Joyce Hilda Banda (née Ntila; born 12 April 1950) is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She is the founder and leader of the People's Party, created in 2011. An educator and grassroots women's rights activist, she was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and the Vice-President of Malawi from May 2009 to April 2012. She had served in various roles as a member of Parliament and as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare before she became the President of the Republic of Malawi. Before her active career in politics, she was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, founder of the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project. Banda was Malawi's fourth president and its first female president and second female head of state, after Elizabeth II. She was the second woman to become the president in the African continent, after Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She was also the country's first female vice-president. In June 2014, Forbes named President Banda as the 40th most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Africa. In October 2014, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women. Personal and family life Joyce Hilda Ntila was born on 12 April 1950 in Malemia, a village in the Zomba District of Nyasaland (now Malawi). Her father was a police brass band musician. She began her career as a secretary and became a well-known figure during the rule of dictator Hastings Banda (no relation). She has a Cambridge School Certificate, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education from Columbus University (an unaccredited distance education institution), a Bachelor of Social Studies in Gender Studies from Atlantic International University (also a distance learning institution) and a Diploma in Management of NGOs from the International Labour Organization (ILO) Centre in Turin, Italy. Currently, she is studying for a Master of Arts Degree in Leadership at Royal Roads University in Canada. She received an honorary doctorate in 2013 from Jeonju University. She married Roy Kachale, with whom she had three children. At the age 25, she was living in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1975, a growing women's movement in Kenya motivated Banda to take her three children and leave what