Paul Yaw Boateng
Paul Yaw Boateng is a British Labour party politician. He became the UK’s first black cabinet minister in May 2002 when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005 and is currently British Ambassador to South Africa.

Paul Boateng was born in London Borough of Hackney of mixed Ghanaian and Scottish heritage. He lived in Ghana, where his father, Kwaku Boateng, was a cabinet minister under Kwame Nkrumah, until the 1966 coup that ousted Nkrumah. After graduating from the University of Bristol, he became a civil rights lawyer, originally as a solicitor, though he later retrained as a barrister. He is an active Methodist lay preacher. Posts held with dates:

1981 GLC Chair of Police Committee
1987 MP Brent South
1989 Junior spokesman
1992 Shadow minister for the Lord Chancellor’s Dept
1998 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Home Office
2001 Financial Secretary to the Treasury
2002 Cabinet Member
2005 High Commissioner to South Africa

As a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, he enjoys the style of His Excellency. Though both styles are not always used together he may be called His Excellency the Right Honourable Paul Boateng

Mamounata Cissé
Deputy Secretary General - ITUC
Ms Mamounata Cissé was appointed on November 22 as the second Assistant Secretary General (AGS) of the ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions). She was the first women to be appointed to such a leadership position at the ICFTU.
A mother of five, born in Burkina Faso, Ms Cissé has been actively involved in the trade union movement for many years. She is a well-known figure, particularly having chaired the ICFTU Women’s Committee for four years from 1992-1996, during which time she was an ICFTU Vice-President.

In her home country, she became a grass roots activist back in the 1970’s. She joined the ONSL, one of the ICFTU’s affiliates in Burkina Faso, and from 1982 to 1987 was in charge of women’s issues, moving on to become a member of the National Executive Bureau from 1987-1995. She then became the first woman to be appointed as General Secretary of the ONSL from 1995-1999 and in Africa.

At the regional and international level, Ms Cissé has been a staunch defendant of African and women workers’ rights throughout her union career. A member of the ICFTU’s regional African organisation’s (AFRO) Executive Board from 1995-1999, she also led the ICFTU’s Women’s Committee mission in 1989 to examine the integration of women in trade union structures in West Africa. In 1995, she headed the ICFTU delegation at the Fifth World Women’s Conference in Beijing.

After the founding of the new international trade union, the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) in November 2006 in Vienna, she was appointed Deputy Secretary General.
Ms Cissé is currently in charge of the regions i.e. Africa, Asia-Pacific, America, Middle East and Arab countries.