Strive Masiyiwa is the Chairman and founder of Econet Wireless, a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific.
His business interests also include renewable energy, water treatment, Coca Cola bottling, financial services and hospitality.
Mr. Masiyiwa serves on a number of international boards, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Advisory Board, the Africa Progress Panel, the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board for Sustainable Energy for All, Morehouse College and the Hilton Foundation’s Humanitarian Prize Jury. He is one of the founders, with Sir Richard Branson, of the global think tank, the Carbon War Room, and a founding member of the Global Business Coalition on Education.
Mr. Masiyiwa currently co-chairs the AU/WEF platform for investment in African agriculture, known as GROW Africa, and recently took over the Chairmanship of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) from Kofi Annan. He is Chair Emeritus of Nutrition International’s Board of Directors, a global organization focused on improving nutrition. In 2012, Mr. Masiyiwa was invited by US President Obama to address leaders at the Camp David G-8 Summit on how to increase food production and end hunger in parts of Africa.
As a philanthropist, he is a member of the Giving Pledge, and his contributions to education, health and development have been widely recognized. He and his wife finance the Higher Life Foundation, which provides scholarships to over 42,000 African orphans. In 2014, Mr. Masiyiwa was selected to Fortune Magazine’s list of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders”.