Krista Frysinger , Main Co-Leader

A true Midwesterner, Krista grew up in a small town in Indiana. After a family trip to Mexico in 1994, Krista fell in love with learning about new countries, cultures and languages. She followed that passion and studied International Business at Indiana University. While at Indiana she pursued her love of international travel by spending a semester at University of Seville in Seville, Spain and traveling all over Europe. After IU, Krista worked as a financial analyst for Intel Corporation for five years. During her tenure at Intel, she worked on various teams across the factory network and the marketing organization supporting projects such as risk mitigation, sponsorship analysis, ad agency negotiations and system implementation. Though her job kept her close to the Intel headquarters in Silicon Valley, she took every opportunity to travel outside the country and explore new places. Her drive to learn more about doing business outside of the U.S. brought her to Kellogg where she plans to study international business strategy and focus on emerging markets. In her spare time, Krista enjoys planning a variety of events, such as women’s conferences, charity auctions, and the occasional social gathering! She is very eager to explore Southern Africa and all it has to offer. She looks forward to meeting the 2008 GIM Southern Africa class and learning about the region together!

Oteng Sebonego , Main Co-Leader

Oteng was born and raised in Botswana. After high school, Oteng spent a year teaching in rural Botswana. He then moved to the US to pursue a degree in Actuarial Science at the University of Hartford. During his years in college, Oteng was involved in mentoring new African students and teaching local high schools about his beloved home country of Botswana. Upon graduation, Oteng took a job with GE as an Actuarial analyst in the reinsurance product division where his responsibilities ranged from product pricing to product analysis. Also at GE, he led the African American Forum’s Community service team where he organized monthly community events that ranged from teaching at an after school program to volunteering at local food shelters. After three years at GE, he took a job as an Actuarial consultant at Aetna’s new Small Group business segment and after one year, Oteng was asked to join Aetna’s Medicare business. In this role he led pricing initiatives for large companies in this sector, a position he held for one and a half years before leaving for Kellogg to pursue an MBA. Outside of work, Oteng volunteered with Young Professionals, a division of the Urban League of Greater Hartford chapter, where he led multiple community service initiatives. After graduating from business school, Oteng wants to pursue a career in Finance, focusing on emerging markets, specifically Africa. He is very excited by this rare opportunity to lead a team of fellow students to the region he calls home and explore career opportunities there.


David Hobbet , Curriculum Leader
David was born in North Dakota, but quickly moved south, growing up in western North Carolina. He stayed in-state for college and enjoyed living the life of a Cameron Crazie at Duke University, capped off with a celebrating a college basketball National Championship his senior year. Since then, David has lived and worked in Seoul, Chicago and New York, working in Management Consulting and Private Equity. Most recently, David helped launch operations for Millennium Promise, an NGO founded by economist Jeffrey Sachs. Millennium Promise partners with the UN and Columbia University to model an integrated approach to rural economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In that capacity, David traveled throughout eight Sub-Saharan countries helping launch operations. After Kellogg, David is excited about pursuing private-industry-led approaches to economic development and hopes to eventually own companies operating throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

Olu Akinkuotu, Logistics Leader
Olu was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in West Africa. After completing elementary and high school in Nigeria, Olu relocated the United States to study Computer Science at the University of Rhode Island. One of her key areas of interest during her undergrad was increasing the presence of women and minority students in the fields of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Upon graduating, Olu worked as a Software Engineer with Vertére, a small Software development firm in Rhode Island. At Vertére, Olu was part of a team that developed inventory control Software and other Asset Management tools. In 2005, Olu was ready to leverage her technical acumen to learn more about the business aspect of technology from a globalized firm perspective. She relocated to New Jersey and joined the Global Information Technology group at Colgate Palmolive as a Business Process Analyst. Here, she had a wide array of roles that ranged from negotiating service level agreements to leading a subset of the Global Shared Service Organization based out of Mumbai. After 21/2 years at Colgate Palmolive, she enrolled at the Kellogg School Management to pursue an MBA in Finance and Management and Strategy and follow her long term career goals around economic growth in Africa. Outside of work, Olu was committed to mentoring inner city kids and volunteering in local church activities in Rhode Island. She also served on the Board of Directors of Collinsville Childcare Center, in Morristown, New Jersey. Olu is super enthusiastic about her GIM Southern African leadership because she sees it an opportunity to learn firsthand about how South Africa has been able to sustain economic growth post-apartheid and to help her classmates experience and learn more about Africa.

Katherine Nelson, Treasurer Leader
Katherine was born and raised in Katy, Texas, a small town outside of Houston which was once (relatively) famous for its Rice Harvest Festival and is more recently known by its giant suburban Katy Mills Mall. Desperate to escape year round heat and humidity, Katherine packed her bags and headed to Boston University where she studied International Relations and Economics and played on the women’s varsity golf team. But, the cold weather was more than she could bear, so she packed her bags again and headed back to the Lonestar State to complete her Finance degree at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, Katherine joined Kimberly-Clark Corporation as a Cost Analyst at a manufacturing site in Beech Island, South Carolina. She discovered a passion for diapers and consumer tissue products, as well as steel toe boots, khaki pants, and navy polo shirts with her name on them. However, she soon left the manufacturing site for a Treasury Analyst position at the world headquarters in Dallas, Texas, which trained her well for the role as Treasurer of the 2008 GIM Southern Africa trip. Katherine is truly thankful for the opportunity to contribute to this amazing program and she is already starting the countdown to March! If only it would be possible to skip the brutal cold weather months of January and February…

Khadi Agne, PR Leader
Born and raised in Senegal, West Africa, Khadi went to study in France. Following her bachelor in Economics, she got more interested in understanding the use of IT to better manage and control processes within a firm. After earning her Master in Management Information Systems at Dauphine University in Paris, she went to work as a Software Engineer for British Airways, first in Paris and then in London. She enjoyed the opportunities to work in a variety of business environments with people around the world to challenge and enrich her both professionally and personally. Among her hobbies and interests, she believes the activity that gave her most satisfaction was her voluntary work as a community tutor with Westminster Volunteer Bureau in London. Khadi worked providing homework assistance to children from different ethnic minority groups. Her determination to fight for a good cause motivated her to volunteer with the corporate fundraising program of Leonard Cheshire, the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of support to disabled people. From these experiences, she learned that opportunities open doors to other opportunities and enjoyed the flexibility of working as an independent consultant throughout Europe and in Australia while combining her passion for travel with her profession. Now, she is more interested in understanding the management and business aspects around technology. She sees Africa as a great potential for her long term career and is looking forward to an exciting GIM experience – to contribute while learning from her classmates as well as sharing with them the richness and beauty that Southern Africa has to offer.

Dean Krueger, Faculty Advisor
Dean Krueger is the Assistant Dean and Director of Student Affairs for Kellogg’s Part-Time MBA Program, and oversees all student life programming and activities for Part-Time students. Prior to her current role, Megan served for 8 ½ years as the Assistant Dean and Director of Alumni Relations at Kellogg. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Megan is a member of the Kellogg School’s Global Initiative in Management (GIM) program. The Southern Africa GIM class marks her eleventh year with the program; she was the faculty advisor for Southern Africa in 2007, served as faculty advisor for Southeast Asia three times, China four times, Japan, Ireland, Chile and Peru, as well as the co-faculty advisor for the Argentina GIM class. Megan earned her MBA from Kellogg in 1990 and her BA from Indiana University. Megan is married and has a 5-year-old daughter. In her free time, she enjoys golf and gardening. She is delighted to serve as Faculty Advisor for GIM Southern Africa again and promises an experience of a lifetime to the class.