Fred Swaniker

Founder & Chief Executive Officer
African Leadership Academy

For several generations, Fred’s family has been involved in the founding of schools in Africa. The many examples of educational entrepreneurs in his family demonstrated to Fred the enormous impact of education in transforming society, and taught Fred how to develop schools of excellence in Africa. Fred first had the idea for African Leadership Academy while living in Nigeria in 2003 and realizing the urgent need to increase the supply of effective and ethical leaders for Africa. He brings deep experience launching and managing private educational institutions of excellence in Africa. Fred helped launch and has been a director of Mount Pleasant English Medium School, one of the top-performing private elementary schools in Botswana. More recently, Fred founded and led the launch of Global Leadership Adventures, a leadership development program for youth throughout the world. In the three years since launch, Global Leadership Adventures has more than doubled its enrolment and expanded to five campuses around the world (Ghana, South Africa, India, Brazil, and Costa Rica.) Fred also gained entrepreneurial experience when he was founding Chief Operating Officer of Synexa Life Sciences, a biotechnology company in Cape Town that today employs 30 South African scientists

Fred brings a unique pan-African perspective to African Leadership Academy. He grew up across the African continent, living in Ghana, the Gambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, and he has lived as an adult in South Africa and Nigeria. During his time as a consultant for McKinsey and Company, Fred provided strategic advice to the management teams of large companies in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Fred holds an MBA degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar, a distinction awarded to the top ten percent of each graduating class. Fred also holds a B.A. degree magna cum laude in economics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.