Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Femi Babarinde
Thunderbird faculty who put Africa on the radar of a generation of business students.
Dr. Femi Babarinde is on the faculty of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University in Phoenix. His degrees are in Economics, Political Science and International Relations from Wittenberg University and Miami University, and he has authored research papers and books.
He was part of two ASU delegations that visited Ghana (March 2023) and Ethiopia (November 2023) to explore collaborations with universities there. He taught Thunderbird field seminars in South Africa (1997–2017) and Kenya (2010–2013), designed to put African business opportunities on students’ radar — many of whom returned to work in or with Africa. In 2003 he guided students to create a signature chocolate bar for the school, the first of its kind at any business school, through a partnership with an all-women South African micro-enterprise.
Since 2020 he has taught an annual, highly competitive program for early-career women from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and since 2016 he has presented to ASU-embedded Mandela Washington Fellows each summer. He is a founding member of the African Association of Arizona and has helped organise its annual African Festivals in the Phoenix metro area since the late 1990s.
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