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Teresa Clarke

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Teresa H. Clarke
Born (1963-02-08) February 8, 1963 (age 61)
California, USA
Occupation(s)President, chairman and CEO at Africa.com; former managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co; co-founder at Student Sponsorship Programme South Africa

Teresa Hillary Clarke (born February 8, 1963), is an American investment banker and entrepreneur.[1] She is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs and co-founded a scholarship and mentoring non-profit, Student Sponsorship Programme in South Africa. Considered an expert on Africa, since 2010, she has funded and led Africa.com.[2]

Early life and education

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Teresa H. Clarke was born and raised in California. Her mother, Dr. Audrey Clarke, served for ten years as the superintendent of schools in Lynwood, California and later became a professor at California State University at Northridge in the graduate school of education.[3] Clarke has a bachelor's degree in economics, cum laude, from Harvard College (1980–1984), an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1989) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1989). She has served on the boards of Southern Africa Legal Services (Legal Resource Centre), the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Opportunity Agenda, and serves on the board of the Student Sponsorship Programme South Africa.

Early career

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In August 1989, Teresa Clarke joined the real-estate department at Goldman Sachs & Co in New York as an associate. She worked in the investment banking division for six years before leaving to find and serve as managing director of the South African office of Abt Associates, the Cambridge (Mass.) public-policy & management consulting firm. Her clients in South Africa included companies such as Transnet (holding company of South African Airways), Johnson & Johnson, and institutions involved in the coordination of the education and public health development sectors.

Teresa Clarke lived in South Africa from 1995 to 2000. During her time in South Africa, Clarke also taught corporate finance in the MBA program at Wits Business School.[4]

In 1999, she co-founded Student Sponsorship Programme South Africa (SSP), which provides academically talented but economically disadvantaged South African students with scholarships and support to attend private schools. The non-profit trust program based in Johannesburg has provided more than $10 million in scholarships to more than 1000 children. Some 90 percent of the students complete the program. About 90 percent of SSP's graduates qualify to attend university. For her work with SSP ZA, Clarke has been recognized by the South African government, among many others.[5]

From 2004 to 2010, Clarke returned to Goldman Sachs. Her first contribution was to play a key role in launching the firm's Global Markets Institute. She later moved back into the investment banking division where she led mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance transactions for Fortune 500 companies in the US and Europe. She was also the manager of the GS Africa Aspen Program, a leadership development project for emerging public- and private-sector African leaders created in cooperation with the Aspen Institute.[6]

Africa

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On February 12, 2010, Teresa Clarke ended a 12-year career at Goldman Sachs to focus on Africa.com,[7] She launched Africa.com in February 2010, her goals for Africa.com were to change the way the world engages online with Africa and to be the platform for those changes,[8] stating:[9]

"I've owned the Africa.com domain name for around ten years. In 2000, I was hired to help the firm that owned the domain name figure out what to do with it. When that organization disbanded, I was fortunate enough to secure the ownership of the domain name. "Over most of the last decade, I worked at Goldman Sachs. During my free time, I imagined what I would do with the domain name, and I looked at other African websites." "I love working for Africa.com because our work is so broad. We are embarking upon a deal that will provide our users information on the financial markets in Africa, and we recently published a blog on developments in public education in South Africa. I work with a great team of people that I have hand chosen, and I couldn't be any happier."

Clarke has been featured as an Africa expert at the World Economic Forum in Africa and India, the Milken Institute[10] and the Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum. In 2008, she received the Freedom Day Award from the South African consulate. On November 4, 2010, Clarke was a speaker at African Leadership Network's inaugural ceremony. This event is the equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos but organized by and for Africans and people of African descent.[11] She has also lectured at various institutes of higher learning, including Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Tufts universities, and the Wharton School.[12]

On November 7, 2010, Clarke was among the honorees being celebrated on Black Entertainment Television's (BET) event called Black Girls Rock!.[13]

Clarke is the writer, producer and director of Africa Straight Up, a 30-minute documentary made in partnership with MTV Africa and TEDTalks that was released in 2012.[14] While originally produced for online viewing, the film aired on the Africa Channel in the U.S. and UK, as well as on Dutch Television. It also was screened by The White House, which had contributed to the film's production,[14] during the 2014 United States–Africa Leaders Summit and by the Council on Foreign Relations and was shown as in-flight entertainment on South African Airways and Arik Airways.[15]

In 2013, Clarke was invited to join The White House Traveling Press Corps and traveled with President Obama and his family to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania. That same year she delivered a TEDx Talk at TEDxEuston in London, "The Diaspora Divide".[16]

