Yusuf Randera Rees

Yusuf is a 27-year-old mixed-race South African, and is the CEO of the Awethu Project. The Awethu Project has developed a unique Model for developing world-class* entrepreneurs from under-resourced communities. The Model is currently being tested in a 2-year Pilot Project in Johannesburg. It is a world-first, and if successful can be used to stimulate entrepreneurship while fundamentally impacting inequality and social injustice in South Africa and across the developing world.

Yusuf grew up in Johannesburg where he attended Sacred Heart College for primary school and Crawford College for high school. At Crawford Yusuf was elected Junior Mayor of Johannesburg. On his matric exams Yusuf was ranked 8th out of the approximately 110,000 students who took the matriculation exams in Gauteng that year. Yusuf then went to Harvard, where he graduated with honours in Economics in 2005. Yusuf then worked in Alternative Investments for Credit Suisse in New York and Zurich before going to Oxford University as a South Africa-at-Large Rhodes Scholar. At Oxford Yusuf completed an MSc in Financial Economics and an MSc in African Studies in July, 2009. During his time abroad Yusuf also started two sizable not-for-profit entities, one supported by the World Bank and the other by the Gates Foundation. Yusuf has also dedicated a great deal of time in his life to sport, and has represented South Africa in modern pentathlon, Gauteng in tennis, and Johannesburg in cricket.