Teresa Clarke

Early life and education

Teresa H. Clarke was born and raised in California. Her mother, Dr. Audrey Clarke, served for ten years as the superintendent of schools in Lynwood, California before becoming a professor at California State University.{{cite web

Clarke holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard College (1980–1984), an MBA from Harvard Business School (1989) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1989). She has served on the boards of Southern Africa Legal Services (Legal Resource Centre), the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Opportunity Agenda, and the Student Sponsorship Programme South Africa.

Early career

In August 1989, Clarke joined the real-estate department at Goldman Sachs & Co in New York as an associate. She worked in the investment banking division for six years before leaving to found and serve as managing director of the South African office of Abt Associates, a Cambridge, Massachusetts public-policy and management consulting firm. Her clients in South Africa included companies such as Transnet (holding company of South African Airways), Johnson & Johnson, and institutions involved in the coordination of the education and public health development sectors.

Clarke lived in South Africa from 1995 to 2000. During her time in South Africa, she also taught corporate finance in the MBA program at Wits Business School.

In 1999, she co-founded Student Sponsorship Programme South Africa (SSP), which provides academically talented but economically disadvantaged South African students with scholarships and support to attend private schools. The Johannesburg-based program has provided more than $10 million in scholarships to over 1000 children. On average, 90 percent of the students complete the program, and about 90 percent of SSP's graduates qualify to attend university.{{cite web |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101208035941/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/11/prweb4740874.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= December 8, 2010

From 2004 to 2010, Clarke returned to Goldman Sachs. She initially played a role in launching the firm's Global Markets Institute. She later moved back into the investment banking division where she led mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions for Fortune 500 companies in the US and Europe. She also managed the GS Africa Aspen Program, a leadership development project for emerging public- and private-sector African leaders created in cooperation with the Aspen Institute.{{cite web

Africa.com

On February 12, 2010, Clarke ended a 12-year career at Goldman Sachs to focus on Africa.com.{{cite web She relaunched Africa.com in February 2010 with the stated goals of changing the way the world engages online with Africa and creating a platform for those changes,{{cite web stating:{{cite web

Clarke has been featured as an Africa expert at the World Economic Forum in Africa and India, the Milken Institute,{{cite web and the Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum. In 2008, she received the Freedom Day Award from the South African consulate. On November 4, 2010, she spoke at the African Leadership Network's inaugural ceremony. The African Leadership Network event is similar to the World Economic Forum in Davos, but organized by and for Africans and people of African descent.{{cite web

On November 7, 2010, Clarke was among the honorees celebrated at BET’s Black Girls Rock! event.{{cite web |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111104190541/http://www.bet.com/video/blackgirlsrock/2010/acceptance-speech-230728.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= November 4, 2011

Clarke is the writer, producer, and director of Africa Straight Up, a 30-minute documentary made in partnership with MTV Africa and TEDTalks that was released in 2012.{{cite web Originally produced for online viewing, the film aired on the Africa Channel in the U.S. and UK, as well as on Dutch Television. It also was screened by The White House, which had contributed to the film's production,

In 2013, Clarke was invited to join The White House Traveling Press Corps and traveled with President Obama and his family to Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania. That same year, she delivered a TEDx Talk at TEDxEuston in London, "The Diaspora Divide".{{cite web

In 2014, Clarke was featured on the Harvard Business School website in a video on Making a Difference. Her life story was also the subject of a profile celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Women at Harvard Business School.{{cite web That year, she was invited to the Fletcher Inclusive Business Summit, held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402103707/http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Inclusive-Business/Bellagio |archive-date = 2015-04-02 |url-status = dead}}

In November 2014, U.S. secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker appointed Clarke and 14 other private sector leaders to President Obama's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA). Where they advised on strengthening U.S.-Africa commercial engagement..{{cite web |archive-date= 4 July 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170704170909/https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2014/11/us-secretary-commerce-penny-pritzker-appoints-advisory-council-advance |url-status= dead

In May 2020, she led the Africa.com Crisis Management for African Business Leaders webinar series entitled "Women are Proving to Be Great Leaders During COVID-19. Is this the Pathway to Power?" The panel included former deputy president of South Africa, Under Secretary of the United Nations and executive director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Stanbic Bank Uganda CEO Anne Juuko, Oby Ezekwesili of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative, and Zambian youth activist and journalist Natasha Wang Mwansa, the youngest recipient of the WHO Global Health Leaders award.

Clarke is fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has received awards for her work in Africa, including the Government of South Africa's Freedom Day Award, Education Africa's Humanitarian Award for Africa, the Merrill Lynch/Africa 2.0 Business Leadership Award, the International Women's Society Humanitarian of the Year Award, the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational Leadership Award, and the Girl Scouts of Connecticut Woman of Achievement. Clarke was named one of the top 25 Women in Business by the Network Journal.

Personal life

Clarke has married twice. Her second marriage took place at Martha's Vineyard on August 4, 2007, to Dr. John Edward Ellis, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.

References

References

1. (2022-11-19). "About Us - Africa.com".
2. "Teresa Hillary Clarke - AMT {{!}} American Tower REIT - Wall Street Journal".
3. (2023-09-08). "About - Student Sponsorship Program of South Africa".
4. (2001-04-01). "Teresa Clarke: An Advocate for Education in South Africa".
5. "Africa's Portal TO DOING BUSINESS WITH THE United States". Africa.com.
6. "WATCH: Africa Straight Up – An Original Documentary Film by Africa.com". Africa.com.
7. (May 11, 2020). "Africa.com Webinar Series to Feature Influential Women Leaders". Africanews.com.
8. (May 11, 2020). ""NOT JUST ANOTHER CONVERSATION ABOUT WOMEN"-AFRICA.COM WEBINAR SERIES TO FEATURE INFLUENTIAL WOMEN LEADERS". Venturesafrica.com.
9. (31 October 2013). "Why I Resigned from Glodma". DSE Digital Out-of-Home Network Operators Conference}}{{Dead link.
10. (2011). "25 Influential Black Women in Business". The Network Journal.
11. (September 2, 2007). "Teresa Clarke and John Ellis". The New York Times.