It is a Sunday morning and pastor Ismael Amupolo (now late) is in the ELCIN church somewhere in rural northern Namibia awaiting his turn to take to the pulpit to deliver the day’s sermon.
On his lap are two of his grandchildren. They are twins and one of them is Alisa Amupolo, who would grow up to become an indomitable young woman, in the cut-throat Namibian corporate sector. And this moment, will live with her as one of the fondest memories from her childhood.
“We grew up on my grandfather’s lap,” Amupolo says adding that her grandfather personified all the values she had wanted to see in the world.
“Every Sunday we went to the Lutheran Church and even though there was a children’s chamber, my grandfather would allow us to accompany him to the altar and sit on his lap and that will always be my fondest childhood memory,” she reveals.
“I was very lucky to have grown up around such a stable and inspiring figure,” she adds.
And clearly, some of that humility and the innate ability to inspire may have rubbed off on her, looking at the fact that as she steps into her naughty forties, Amupolo is already boasting with a resume that will humble many a seasoned corporate leader.
Amupolo is the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Namibia Desert Diamonds (NAMDIA), taking the reins from Kennedy Hamutenya, whose contract had come to an end.
Being at the helm of this parastatal is however not her first rodeo. She successfully steered other entities to corporate liquidity, among them the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) and PowerCom.

But who is Alisa Amupolo?

“I am an ordinary rural-bred Namibian woman who is on a mission to do extraordinary things and is very passionate about taking something uniquely Namibian to the world,” she says.
Amupolo was born and bred in a small village near Oshikuku, where she attended primary school before completing her high education at Oshigambo High School.
“I spent a good five years there and I must say the experience was probably the biggest eye-opener for me, with that school being a very diverse global environment. We had teachers from Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and the US World Teach. What is notable is that emphasis at this school was put on science,” Amupolo says.
To add her already diversified experience, while she was at this school her parents, both of whom were educators, hosted some Peace Corps volunteers who had come to the village to teach English to members of the community, and this presented a complete cultural integration and transformation opportunity for her.
Amupolo enrolled at the University of Namibia for an undergraduate degree where she majored in media studies. This course would enable her to do something that she always wanted to do, which is to interact with the people. The programme also encompassed the technological aspect that she had grown to love as the years progressed.
Here she met people like the former Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) news anchor, Robin Tyson and current executive at the same corporation, Umbi Karuaihe-Upi, as lecturers and the transfer of knowledge and energy that ensued, according to her, was magical.
“I found myself leaning more towards the corporate communications field as opposed to journalism and Karuaihe-Upi was particularly impressed and went as far as asking if I would not like to join the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation as a trainee,” she reveals.
This, she says, led to her becoming a Public Relations and Communications Intern at the NBC. She was later appointed the Public Relations Officer (PRO), enabling her to rise through the ranks and reporting to the Director-General of the institution.
“But then I wanted something bigger and exciting. And I wanted to move up already,” she reveals adding that her next stop was propelled by the launch of the Namibia Global Fund Programme , which saw her joining the team as a senior liaison officer, and reporting to the Director who continuously threw her into the deep end as a training ground.
“For example, during the last visit of (former Zambian president) Dr Kenneth Kaunda to Namibia, my role was initially that of compiling the programme and tightening up all stakeholder relations. The next thing, I was leading the assignment, spending the whole week with the statesman and his delegation. My boss was nowhere visible because she believed I could handle the assignment,” she says.

“I am an ordinary rural-bred Namibian woman who is on a mission to do extraordinary things and is very passionate about taking something uniquely Namibian to the world,” she says.
Amupolo was born and bred in a small village near Oshikuku, where she attended primary school before completing her high education at Oshigambo High School.
“I spent a good five years there and I must say the experience was probably the biggest eye-opener for me, with that school being a very diverse global environment. We had teachers from Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and the US World Teach. What is notable is that emphasis at this school was put on science,” Amupolo says.
To add her already diversified experience, while she was at this school her parents, both of whom were educators, hosted some Peace Corps volunteers who had come to the village to teach English to members of the community, and this presented a complete cultural integration and transformation opportunity for her.
Amupolo enrolled at the University of Namibia for an undergraduate degree where she majored in media studies. This course would enable her to do something that she always wanted to do, which is to interact with the people. The programme also encompassed the technological aspect that she had grown to love as the years progressed.
Here she met people like the former Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) news anchor, Robin Tyson and current executive at the same corporation, Umbi Karuaihe-Upi, as lecturers and the transfer of knowledge and energy that ensued, according to her, was magical.
“I found myself leaning more towards the corporate communications field as opposed to journalism and Karuaihe-Upi was particularly impressed and went as far as asking if I would not like to join the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation as a trainee,” she reveals.
This, she says, led to her becoming a Public Relations and Communications Intern at the NBC. She was later appointed the Public Relations Officer (PRO), enabling her to rise through the ranks and reporting to the Director-General of the institution.
“But then I wanted something bigger and exciting. And I wanted to move up already,” she reveals adding that her next stop was propelled by the launch of the Namibia Global Fund Programme , which saw her joining the team as a senior liaison officer, and reporting to the Director who continuously threw her into the deep end as a training ground.
“For example, during the last visit of (former Zambian president) Dr Kenneth Kaunda to Namibia, my role was initially that of compiling the programme and tightening up all stakeholder relations. The next thing, I was leading the assignment, spending the whole week with the statesman and his delegation. My boss was nowhere visible because she believed I could handle the assignment,” she says.

