ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ACHA LEKE is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, and Chairman of its Africa practice. He is based in Johannesburg. Acha joined McKinsey in 1999, went on to establish the firm’s Nigeria office in 2010, and has been at the forefront of McKinsey’s expansion across Africa, working in more than twenty countries. His leadership roles at McKinsey, include senior partner in charge of global recruiting and council member of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). Acha is motivated by one overarching question: “Will it have mattered to Africa that I lived?” This prompted him to cofound the African Leadership Group, which includes the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership Network. He has worked to ease travel restrictions in Africa, which has led many countries to drop visa requirements for fellow Africans, and serves on a committee to reform the African Union, chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Acha has received many awards and recognitions, has authored dozens of articles for publications including Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly, and is coauthor of MGI’s widely recognized Lions on the Move reports on the progress and potential of Africa’s economies.

MUTSA CHIRONGA is divisional executive for consumer banking at Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banking groups, where his focus is on growing the customer base and deepening relationships with more than seven million existing customers. Mutsa was previously a partner at McKinsey & Company, based in Johannesburg. In that role he worked with banks in more than a dozen African countries on topics including strategy, expansion across the African continent, and performance transformation. Mutsa is an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, one of approximately two hundred young leaders from across Africa. He has published widely. He was lead author of the McKinsey reports Roaring to Life: Growth and Innovation in African Retail Banking and Mobile Financial Services in Africa: Winning the Battle for the Customer. With Acha Leke, he coauthored the McKinsey Global Institute’s Lions on the Move reports on Africa’s economies.

GEORGES DESVAUX is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, a former managing partner of the firm’s African and Japanese offices, and a member of McKinsey’s shareholders’ council, the firm’s governing body. In his three decades with McKinsey he has been based in Brussels, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, and Johannesburg. He is now based in Hong Kong, where his focus includes advising Asian companies on their African expansion strategies. Georges has supported retailers, financial institutions, and technology companies on international growth, postmerger integration, marketing, operations, and organizational design. As a leader of McKinsey’s global marketing practice, he has helped build the firm’s consumer insights and analytics capabilities and has coauthored numerous reports and articles on consumer and macroeconomic trends—including the MGI report Lions on the Move II: Realizing the Potential of Africa’s Economies. Since 2007, Georges has co-led McKinsey’s Women Matter research initiative on women’s advancement in business. He has coauthored several reports and articles on the topic, including Women Matter Africa.