ASHISH J. THAKKAR

Ashish Thakkar

Ashish J. Thakkar is the CEO and Founder of Mara Group, one of Africa’s largest multi-sector conglomerates, with businesses in 19 African countries in fields of technology, real estate, manufacturing, and agriculture. In 2009 he launched Mara Foundation, the group’s social and philanthropic enterprise, which focusing on supporting emerging young African entrepreneurs through mentorship, funding, workspace, and business training. More than 50,000 Africans are enrolled in the program. Thakkar was appointed as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Africa.

 

BOOK TITLES IN COLLABORATION WITH IDEA ARCHITECTS

  • The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa’s Economic Miracle

THE LION AWAKES: ADVENTURES IN AFRICA’S ECONOMIC MIRACLE

 

The Lion Awakes is the true story of today’s Africa, one often overshadowed by the dire headlines. Traveling from his ancestral home in Uganda, East Africa, to the booming economy and (if chaotic) new democracies of West Africa, and down to the “Silicon Savannahs” of Kenya and Rwanda, Ashish J. Thakkar shows us an Africa that few Westerners are aware exists. Far from being a place in need of our pity and aid, we see a continent undergoing a remarkable transformation and economic development. We meet a new generation of ambitious, tech savvy young Africans who are developing everything from bamboo bicycles to iPhone Apps; we meet artists, film makers and architects thriving with newfound freedom and opportunity, and we are introduced to hyper-educated members of the Diaspora who have returned to Africa after years abroad to open companies and take up positions in government. They all tell the same story: 21st Century Africa offers them more opportunity than the First World. Drawing from his business experience, and his own family’s history in Africa, which include his parents’ expulsion from Uganda by Idi Amin in the 70s and his own survival of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Ashish shows us how much difference a decade can make.

The Lion Awakes book cover

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