Mr. Faison has worked in more than 50 countries around the world providing technical assistance, communications and marketing services. As a social entrepreneur, he has led companies that have conceptualized and implemented major campaigns for United States Agency for International Development, GlaxoSmithKline, Nike, The World Bank, Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation, Zain Mobile, ImagineNations, and more. These business initiatives have focused on investment promotion, agricultural development, and import/export promotion.

Mr. Wynne is an electrical engineer. He has experience with both electronics and thermal insulation technology for solar-powered vaccine coolers intended for third world, off-grid health clinics that were later adopted by USAMMA and the CDC for vaccine transport. He developed the world’s first battery-operated compression refrigerated Unit Loading Device (ULD) for aircraft cargo bay transport, receiving 11 issued patents related to vacuum insulation. Mr. Wynne also developed the first GMA pallet-sized battery-powered refrigerated container for placement in tractor-trailers to enable consolidation of refrigerated freight.

After having served as the Pastor of Greater Mt. Nebo A.M.E. Church in Bowie, Maryland for 34 years, the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Leslie Weaver graciously accepted his appointment as Presiding Elder of the Potomac District of the Washington Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on May 27, 2023. Under his leadership, the Greater Mt. Nebo Church Family grew from a membership of approximately 100 members in 1988 to more than 1,500 at its peak and included 40+ ministries that continue to serve the church and the greater community. It was also under his tenure that the church acquired 90 acres of land and built the edifice that now serves as Greater Mt. Nebo’s current worship center.
Presiding Elder Weaver has a strong belief that one’s Christian duty should encompass community outreach. As Pastor of Greater Mt. Nebo, Elder Weaver insisted that the ministries support not only the members of the church, but also those in the broader community. Under his leadership, the Greater Mt. Nebo ministries have had many successful projects in the community, such as assisting in The Christmas in April Program, Food & Friends (providing food for persons who are homebound), The Tools for School Program, serving as a host location and providing support to the Prince George’s County’s Warm Nights program, partnering with community-based violence prevention and re-entry programs, and providing support for victims of abuse. Due to his influence and encouragement, the Greater Mt. Nebo Church Family continues to support the Bowie Food Pantry and the Bowie University Nutritional Lounge with regular donations, provide local families with food baskets and gifts during the holidays, and serve as a partner organization with several schools in the Prince George’s County Public School System.
Presiding Elder Weaver’s sense of community transcends the borders of Prince George’s County, Maryland and the borders of the United States. In 1986, Elder Weaver was the sole American Delegate to the first Hispanic-African Cultural Congress held in Equatorial Guinea. In 1999, Dr. Weaver preached and lectured in Swaziland and served as an official delegate to the Conference on Reconciliation held in Benin in that same year. It was with his motivation and support that for 9 years volunteers from the Greater Mt. Nebo Church Family traveled to New Orleans annually to assist in rebuilding efforts following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. More recently, Elder Weaver has led more than a dozen medical mission trips to Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and the island nation of Haiti resulting in more than 30,000 persons receiving much needed medical care and nutritional support. His continued advocacy and support in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in the development of a school, named in his honor, that serves more than 1,280 students, all of whom are either orphans, children of rape survivors, or children of refugees.
Presiding Elder Weaver is a visionary who uses his gifts to help empower churches, within and outside the denomination and the local community. He currently serves as the National President of the Collective Empowerment Group, formerly known as the Collective Banking Group, an ecumenical association composed of nearly five hundred churches in four states and the District of Columbia, engaged in economic empowerment initiatives through partnerships with banks and other businesses in their communities. In 2015, Elder Weaver was appointed Chairman of the Board of Industrial Bank, one of the oldest black-owned banks in America and in 2019 joined the Board of Directors of Mercy Ships, a global organization that travels the world to provide much needed medical and surgical care to underserved communities in Africa. Additionally, Dr. Weaver is a member of the Board of Directors of the Second District Religious, Educational, and Charitable Development Projects, an A.M.E. organization that fosters the development of nonprofit programs and projects for spiritual, educational, social, and economic growth and development. He is also the Founder and President of The Pan African Collective, an organization that promotes educational, social and economic relationships between Americans and the people of Africa.
Over the years, Presiding Elder Weaver has been publicly recognized numerous times for his willingness to extend his gifts and talents to those locally and abroad. Some of his more recent awards include the Civic Leadership Award from the Community Foundation in Prince George’s County (2017), the Global Humanitarian Leadership Award from the Caribbean and African Faith based Leadership Conference (2022), and the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). In recognition of his exemplary leadership, the members, business partners and friends of the Collective Empowerment Group established the Reverend Dr. Jonathan L. Weaver Scholarship in 2014.
The son of an educator, Elder Weaver is a graduate of St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Harvard University Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore, Maryland. Married to Pamela Lynn Weaver, Presiding Elder Weaver is the father of two daughters, Jaime and Megan, and the grandfather of three grandsons and one granddaughter.

Michael Sudarkasa is a Co-Founder of the Integrated Cooling Energy and Development consortium, and through this collaboration, serves as the Managing Director of DGrid Energy – Africa (“DGrid”). DGrid is a leading manufacturer of cold chain technology and specializes in solar powered walk-in cold storage systems. DGrid’s global headquarters are in Maryland in the United States and its continental operation headquarters are in South Africa. Michael is also Chairman of Africa Business Group (ABG), which he founded in 2005. ABG is a South Africa based, continentally active, African economic development company.
An American commercial attorney by training, Michael is an internationally recognized African economic development specialist. He has lived, travelled, and worked in 53 countries around the world, including 35 in Africa, and is the author of several publications, including: The African Union Commission’s Africa Business Directory: Toward the Facilitation of Growth, Partnership and Global Inclusion (African Union, 2014), A Field Guide to Inclusive Business Finance (UNDP 2012), Investing in Africa: An Insider’s Guide to the Ultimate Emerging Market (John Wiley & Sons, August 2000) and The African Business Handbook (1991-92; 1993-94; 2007-08)
Michael is a member of the Global Board of the Rainforest Alliance, of the University of Michigan Provost’s Advisory Committee, sits on the Advisory Board of the African Center for the Study of the United States of the University of Witwatersrand, and serves as Chair of Impact@Africa, an initiative focused on the development of communities of practice within Africa’s impact investment ecosystem. Michael holds a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (High Honors in History) and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. Of American, Bahamian and Nigerian heritage, he is also fluent in French.