By Wallace Mawire
The African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) has announced Zimbabwean Lawyer, Zanudeen Makorie as the first recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Scholarship for Excellence in Business Leadership, a merit based financial award that will cover the full cost of attending their flagship Pan African MBA programme in Kigali, Rwanda.
According to Godfrey Chesang and Marie Shabaya, spokesperson for ALUSB, the Chairman’s Scholarship celebrates the best of African business talent particularly within professional and community leadership. It is reported that the selection committee received thousands of applications from across the continent and selected five outstanding finalists for the award who each have an impressive track record of success in business and civil society.
Of the finalists, Zimbabwean lawyer, Zanudeen Makorie has been named as the first recipient of the ALUSB Chairman’s Scholarship. Makorie is currently General Counsel and Group Secretary at RioZim, a former subsidiary of global mining giant, Rio Tinto, in Harare.
His responsibilities include managing the company’s litigation portfolio and leading the company’s corporate and strategic policy. Prior to his current role, Makorie was a Partner at Coghlan, Welsh and Guest, one of Zimbabwe’s top law firms, where he was admitted into Partnership at 27, becoming one of the youngest partners in the firm’s century long existence. He is a member of the International Bar Association and the Law Society of Zimbabwe.
He is also a contributor and author on WLSA Zimbabwe Property and Inheritance Rights Journal. Passionate about giving back to the community, Makorie is a registered blood donor as an active member of the National Blood Society of Zimbabwe. He recently participated in a high school national debate tournament where he coached high school students and aspiring debaters.
Speaking shortly after the announcement of Makorie as inaugural Chairman’s Scholar, ALUSB Founder, Fred Swaniker said, “Congratulations to Mr. Makorie and our four finalists for their exceptional achievements in leadership and public service. The Chairman’s Scholarship is an important milestone for the ALU School of Business in fostering the next generation of African Business leaders. We have been consistently impressed by the caliber of young and driven leaders that choose to be a part of our ambitious vision. I am looking forward to welcoming them in Rwanda along with our second MBA cohort next month.”
The ALUSB MBA programme is an Africa-focused world-class executive development programme offered in collaboration with a number of internationally recognised partners. The programme blends global best practices in business education punctuated with African case studies to deliver a tailored programme geared towards building critical skills essential for doing business in Africa. The second ALUSB MBA cohort begins in July 2017, the program runs over 20 months.
The ALU School of Business (ALUSB) is an Africa-focused world-class professional school pioneering a fresh approach to business education in Africa. ALUSB offers an accredited MBA, open-enrolment executive programmes and custom executive education programs tailored to the needs of African students and African firms. ALUSB brings together faculty and programmes from top global business schools, leadership training developed and tested for nearly a decade by some of the greatest leaders on the continent, and top-level executives teaching real challenges that they, themselves, had to manage.
African Leadership University’s Rwanda campus provides an institutional home for ALUSB. ALUSB is offering the continent’s first pan-African MBA program along with other executive development courses, delivered in collaboration with content partners including Wharton Online, McKinsey Academy and the Drucker Institute.
Dean Modupe Taylor-Pearce, a scholar in organisational development, leadership and management lead the School. Vice Dean Catherine Duggan leads development and teaching on the school’s programmes.
The African Leadership University is a network of tertiary education institutions whose mission is to produce 3 million young African leaders over the next 50 years. It projects to build 25 campuses across the continent, each hosting 10,000 students from all over Africa. ALU’s campus was inaugurated in September 2015 in Mauritius, and is known as African Leadership College (Mauritius).
The Mauritius campus offers undergraduate programs in business management, applied psychology, social sciences and computing. Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in Scotland will award its academic and accreditation partner for the Mauritius campus ALC’s initial degrees.
ALU has received accreditation for its second campus in Rwanda. ALU Rwanda offers an MBA programme, which it will deliver in collaboration with Harvard Business School’s HBX program, McKinsey Academy and The Drucker Institute.
Fred Swaniker, a social entrepreneur and education specialist, founded ALU. President Barack Obama and other influential figures have commended Swaniker’s work as an entrepreneur who is effecting change on the African continent. The World Economic Forum and the Aspen Institute of Global Leadership Network have also recognised him as a Young Global Leader.
