Dr. Acha Leke is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company and Chairman of its Africa practice. He 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. He has held several leadership roles at McKinsey, including senior partner in charge of global recruiting, council member of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), and leader of the firm’s private equity, public sector, and social sector practices in Africa.
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 numerous awards and recognitions, is regularly listed as one of today’s most influential Africans, and has written dozens of articles for publications including Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly. He co-authored McKinsey’s highly acclaimed series of Lions on the Move reports and the latest book Africa’s Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World’s Next Big Growth Market.
He received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management all from Stanford University, as well as a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering summa cum laude, with a minor in Economics, from the Georgia Institute of Technology where he graduated as Valedictorian (first Black Valedictorian in the School’s history).
Acha is from Cameroon, and is fluent in both English and French.
