Lagos — A star-studded international team will discuss the implications of the Barack Obama Presidency for Africa at the 2009 THISDAY Awards/Festival of Ideas holding at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, on Wednesday next week.

The team will lead discussions in Session II entitled "Obama is President: What Next for the World and So What for Africa?"

Members of the team are Howard Dean, the Chairman of the US Democratic Party which produced Obama; Donna Brazile, Democratic Strategist and former Campaign Manager of ex-Vice President Al Gore; Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff; and Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.

The session will be moderated by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria's former Minister of External Affairs.

Howard Brush Dean III, born on November 17, 1948, is a physician from the Vermont, and currently the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the central organisation of the Democratic Party at the national level.

Before entering politics, Dean received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1978. Dean was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1982 and was elected lieutenant governor in 1986.

In 1991, Dean became Governor of Vermont when Richard A. Snelling died in office. Dean was subsequently elected to five two-year terms, serving as governor from 1991 to 2003, making him the second longest-serving Governor in Vermont history.

Brazile, born on December 15, 1959, is an author, educator and political activist and strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. She was the first African-American to direct a major presidential campaign.

Brazile was born in Kenner, Louisiana and became interested in politics at age nine when a local candidate for office promised to build a neighborhood playground. After graduating from LSU, Brazile worked for several advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., and was instrumental to the successful campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday.

Andrew Hill "Andy" Card Jr., born on May 10, 1947. He's a lobbyist, former United States Cabinet member, and head of President George W. Bush's White House Iraq Group. Card served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George H. W. Bush and the White House Chief of Staff under George W. Bush. He resigned in April 2006.

Karl Christian Rove was born on December 25, 1950. He was Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush until his resignation in August 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal.

For most of his career prior to his employment at the White House, Rove was a political consultant almost exclusively for Republican candidates. Rove's campaign clients have included Bush (2000 and 2004 presidential elections, 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial elections), Senator John Ashcroft (1994 U.S. Senate election), Bill Clements (1986 Texas gubernatorial election), Senator John Cornyn (2002 U.S. Senate election), Governor Rick Perry (1990 Texas Agriculture Commission election), and Phil Gramm (1982 U.S. House and 1984 U.S. Senate elections).