In 2014, she was featured on the Harvard Business School website in a video on Making a Difference. Her life story was also the subject of a profile celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Women at Harvard Business School.[17] That year she was invited to the Fletcher Inclusive Business Summit. A summit at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, whose grounds have been preserved with the express mission to encourage pause and enable leaders from around the world to address the world's many complex needs.[18]

In November 2014, U.S. secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker appointed Clarke and 14 other private sector leaders to President Obama's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA). Its members were selected to advise the president, through the secretary of commerce, on strengthening commercial engagement between the United States and Africa.[19]

In May 2020, she led the Africa.com Crisis Management for African Business Leaders webinar series entitled "Women are Proving to Be Great Leaders During COVID-19. Is this the Pathway to Power?", and its panel, which included former deputy president of South Africa, Under Secretary of the United Nations and executive director of the UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Stanbic Bank Uganda CEO Anne Juuko, Oby Ezekwesili of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative, and Zambian youth activist and journalist Natasha Wang Mwansa, who is the youngest recipient of the WHO Global Health Leaders award.[20][21]

Clarke is fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has received numerous awards for her work in Africa, including the Government of South Africa's Freedom Day Award,[22] the Education Africa's Humanitarian Award for Africa, the Merrill Lynch/Africa 2.0 Business Leadership Award,[23] the International Women's Society Humanitarian of the Year Award,[24] the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational Leadership Award, and the Girl Scouts of Connecticut Woman of Achievement.[25] Clarke was named one of the top 25 Women in Business by the Network Journal.[26]

Personal life

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Clarke has married twice. Her second marriage took place at Martha's Vineyard on August 4, 2007, with Dr. John Edward Ellis, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.[27]

References

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  1. ^ "Teresa H. Clarke Is Married to Walter K. Booker". New York Times. 4 June 1989. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  2. ^ "About Us - Africa.com". www.africa.com. 2022-11-19. Retrieved 2024-09-11.
  3. ^ "Fieldwork in Educational Administration" (PDF). Education Leadership and Policy Department. 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2015.[permanent dead link‍]
  4. ^ "Teresa Hillary Clarke - Bloomberg". Bloomberg Business. 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Africa.com CEO Teresa Clarke Honored on BET". PRWeb. 5 November 2010. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Life after the City: from Goldman to Africa". Financial News. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Why I Resigned From Goldman Sachs". Huffington Post. 14 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  8. ^ "Goldman Sachs Managing Director Teresa Clarke Resigns to Run Reorganized Tech Company, Africa.com". PR Newswire. 12 February 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  9. ^ "Africa.com: The domain that launched a startup". MemeBurn. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  10. ^ "Global Conference Milken Institute". Milken Institute. 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  11. ^ "Black Girls Rock!". Huffington Post. 11 March 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Africa's Portal TO DOING BUSINESS WITH THE United States". virtualconferenceafrica.com. Africa.com. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Black Girls Rock! Exclusives: Teresa Clarke - Acceptance Speech". BET. 2011. Archived from the original on November 4, 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Africa Straight Up". IMDB. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  15. ^ "WATCH: Africa Straight Up – An Original Documentary Film by Africa.com". Africa.com. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  16. ^ ""Bridging the Diaspora Divide" - Teresa Clark at TEDxEuston 2013". TedX. 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  17. ^ "Making A Difference". HBS. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  18. ^ "Bellagio Inclusive Business Summit". 25 August 2014. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  19. ^ "U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker Appoints Advisory Council to Advance President's Business Priorities for Africa". Department of Commerce USGOV. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  20. ^ "Africa.com Webinar Series to Feature Influential Women Leaders". Africanews.com. May 11, 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  21. ^ ""NOT JUST ANOTHER CONVERSATION ABOUT WOMEN"-AFRICA.COM WEBINAR SERIES TO FEATURE INFLUENTIAL WOMEN LEADERS". Venturesafrica.com. May 11, 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  22. ^ "The Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs". Wellesley. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Africa.Com Recognized For Leadership by Global Business Organizations". 16 November 2012. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  24. ^ "The International Women's Society of Nigeria Presents Its Humanitarian of the Year Award to Africa.com CEO Teresa Clarke". 11 November 2011. Archived from the original on April 27, 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  25. ^ "Why I Resigned from Glodma" (PDF). DSE Digital Out-of-Home Network Operators Conference. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2014.[permanent dead link‍]
  26. ^ "25 Influential Black Women in Business". The Network Journal. 2011. Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  27. ^ Smith, Lois (September 2, 2007). "Teresa Clarke and John Ellis". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
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