Michael Sudarkasa is widely known and respected internationally for his work in promoting African private sector development as well as international and intra-Africa trade and investment. He is a commercial attorney by training and a passionate African economic development practitioner.

 

Michael received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988 and his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1985. Fluent in French, he has travelled, worked, or provided training and development assistance in 58 countries throughout the world (including 36 in Africa).

 

He has authored several articles and publications related to African trade and investment, including: The UNDP Inclusive Business Finance Field Guide; The African Business Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Business Resources for African Trade and Investment and is co-author of Investing in Africa: An Insider’s Guide to the Ultimate Emerging Market (John Wiley & Sons).

 

Michael currently serves as a member of the University of Michigan’s Provost Advisory Committee, as Chair of the U of M African Studies Center Advisory Board, and is on the Board of the University of Witwatersrand’s African Center for the Study of the United States.

Michael Sudarkasa joins African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) after 17 years as the founder and CEO of Africa Business Group (ABG), a Johannesburg based economic development company whose focus is increasing the role of the African private sector in the implementation of the continental development agenda.

 

While CEO of ABG, Michael expanded the company’s client base from work on local economic development projects with the City of Johannesburg, the provincial government of Gauteng and the South African National Treasury, to working continentally with the African Union’s Development Agency (AUDA) (formerly NEPAD), with the African Union headquarters itself, and with a number of United Nations’ agencies, beginning with the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa in 2009, and including thereafter: the United Nations Development Program Africa Regional Bureau, the Food and Agriculture Organization Africa and Southern Africa Bureaus, the U.N. Secretary General’s Office of the Special Envoy to the Great Lakes, the U.N. Disaster Risk Reduction Agency, and most recently the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.