Michael Sudarkasa is the Founder and Chairman of Africa Business Group (ABG) a South Africa based, continentally active, African economic development company. An American commercial attorney by training, Michael is an internationally recognized African economic development specialist. He has lived, travelled, and worked in 52 countries around the world, including 35 in Africa, and is the author of several publications, including: The African Union Commission’s Africa Business Directory: Toward the Facilitation of Growth, Partnership and Global Inclusion (African Union, 2014), A Field Guide to Inclusive Business Finance (UNDP 2012), Investing in Africa: An Insider’s Guide to the Ultimate Emerging Market (John Wiley & Sons, August 2000) and The African Business Handbook (1991-92; 1993-94; 2007-08)
Founded in 2005, Africa Business Group specializes in the areas of private sector development, public–private engagement facilitation, and trade and investment facilitation and promotion—within Africa, and between Africa and the global business community. Specifically, ABG provides economic development and management consulting services; supports varied industry development projects and offers varied capacity development services. ABG also undertakes a range of initiatives that support the inclusion of youth and women in the African business sector, that involve creating and strengthening business linkages between the African diaspora and the African continent, and that support the role of the private sector in disaster risk reduction on the continent.
Michael is a member of the Global Board of the Rainforest Alliance, of the University of Michigan Provost’s Advisory Committee, sits on the Advisory Board of the African Center for the Study of the United States of the University of Witwatersrand, and serves as Chair of Impact@Africa, an initiative focused on the development of communities of practice within Africa’s impact investment ecosystem.
He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (High Honors in History) and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. Of American, Bahamian and Nigerian heritage, he is also fluent in French.