DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE IMPECCABLE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AT THE HARVARD AFRICA BUSINESS CONFERENCE? FIND OUT ABOUT THEIR STORY

From the Harvard African Business Conference website

Euvin Naidoo

HEAD OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PUBLIC SECTOR PRACTICES FOR AFRICA, BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Euvin Naidoo is the first South African Partner and Managing Director to join The Boston Consulting Group's Johannesburg office where he serves as Head of the Financial Services and Public Sector Practices for Africa. Euvin's global and pan-African experience over the past 15 years encompasses engagement across more than 20 African countries within investment banking, personal and business banking, insurance, and risk, incorporating public-private partnerships, digital innovation, infrastructure and energy projects. Selected in 2009 as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF), in 2012 he was recruited to the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils, where he served on the United States Council for 2 terms. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School. Columbia University’s Journal of International Affairs has named Euvin one of the ‘Five Faces of African Innovation and Entrepreneurship’. In 2011, he was selected by Forbes as one of the African continent's Top 10 most ‘Powerful and Influential Men’ of his generation.

Mohanmmed Dewji

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF METL

Mohammed Dewji is a businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former politician. He serves as the President and CEO of MeTL, a Tanzanian conglomerate founded by his father in the 1970s. Mohammed is single-handedly responsible for increasing MeTL’s revenues from $30 million to over $1.5 billion between 1999 and 2015. Currently, the MeTL group has investments in manufacturing, agriculture, trading, finance, mobile telephony, insurance, real estate, transport and logistics, and food and beverages. The group is conducting business in 11 countries and employs over 28,000 people with the aim to target over 100,000 people by 2021. MeTL’s operations contribute ~3.5% of Tanzania’s GDP. Mohammed served as Member of Parliament from 2005 – 2015 for his home town of Singida, after which he resigned from politics. In March 2015 Forbes magazine named him as the 21st richest person in Africa, with an estimated net worth of US $1.25 billion, having also been the first Tanzanian billionaire on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2013.

In addition to his many endeavors in the business arena, Mohammed also has demonstrated an exemplary record of contributing to the well-being of the people of his country via the Mo Dewji Foundation which he established in 2014. The scope of his contributions have covered educational assistance, healthcare, improving accessibility to basic needs such as water and community projects. Most recently Mohammed joined the Giving Pledge – an initiative started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. This pledge is an effort to help address society's most pressing problems by inviting the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetime or upon their deaths. Mohammed is the first Tanzanian and one of the few Africans that have made the pledge in this group of 150+ billionaires, some of whom include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg and Strive Masiyiwa.

Samuel Alemayehu

HEAD OF AFRICA CAMBRIDGE INDUSTRIES LTD.

Mr. Samuel Alemayehu started his career in Silicon Valley as a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder of three successful tech ventures based in California. He began his professional career as an Associate at Venrock Associates, where he focused on consumer media services around the world.  He then moved to Africa in 2009, founding and investing in numerous companies across the continent and in a range of industries. Most recently he co-founded Cambridge Industries Ltd, to accelerate the implementation of pioneering infrastructure projects. Currently he is overseeing the construction of the first municipal waste-to-energy facility in Africa, located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as well as the development of renewable energy projects in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Somaliland and Djibouti.

Samuel is an active angel investor globally and sits on the board of numerous companies. He is an expert on technology investments and the development of renewable energy projects in Africa with an emphasis in waste-to-energy, biomass and wind. He is a graduate of Stanford University School of Engineering.

Colin Coleman

HEAD OF THE INVESTMENT BANKING DIVISION FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, GOLDMAN SACHS

Collin has been Head of the Investment Banking Division for Sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman Sachs since 2008, and head of the South African office, a role he has held since he joined Goldman Sachs in 2000. In 2015, he was named member of the Investment Banking Services EMEA Captains Group. Colin is also a member of the Growth Markets Franchise Group. In 2013, he authored “Two Decades of Freedom,” a Goldman Sachs report on South Africa’s progress since 1994. Colin was named managing director in 2002 and partner in 2010. In the 1980s, he was involved in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and later in its constitutional transition. From 1989 to 1994, Colin was an executive director for the Consultative Business Movement (CBM). He served in working groups of the multi-party talks, facilitated the International Mediation Forum and helped to negotiate the agreement to facilitate all parties’ participation in South Africa’s 1994 elections.

In 1994, Colin was appointed senior consultant of public affairs at Standard Bank Investment Corporation (SBIC) and advisor to the SBIC chairman. He was then appointed director of public finance for Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. In 1997, Colin relocated to London, where he became a vice president of energy, power and oil for J.P. Morgan’s Investment Banking Advisory Department. In 1996, Colin was nominated as one of the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders for Tomorrow. He was also a recipient on behalf of the CBM of Harvard Business School’s “Business Statesman Award” in 1994 and was named one of Euromoney's World Top Ten “Financing Leaders for the 21st Century.” Colin is a member of the Board of Directors of both Business Leadership South Africa and the National Business Initiative. Colin earned a BA in Architecture from the University of Witwatersrand in 1988.