Oby Ezekwesili Joins Yale Jackson Institute as Senior Fellow

Oby Ezekwesili Joins Yale Jackson Institute as Senior Fellow

Former Education Minister and World Bank Vice President Obiageli ”Oby” Ezekwesili has joined the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs as a senior fellow. The institute says that “Jackson Senior Fellows are leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs who spend a year or semester at Yale teaching courses and mentoring students.” 

This year’s group includes six newcomers and 17 returning Fellows. As well as Oby Ezekwesili, five other leading practitioners joining the Jackson Institute as senior fellows for the 2021/2022 session include David Brooks, author and columnist for the New York Times; Staffan de Mistura, former UN under-secretary-general; Jessica Faieta, UNDP resident representative in Colombia; Anne W. Patterson, former assistant secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State, US; and Jessica Seddon, global lead for air quality at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Oby Ezekwesili is a Senior Economic Adviser of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative and one of the co-founders and pioneer directors of Transparency International-TI, the Berlin-based global anti-corruption organization. Ezekwesili is currently also the Founder/CEO of Human Capital África, working in the education sector across Africa. 

Ezekwesili is the Founder/Chairperson of the Board of SPPG- School of Politics Policy and Governance in Abuja, Nigeria. She was a candidate for the office of the President of Nigeria in the 2019 election and became the Founder/Chairperson of #FixPolitics Initiative, a research-based citizens-led initiative. 

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Ezekwesili was a Vice President of the World Bank- Africa Region in Washington DC between 2007 and 2012. She served in the government of Nigeria between 2000 and 2007 as Minister of Minerals and later,  Education. She was a presidential aide and headed the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit which later became the Bureau for Public Procurement- BPP. Ezekwesili was concurrently the pioneer Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative- NEITI in which capacity she successfully designed and implemented the global principles for Nigeria. Ezekwesili also worked as the Director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy Project at the Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts. 

A Chartered Accountant and consultant, she holds a Master of Arts degree in International Law and Diplomacy and a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Ezekwesili was recognized as one of Time-100 Most Influential People and by New York Times as one of the 25 Women of Impact, 2015.  The PRIO- Peace Research Institute Oslo listed her as one of the potential candidates for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2006, she was decorated with the national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR).

Congratulations Oby Ezekwesili.

See the full list of Fellows and biography on jackson.yale.edu