafeat in the Middle East, and the acquisition of UK production company betty.

Baker joined Discovery in 2005 as CFO for Discovery Commerce, where he led the company’s efforts to evaluate and implement strategic alternatives for the division. He then assumed the role of CFO for Discovery Digital Media, Emerging Networks & Business Development, where he partnered with senior leadership to drive cohesion across multiple teams in order to establish financial, operating and strategic control functions for Discovery’s Digital Media Division and Emerging Networks groups.

Prior to joining Discovery, Baker served in a variety of financial, operating and strategic roles with leading consumer brand Hallmark. His responsibilities included headquarter assignments in Hallmark International’s Finance and Treasury functions as well as regional leadership roles as Hallmark UK’s Finance & Information Technology Director.

Baker earned an MBA in Operations Management from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and Bachelor of Science in Finance from Miami University (Ohio).  Baker’s wife, Julie, is a senior vice president with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Together they have three college aged boys, and when not travelling internationally, enjoy flying their Piper Cherokee and boating.

Jack Fields is the CEO of Twenty-First Century Group (TFCG), a one-of-a-kind boutique political consulting firm. Prior to the founding of TFCG, Fields represented the 8th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1980 to 1997. He served on the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce from 1982 to 1997, and in 1995, became chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance. During his tenure, Fields was responsible for the enactment of the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act, and passage of both the National Securities Markets and Improvements Act and the Securities Litigation Reform Act. He was also deeply involved in national maritime, fisheries, energy, and environmental policy while serving as the Ranking Minority Member on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

In addition to serving as chair of the Board of Discovery Learning Alliance, Fields sits on the Board of Directors of Invesco, the eighth largest mutual fund company in the United States, and Insperity (NYSE: NSP), a premier professional employer organization with clients nationwide.

Fields earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1974, and his Juris Doctor degree from Baylor Law School in 1977.

Willard O. Freeman has more than 25 years of experience in representing numerous developers, corporations, law firms and government agencies in complex real estate transactions. He successfully completed the leasing of 800 Ninth Street, SW to the General Services Administration; the acquisition, development and project management of the 550,000 square-foot Discovery Communications Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD; and the relocation of city offices to make way for development of the MCI Center in the East End of downtown Washington.

In addition, Willard has completed numerous transactions in major cities across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and southeast Asia. Willard has participated in various joint venture developments, including retail conversions to office space and assembling commercial property in enterprise zones.

Willard is also co-founder of Freeman Group, which now operates as the Washington, D.C. area office of Concordis Advisors. Willard’s managerial expertise includes serving as regional president for the Galbreath Company of Ohio, an organization absorbed into the company now operating as Jones Lang LaSalle. Throughout his career, Willard has been consistently recognized as one of the top ten brokers in the Washington, D.C. area.

A 24-year veteran of Discovery Communications, Mark Hollinger most recently served as president and CEO for Discovery Networks International (DNI), resigning his role in 2014. During his tenure, Hollinger oversaw the strategic development and daily operations of a division that distributed 44 entertainment brands in 45 languages. These brands reached more than 1.6 billion subscribers in 224 countries and territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

In 2012 and 2013, Hollinger oversaw the expansion of Discovery’s international operations with the acquisitions of Fatafeat, the #1 food network in the Middle East, and Switchover Media in Italy, making Discovery the third-largest broadcaster in the country. Hollinger also oversaw the largest transaction in Discovery’s history – the acquisition of SBS Nordics, a top-three portfolio of television brands across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Hollinger also helped to engineer the acquisition of a controlling stake in Eurosport, a top destination for live sporting action for viewers across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Hollinger joined Discovery in 1991 as vice president and deputy general counsel. In 1994, he was named acting general manager for Discovery Channel Asia. Based in Hong Kong, he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating all activities related to the operation and launch of the flagship network in Asia.

In 1995, Hollinger was appointed vice president, International Business Development in addition to his role as vice president, deputy general counsel. He became Discovery’s general counsel in 1996. He was appointed chief operating officer of the company in 2008 and then president and CEO of DNI in 2009.

Before joining Discovery, Hollinger was a senior associate in the entertainment department of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City. He also lectured on entertainment law at Columbia Law School. Hollinger received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and holds a Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude)in history and political science from Colgate University.

He also currently serves as a member of the board of Corus Entertainment, a Canadian media company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

William Irwin is a retired Chevron executive, where he spent a career in engineering and operations disciplines. He concentrated on the international arena, focusing on Africa, South America and southeast Asia. Irwin subsequently returned to Washington, D.C. to manage international public policy issues for the company. All of these roles provided opportunity for hands-on support in nurturing development projects and the NGO relationships and public-private partnerships that sustain them.

Aric Noboa is responsible for the vision, growth and management of Discovery Learning Alliance, a non-profit organization using the power of media to transform education and improve lives in underserved communities around the world. Working with Discovery Communications and other public and private sector partners, DLA has created dynamic learning environments in schools in 16 countries, improving student learning, teacher effectiveness and community engagement. Discovery Learning Alliance reaches tens of millions of people through mass media initiatives like “Inside Story,” a scripted feature about love, football (soccer) and HIV that L.A. Weekly called “a rousing success.” Created and produced by Noboa, it is now the most widely viewed film ever in Africa. Together with world-class production teams, Noboa has received dozens of industry honors and festival awards from Los Angeles to Zanzibar, Tanzania. He was also a member of the St. George’s House Windsor Castle Leadership Initiative on HIV/AIDS. He often speaks on the use of media to advance education, health and development.

Tamela Noboa serves as managing director of Discovery Learning Alliance. By bringing together Discovery’s content, resources and expertise with those of other public and private sector partners, Noboa drives DLA’s strategic direction, leads innovative efforts to take successful initiatives to scale and forges new partnerships to help achieve the Millennium Development goal for universal education. Through building Discovery Learning Alliance, Noboa has demonstrated not only the power of partnerships, but the measurable impact media has on learning outcomes when combined with appropriate, sustainable technology and teacher training. Noboa created and is currently leading a unique $38 million public/private partnership between Discovery Communications and the UK Department for International Development to improve learning outcomes for marginalized girls in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.