OUR FOUNDERS

ACHA LEKE

Chairman of McKinsey Africa

Acha is the Chairman of McKinsey’s Africa region and the senior partner in charge of global recruiting for McKinsey. He began his career at McKinsey as a summer associate in South Africa and rejoined the firm in Atlanta in 1999 before transferring back to Johannesburg in 2002 to help expand the firm’s activities across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Besides ALN, Acha is also a co-founder and member of the Global Advisory Council of ALA. He has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and has received numerous recognitions including: Forbes Top 10 Youngest Power Men in Africa and 100 most Influential Africans.

Acha is currently a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Economic Growth and Social Inclusion, after having served for 8 years on the Global Agenda Council on Africa, the ONE Africa Policy Advisory Board, the Lagos Business School advisory board, and President Kagame’s African Union Reform-Steering Committee. He co-authored McKinsey’s highly-acclaimed series of Lions on the Move reports as well as the Africa’s Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World’s Next Big Growth Market by Harvard Business Press.

Acha earned his PhD and MS from Stanford University, and a BS from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated as the first black valedictorian in the school’s history. Originally from Cameroon, he splits his time between South Africa and Nigeria.

FRED SWANIKER

Chairman of African Leadership Group

Fred is deeply passionate about Africa and believes the missing ingredient on the continent is good leadership. In line with this, he has co-founded four organizations that aim to catalyze a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial African leaders: ALA, ALN, ALU and ALX. Collectively, these institutions aim to groom 3 million leaders for Africa 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 Fred’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.

Fred 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.