Africa Emerging: Trade, Investment and Opportunity Across the Continent

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Event Details

Date:
Thursday, March 15, 2012
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 
Location:
Credit Suisse
1 Madison Ave
New York , NY
Event type
Lecture / Panel  

Event Transcripts and Video

The IMF recently projected economic growth in Africa to reach 5.8 percent in 2012, well above that of most western economies. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow at a faster clip than Brazil and India, boasting six of the 10 fastest growing economies over the last 10 years and projected to have seven of the ten fastest growing economies over the next five.  But where is this growth coming from and how is this boom different than others in Africa's past? This panel discussion, which is part of the David A. Coulter/Warburg Pincus LLC Lecture Series, focused on Africa's rapidly changing business environment, what's driving it, and how it could reshape the continent.

Event transcript

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Event Speakers

    • Ali Velshi - Moderator
      CNN Chief Business Correspondent and Anchor of Your Money and World Business Today on CNN International

      Connecting the news through finance, global issues, contemporary governance, education and big ideas, CNN's Ali Velshi executes several roles across CNN as the network's chief business correspondent and anchor of Your Money and World Business Today on CNN International.

      In addition to his anchor responsibilities, Velshi frequently reports from the field on breaking news events, politics, and in-depth personal profiles that offer insights into global issues.  Velshi's in-depth reporting for CNN's "How The Wheels Came Off" was honored with a National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting in 2010. He anchored CNN's breaking news coverage of the attempted terror attack on a flight into Detroit, delivering CNN's worldwide newsgathering for which the network was nominated for a 2010 Emmy. He was also honored with a 2010 Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, Queen's
      University.     

      Born in Kenya and raised in Toronto, Velshi graduated from Queens University in Canada with a degree in religion. He is a member of the Grand Challenges Advisor Committee for the National Academy of Engineering. Velshi co-authored "How To Speak Money," with CNN's Christine Romans, which released in 2011; and authored "Gimme My Money Back," which released in 2009.

    • Ali Velshi
    • Teresa Clarke - Panelist
      Chairman & CEO, Africa.com LLC and former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs

      Teresa H. Clarke is the chairman and CEO of Africa.com LLC. She launched the company in 2010 after resigning from her position as a managing director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs & Co.

      Ms. Clarke’s goals for Africa.com are twofold: to change the way the world sees Africa, and to be the online platform for those changes. Africa.com is the fastest growing Africa-related website, with nearly three million page views per month.

      At Goldman Sachs & Co, Ms. Clarke led mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and in Europe. She also led the Goldman Sachs Africa-Aspen Program, a leadership development project for emerging public- and private-sector African leaders. The program was developed in cooperation with the Aspen Institute.

      Ms. Clarke lived in South Africa from 1995-2000, during which time she taught corporate finance in the MBA program at Wits Business School and served on the investment committee of a private equity fund that invested in the Southern Africa region.

      *Read FPA Whitehead Fellow Jake Bright's Interview with Teresa Clarke

    • Teresa Clarke
    • Tony O. Elumelu - Panelist
      Chairman, Heirs Holdings Limited and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation

      Tony O. Elumelu is Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropy, whose mission is to identify and groom African business leaders and entrepreneurs to achieve the Foundation’s central objective of enhancing the competitiveness and growth of Africa’s private sector. He is also Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, an African investment company deploying proprietary capital for the long term in the most promising sectors of the continent. His reputation as a prominent African business leader is founded on his vision and strategy for United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), a single country bank he transformed into a Pan-African financial services institution serving over 7 million customers in 20 African countries and operating in Europe and the United States. He retired as Group Chief Executive Officer of UBA in July 2010.

      Mr. Elumelu is the leading proponent of Africapitalism: the private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through investments that create economic prosperity and social wealth. His passionate commitment to proving that the African private sector can be the primary driver and beneficiary of Africa’s economic transformation is evident by the numerous honors, board and committee appointments he has.

    • Tony O. Elumelu
    • Ambassador (ret..) Joseph Wilson
      Chairman, Symbion Power Africa

      Ambassador (ret.) Joseph Wilson serves as the Chairman of Symbion Power, Africa. Ambassador Wilson has extensive experience in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. As an American diplomat, he served as Ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe in the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He also served as Special Assistant to President Clinton in charge of African Affairs at the national Security Council. In addition to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe, Ambassador Wilson also served in Niger, Togo, South Africa, Burundi, and Congo (Brazzaville).

    • Ambassador (ret..) Joseph Wilson

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