KEY POINTS
- Tony Elumelu Foundation appoints Badr Jafar, Per Heggenes, and Paul Gompers to advisory board.
- The foundation has committed $100 million to entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries.
- Harvard professor Gompers authored a business school case study on the foundation.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation has brought three internationally recognised figures onto its Advisory Board, a move founder Tony Elumelu described as a deliberate effort to connect Africa’s entrepreneurial momentum with the kind of global experience needed to sustain it at scale.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation board additions, announced Tuesday and effective immediately, are Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises and the UAE’s Special Envoy for Business and Philanthropy; Per Heggenes, who spent close to two decades leading the IKEA Foundation before stepping down; and Professor Paul Gompers of Harvard Business School, one of the world’s leading academic voices on venture capital and early-stage investing.
What Each New Member Brings
Elumelu pointed to each appointment as serving a specific purpose. Jafar brings cross-sector experience in energy, infrastructure and philanthropy, as well as direct access to the UAE’s growing platform for innovation and global collaboration. While Heggenes adds nearly two decades of institutional grant-making experience that the foundation sees as directly relevant to its long-term capacity ambitions. Gompers has had an academic relationship with the foundation for years and authored a Harvard Business School case study examining its work.
Jafar said the timing of the role matters as much as the appointment itself, noting that the African continent’s entrepreneurial energy was already reshaping global conversations about growth and development.
Heggenes said he was drawn in by the scale of what the foundation had already achieved, describing it as one of the most ambitious entrepreneurship platforms in the world and calling Africa’s young entrepreneurs increasingly central to addressing challenges that extend far beyond the continent’s borders.
Gompers framed his involvement as both a scholarly and practical commitment. “The Tony Elumelu Foundation has demonstrated what is possible when capital, training and long term commitment align,” he said.
Scale of the Foundation’s Work
According to Billionaires Africa, The Tony Elumelu Foundation board expansion comes as the organisation continues operating one of Africa’s most recognised philanthropic programmes, having committed $100 million to fund, train and mentor entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries.
The three new members finally suggest the foundation is thinking carefully about what institutional knowledge and global networks it needs around the table to carry that mission through the next phase of growth.
