News & Highlights

  • November 2023
  • EVENT

Professor Paul Gompers’ Visit to Africa

November 2023, Professor Paul Gompers visited six cities in sub-Saharan Africa (Abidjan, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kigali, Lagos, Nairobi) as part of his research on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Emerging Markets and in preparation for his course Entrepreneurship Outside Silicon Valley. During this immersion trip, Professor Gompers and members of the ARC team met with leading members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the cities visited, including entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, and other representatives of relevant organizations. The trip provided an important opportunity for Professor Gompers to engage with HBS alumni, Africa Advisory Board (AAB) members, leading businesspeople, and industry experts to share his research and learn about the progress of entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • October 2023
  • EVENT

Global Initiative Staff Summit

In late October 2023, the ARC team attended the HBS Global Staff Summit in Boston. The Global Summit brought together over 65 HBS staff from 16 research centers and offices worldwide to find areas for collaboration amongst themselves and with HBS faculty and staff based on campus. During the Summit ARC together with each of the other centers made a presentation to the broader HBS community about the center’s work. In its presentation the ARC team highlighted megatrends on the African continent and the opportunities and challenges they presented for African organizations. The ARC team also highlighted the various cases, roundtables, immersions, and research projects that it had worked with faculty on. In its presentation the ARC also shared information about its support of various HBS admissions and alumni events on the continent.
  • October 2023
  • EVENT

HBS Executive Education Africa Roadshow in Lagos, Abidjan, and Johannesburg

The Executive Education team supported by HBS Professor Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, faculty chair of the Senior Executive Program for Africa (SEPA) hosted three events for HBS alumni, potential executive education participants and other stakeholders in Lagos, Nigeria; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Johannesburg, South Africa. The events enabled conversations with prospective participants in the SEPA program. In a week, the team hosted close to 200 participants and held three African case study discussions. The roadshow also featured two inspiring African women, Fatim Cisse (SEPA 2016) in Abidjan and Catherine Day (SEPA 2022) in Johannesburg, who shared their HBS experiences. The ExecEd team was also honored to meet with Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, the Minister of Mines and Energy for Cote d’Ivoire and an HBS alumnus (AMP202).
  • October 2023
  • EVENT

MBA Admissions Tours

Between September and October 2023, the ARC supported HBS admissions’ visit to the region. Jay Katatumba and Vai Schierholtz, both from MBA Admissions, hosted multiple in-person information sessions in Africa. The sessions were held in Abidjan, Accra, Cape Town, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Kampala, and Nairobi. These events were designed for prospective MBA applicants to learn more about the MBA Program, life at HBS, and the post-MBA experience through the voices of alumni and other community members. The events gathered more than 100 attendees.

New Research on the Region

  • February 2024
  • Case

Finberg: Corporate Venture Capital in Turkey

By: Paul A. Gompers and Namrata Arora

In December 2021, Murat Özyeğin, Chairman of Fiba Holding, along with Ömer Mert and İhsan Elgin, engaged in discussions about the future of United Payment, a fintech company in which Finberg, a subsidiary of Fibabanka, held a 20% stake. Finberg, established in 2018 as Turkey's first fintech-focused corporate venture capital firm, had invested significantly in United Payment, contributing to its substantial growth in transaction volume from $352 million in 2019 to almost $865 million in 2020. With an offer from OYAK, Turkey's largest pension fund, to invest in United Payment, the leadership team deliberated on whether to accept the proposal or wait for further growth opportunities, considering the company's plans for international expansion and the competitive landscape in the fintech sector. The decision involved weighing the potential benefits of OYAK's investment against the risks of stiff competition and its implications on United Payment's competitive advantage and profitability.

  • January 2024
  • Case

Mariam Braimah: Designing a Career in Tech

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Hannah Riley Bowles and Michael Norris

In 2022, Mariam Braimah, a digital designer working at Netflix, is considering the next move in her career. She has spent several years at Netflix, and in her spare time, using her savings, has founded a design-focused fellowship program and a consumer insights company based in Nigeria. Is now the time to leave Netflix and start working full time for her African ventures?

  • January 2024
  • Teaching Material

Nigeria: Africa's Giant

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 723-056.

See more research

Johannesburg Staff

Pippa Tubman Armerding
Executive Director
Tafadzwa Choruma
Administrative, Research and Program Assistant

Lagos Staff

Temitayo Lawal
Senior Researcher

Nairobi Staff

Kuria Kamau
Senior Researcher