A world influencer
Each year, Time Magazine releases a list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Fred Swaniker (JOH 99-01) – co-founder of the African Leadership Academy, the African Leadership Network, and the African Leadership University – is one of this year’s honorees.
Mo Ibrahim penned Time’s profile of Fred, saying that he “has the passion, understanding and ability to take this great continent forward, through its young people,” adding, “I am filled with hope knowing that he is there to help the next generation of African leaders to blossom.”
In his toast at Time’s Gala event, Fred told fellow attendees, “All of us who are privileged enough to be healthy, to be alive, to have education and to have influence – our role is not to do small things and to solve small problems. The only way that we can justify privilege is by solving the world’s biggest problems, and by doing hard things.”
Read more about Fred in his bio, and read our 2009 feature on him and the African Leadership Academy. As we said in that feature ten years ago, “Stay tuned. This may be the first time you hear of ALA, but it likely won’t be the last!”
Midas touch
These alums have an instinct for spotting a winner. Forbes has released its 18th annual Midas List, recognizing the world’s top tech investors, which this year includes nine alumni. The publication ranks investors by their portfolio companies that have gone public or been acquired for at least $200 million over the past five years, or that have raised additional funding at a valuation of at least $400 million.
Click on their names to read more on Forbes.
Roelof Botha (JOH 96-98), Partner, Sequoia Capital
Matt Cohler (SVO 01-03), Partner, Benchmark Capital
Byron Deeter (LAN 96-98), Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Pär-Jörgen Pärson (STO 88-88, 90-94), Partner, Northzone Ventures
Jeremy Levine (NYO 95-97), Partner, Bessemer Ventures
Jeff Lieberman (NYO, FIR 96-98), Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners
Jeremy Liew (AUO 94-96), Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Ann Miura-Ko (NYO, SVO 98-01), Partner, Floodgate
Allen Zhu (SHA 98-00), Managing Director, GSR Ventures
Empowering diverse voices
We recently profiled alum Franklin Leonard (NYO 01-03), founder of The Black List, where he talked about his work to expand the narrow models of what entertainment executives think audiences want to see.
Franklin was recently named to the Hollywood Reporter list ’50 Agents of Change Empowering Diverse Voices in Hollywood.’ The publication says, “He uses his platform to advocate daily, whether that's through the multiple partnerships he's created to help companies identify writers from underrepresented communities, the panels he sits on or the way he points out blind spots on Twitter.”
This isn’t the only recognition Franklin has received this year; in February he was honored by the Writers Guild of America.