Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
Board Chair, Gavi Alliance
Nigeria
Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
A development economist and former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has served as Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, since January 2016.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala brings more than 30 years of development and financial expertise to the Gavi Board. She has twice served as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, most recently between 2011 and 2015 – a role that encompassed the expanded portfolio of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy. In 2006 she served as Foreign Affairs Minister. She has also held several key positions at the World Bank, including as Managing Director.
As a former Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s experience and expertise are particularly valuable as Gavi strives to ensure that immunisation programmes are financially sustainable. Her strong commitment to finding private sector solutions to development challenges further contributes to Gavi’s mission.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala is currently a senior adviser at Lazard and serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Center for Global Development, among others. She is also the chair of African Risk Capacity, a specialised agency of the African Union to help member states prepare for and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
She was named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 greatest world leaders in 2015, and by Forbes for five consecutive years as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. In 2014, Dr Okonjo-Iweala was recognised by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
She is the author of several books including Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria, published in 2012.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University, and holds a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has received numerous honours, including Honorary Doctorates.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named among the Inaugural List of 100 Most Influential African Women in 2019 by Avance Media.
Photo Credit: Amazons Watch Magazine