Fred Swaniker

Fred Swaniker is on a mission to bring better leadership to Africa and the world. He is the founder and CEO of the African Leadership Group – an ecosystem of organizations that are catalyzing a new era of ethical, entrepreneurial African leaders. Over the past 15 years, he has founded and led the pre-university African Leadership Academy, the African Leadership University, the African Leadership Network and ALX — a next-generation leadership development and talent sourcing platform. Collectively, these endeavors aim to transform Africa by developing three million African leaders over a 50-year period.

A passionate entrepreneur, Fred has also co-founded Terra Education, a global education company, and Synexa Life Sciences, a biotechnology company. He has also worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in South Africa.

Among his accomplishments is Swaniker’s recognition as a TED Fellow, an Aspen Institute Fellow, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, an Echoing Green Fellow, one of Africa’s top 10 young “power men” by Forbes, and one of 115 young leaders selected to meet President Obama at the White House. More recently, Fred was nominated to the TIME 100 list of most influential people 2019.

Swaniker has an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar, a distinction awarded to the top 10% of each graduating class. He holds a BA in Economics with a minor in Mathematical Statistics from Macalester College (magna cum laude). He was born in Ghana but has lived and worked in about 10 different African countries.