Charles Stith

Ambassador Charles R. Stith is the Chairman of The Pula Group, LLC, a US-based company that invest in high value opportunities in Africa. Pula maintains offices in Los Angeles, Johannesburg, and Dar es Salaam. He is the founder and board Chairman of The African Presidential Leadership Center, South Africa. He also formerly served as the Director of the African Presidential Center at Boston University, and also served on the International Relations Faculty. He formerly served on the Africa Advisory Committee of the U.S. Trade Representative and is currently a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and The Council of American Ambassadors.

Stith was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania by President Bill Clinton. He served following the traumatic period after the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Ambassador Stith is a graduate of Baker University, the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, and Harvard University Divinity School (Th.M).

Stith is also the founder and former National President of the Boston- based Organization for a New Equality (O.N.E.). Ambassador Stith has served on the National Advisory Boards of FannieMae and Fleet InCity Bank, the editorial board of WCVB-TV, among others. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of South Carolina, Elizabeth City University, Clark Atlanta University, and Baker University. Ambassador Stith is author of A View from the Other Side: Locked Down In South Africa (Footprint Press, 2020), For Such a Time as This: African Leadership Challenges (APARC Press, 2008) and Political Religion (Abingdon Press, 1995). He is an editor of African Americans in US Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama (University of Illinois Press, 2015).

Stith is also the Senior Editor of the annual African Leaders State of Africa Report, and author of many articles which have appeared in such publications as the African Business Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Denver Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Chicago Sun Times.