Ronak Gopaldas is a political economist, “pracademic,” writer and speaker. His work focuses on the intersection of politics, economics and business in Africa. He is a director at Signal Risk and a fellow at the Centre for African Management and Markets at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Gopaldas previously served as the head of country risk at Rand Merchant Bank. He was a 2019 Tutu Fellow and is an alumnus of the Asian Forum on Global Governance, as well as the Young African Leaders Initiative.

In 2016, Gopaldas delivered a powerful TEDx talk entitled "Embracing Africa: Beyond the Binaries." A prominent voice in print, radio and television, both locally and internationally, Gopaldas frequently appears on such networks as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNBC Africa, and he publishes opinion and analysis pieces regularly. He has spoken at several of the world’s top universities and at leading Africa-focused policy and business conferences as a moderator, panelist and keynote speaker.