Who We Are

Read more about our team and about our advisers in the U.S.A. and Africa:

David Murphy, Founder & Director
David Murphy, who spent a summer living in Africa while his father worked for the US Agency for Internetational Development, founded The Africa Fellowship after being fustrated at how little attention Americans placed on Africa. David previously co-foundered several companies and nonprofit initiatives, including FriendGiftr, Inc (an investor-backed internet company) and Building LA's Future (a nonprofit effort focused on Los Angeles). Earlier, he served as Government Affairs Manager at the Valley Industry & Commerce Association (VICA), a nonprofit heralded in the media as "the most powerful business group north of Mulholland," that advocates on behalf of such companies as NBC Universal and Boeing. He also served as Director of Political Affairs for the 501(c)(3) Society of Young Philanthropists in Beverly Hills, where he helped organize an annual gala bringing together 600 guests to raise $60,000 for Darfur victims. David previously supported CEO and board searches for Fortune 500 companies while at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, worked in Claremont McKenna College's Annual Giving Office, and helped Space Adventures during its unprecedented growth into the world's leading space tourism firm. Murphy previously maintained an office in the U.S. Capitol at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules under Chairman David Dreier, and worked at the Kiev, Ukraine, office of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

David graduated with a B.A. with Honors in Government from Claremont McKenna College, where he hosted or otherwise assisted with more than 50 Athenaeum dinner & lecture series speakers, including Newt Gingrich, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Anthony Lake. He is currently finishing a book profiling leaders who give back to society, featuring interviews with the heads of Southwest Airlines, Cushman & Wakefield, the Iraq Study Group, and others. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, Murphy as a high school student co-founded Hotline Communications, an internet startup that grew to employ more than forty people and was praised as "one of the best kept secrets on the internet" by the Los Angeles Times. Murphy has lived in Sofia, Bulgaria; Kiev, Ukraine; and Nairobi, Kenya; and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and Asia, where he met with business leaders and government officials on an Avery Foundation Fellowship.

Click here for contact information for David Murphy.


US-Based Advisers
Darrell G. Smith
VP Community Development & Marketing, The Africa Channel
The African Channel is an international cable and satellite channel based in Burbank, California, available on such carriers as Comcast, Cox, and on Sky Digital in the UK.

Before joining The Africa Channel, Darrell Smith served as Executive Director for Save Africa's Children, which has reached over 90,000 AIDS-affected children in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing them with shelter, education, health care and the promise of a brighter future. Save Africa’s Children was founded by Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr. in Los Angeles, and received $1 million in 2006 from Denzel Washington.

Terry Von Guilleaume
Owner, Destination Southern Africa Inc.
Destination Southern Africa is a leading provider of both independent and group travel to Southern Africa, with offices in Arizona and California in the USA, and in South Africa. Terry, a native South African, counts rugby among his side interests – indeed, he used to coach rugby at the Claremont Colleges in California.

South Africa-Based Advisers

We are privileged to have some very high-level advisers in South Africa, whom we will be announcing publicly soon.

Click here for our honor roll of donors.