Bossbabe Summit

A Talk with the Brains behind The BossBabe Summit

Rutendo Mudzamiri affectionately known as Dr. Ru was raised in Kambuzuma. She left to study Arts & Cultural Management in Germany for some time, then she went to the US, where she completed her Masters Degree in Community Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art. As a result of her great ambition last year she completed a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University. Dr Ru is based in the US where she does leadership coaching and consulting work under her company Sparklead Consulting. Every summer she teaches leadership at Duke University to 3 groups of 24 students, she is surely aiming at transforming lives for a better tomorrow. In an exclusive interview Dr Ru said, “I wasn’t always a top student, in fact I wrote and failed a few times in high school before I got it right and I learned at a young age that tenacity is a prerequisite for success. It’s important to know who you are, where you are, where you are going & why. Purpose will push you to focus & get it right eventually. Don’t ever stop at one negative experience life truly gives you what you push for & it’s important to never stop knocking especially if you know your purpose.”

Interview with Dr Ru

Dr Ru can you tell us a bit more on how you started? Well, my passion for young women’s leadership & development work started when I was 17 in Kambuzuma after failing my O Levels the 1st time & I remember being terrified that time that I’d always be a failure if I don’t put my life together. There weren’t many options at the time in Kambuzuma so I need to create platforms for young women like me at the time to not give up but to encourage each other to eventually win. I honestly remember telling myself that I wasn’t going to be pregnant with no purpose at 17 - I wanted more out of my life even at that young age. I remember literally painting a picture of my future & in that picture I had a young woman in 4 graduation gowns & a doctorate. I still remember that very well. I also remember a picture of a school I had built for people who needed second chances to win in life. I didn’t want to be idle so I started volunteering for a few organizations as well as hosting small gatherings with not more than 20 young women to talk about life & encourage each other to win. That was in 2006 and it worked.

I started hosting more and bigger events including high profile High Teas, Speaker Series sessions & in 2007 I hosted a gathering for 88 young women in leadership from 23 African countries. I realized then that these platforms work & propel people to the next level because of what’s shared & discussed in those platforms. I continued with low key work in Zimbabwe and more of self development work between 2009-2019. I spent more time between Zim & USA studying and working because I knew I didn’t want to give what I didn’t have. I invested in self-development. Still do. During the time I became a fellow of the prestigious Women Leaders for the World Program, International Leadership Program Fellow, Vital Voices, British Council’s Africa Leadership Program Fellow. All changed my life & enhanced my appreciation for leadership development. I realized while all those were important- I needed more of leadership studying so after my masters I enrolled at Regent University for a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership.

While is school & living in the US I also got exposed to powerful platforms for global leaders and women such & the Forbes Women’s Summit. That ignited every passion I had. Passion for leadership, development, women empowerment and desire to bring solutions to situations. With #BossBabe I appreciated the world was changing so I knew to succeed in initiatives that celebrate women & build communities and nations we need to bring everyone to the table. The hard tone wasn’t always going to bring the young woman who cares about fashion, entertainment, or business to the room to discuss ways to alleviate poverty or to discuss why it’s important to be aware of the state of public service & what we can do in our areas of influence to be the change. I wanted to bring a different demographic of smart women who embrace their femininity yet care about every important issue. I intentionally chose #BossBabe because I didn’t want to make pushing important issues boring because that’s the work I care about and if I’m committed to it daily it needed to represent the authentic Ru & all the amazing #BossBabes she knows. #BossBabe is a lifestyle of hardwork, persistence, passion, learning and purpose. It’s my hope that we build a tribe of powerful women who care about their welfare and community. We do so by intentionally working with supportive men. We acknowledge the important role men play as our friends, brothers, partners, husbands, uncles, bosses in some case and we are on this journey with them. Wholeness in our approach is key & we do all this work embracing that we are #BossBabes- and we acknowledge that you become a #Bossbabe by mentorship,- coaching and dedication to purpose.

#BossBabe Summit is a project of Girlotherapy registered in Zimbabwe as a non profit.

Who is your role model? I honestly don’t have one- I have many & for me it’s people who go through so much to break them but come out looking like nothing they went through. My mom remains one of those among many outstanding men & women who don’t quit.

What was the summit about? The inaugural summit was to set the pace for what we want the next 10years to be. We launched the summit in a powerful way. We had inspirational presentations by some of the country’s top #BossBabes and a men thriving in the business of arts, politics, corporate world, entrepreneurship, and community building globally.

The summit was aimed at not only celebrating women thriving in very challenging times economically and politically. It is a summit founded on the purpose to merge and ignite passions for more effective solutions to society.