On the Job

Amupolo’s exploits landed her a scholarship for a Master’s degree programme in International Communications at the Leeds University in the United Kingdom. Her studies looked at trading in global settings, which ironically is what she is currently doing at Namdia.
“It is mainly about managing imperialism and creating political economic power for the country, whether it is from a natural resource management point of view or an industry development perspective,” Amupolo says.
But before joining Namdia, she had a short stint at the Commonwealth Secretariat, where she helped the organisation with the acceleration of technological advancement in Africa, the Caribbean and other commonwealth member countries. As fate might have it, Namibia was one of the target countries for the programme and she succumbed to the pressure to come home to help in the establishment of CRAN.
“I came home and got my hands dirty as we transitioned from the old dispensation of the Namibia Communication Commission (NCC) to CRAN. We hired management and ensured the company was operationalized,” she revealed.
She says her years in the telecommunication and infrastructure sector, were eventful and led to the transformation of commercial entities such as PowerCom, which was in the care and maintenance state, into a liquid entity which was now deploying infrastructure – a clear testament to her sound leadership ability.
Eventually she landed the Namdia job, and her role in the corporate sphere has adopted a near face.
“Our job at NAMDIA is to create premium value for Namibian diamonds by developing a price determinant mechanism to see how much the gems can fetch outside of the De Beers price book,” she reveals.
“The government believes that we probably could fetch better values and as a shareholder and NAMDIA model has so far proven so, we are operating under the joint diamond sale and marketing agreement of 15% entitlement between De Beers and the government,” she says.

…Women in corporate Nam

Speaking to women who have made it to the upper echelons of corporate, one gets to realise that they shared one common threat. That it was never easy.
Amupolo concurs that while many women professionals will always tell the good story and shy away from the trials, these challenges are inherent.
“As a young professional there are a lot of challenges one encounters, especially when you are a woman. We have to deal with sexual harassment at the workplaces. And speaking out about it is always not easy. Remaining ethical, standing your ground and closer to your moral value is not easy when your job is on the line,” Amupolo maintains.
She however says despite these challenges, Namibian women in the corporate sector have demonstrated they harbour more leadership prowess than their male counterparts.
“We have seen that where women are in charge, the profit margins increase by at least 10% as opposed to their male counterparts. This is because women are multi-dimensional and have the ability to multi task,” she says.
Be that as it may, Amupolo says, the fact remains that women are still not where they are meant to be as they still do not get the necessary respect in the corporate sphere.

…balancing family and career

Traditionally women are seen as the caregivers. To this end, society appears to be against those who are growing in their chosen careers and as they continue to grow professionally so pressure mounts in terms of societal expectations such as marriage and raising children. In some instances, this can derail a woman’s career goals.
This was however not the case with Amupolo. Being a sinlgle mother to a six-year-old daughter and raising an 10-year-old niece, Amupolo is determined to juggle her roles and ensure that none of them lags behind.
Says Amupolo: “I am yet to meet a woman who says she has reached equilibrium in balancing these three aspects. It’s a matter of carving out space for each of them. My mentor always says there’s 24 hours in a day, which means a day does not end at 5 pm. When we knock off at five, we go into a new shift. And some of us doing doctoral studies or serving on different boards, have three to four shifts.”
She maintained that the trick is in aligning one’s personal goals with those of the corporate entity to promote cohesion. And by the look of things, the professed workaholic and bookworm has found the balance as she still finds time to play hard when that mood hits.
“I might come across as an introverted nerd, but I am actually the opposite. I like dancing, cooking and hosting people,” she reveals.
That said, it is an undeniable fact that Amupolo is a unique Namibian gem. Like diamonds that she is managing, she is a rough cut diamond still being polished – and very soon her story will be documented – that of the ‘Refined Namibian Gem.’