Aspen Institute To Honour ‘Exceptional’ Okonjo Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, former Nigeria’s minister of finance, is set to be honoured by the Aspen Institute, in recognition of her “exceptional individual” qualities, the U.S based institute said.

The former World Bank Director will be recognized at the fifth annual Madeleine K. Albright Global Development Lecture at Aspen Meadows campus.

Advertisement

The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit think tank founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues.

In a statement Aspen said Okonjo-Iweala will be honoured as “an exceptional individual whose vision has provided breakthrough thinking to tackle the challenges of global development”.

She will become the fifth individual to be recognized by the institution. In 2016, Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, was also honoured in the same manner.

Okonjo-Iweala will be featured alongside Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, the former US secretary of state and first woman to assume the position.

Advertisement

After spending 25-years at the World Bank, Okono-Iweala currently chairs the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the African Risk Capacity (ARC). She is also a Senior Adviser at Lazard.

The former Nigeria coordinating minister of economy has a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Masters and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She is married to Dr. Ikemba Iweala, a neurosurgeon from Umuahia, Abia State, and they have four children.

Only last week, the 63-year old was named an independent non-executive director of Standard Chartered, a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, England and with presence in 70 countries.

Leave a comment

Advertisement