Nigeria’s former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has been appointed to the board of social media platform Twitter. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted this late Nigerian time via his social media handle.
We’re adding Ngozi (@NOIweala) and Bob (@authorzoellick) to the Twitter board. Welcome! Sadly we’re also saying farewell to our friend Marjorie (@marjscar). She’s been an amazing advocate for journalists everywhere, and pushed us constantly to better inform people. Thank you M.
— jack (@jack) July 19, 2018
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was born on June 13, 1954, and is a two-time finance minister. She first served under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration from July 2003 to June 2006, when she was moved to the Ministry of Foreign affairs. She then resigned in August 2006.
Prior to her appointment during the Obasanjo tenure, she was Vice-President and corporate secretary at the World Bank. Upon her resignation, she returned to the World Bank as a Managing Director till her appointment by then president Goodluck Jonathan.
Her second stint was during the Goodluck Jonathan regime when she was appointed in July 2011, till the end of his tenure in 2015. She also held the position of Coordinating Minister of Economy (CME). Okonjo was the first lady to be appointed Minister of Finance.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala graduated from Harvard University in 1976 with an AB in Economics. She also obtained a Ph.D. in Regional Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981.
In September 2015, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala joined Lazard as a Senior Advisor and was 4 months later appointed Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
She is also co-chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate, with Nicholas Stern and Paul Polman. In July 2017, she was named the independent non-executive director at Standard Chartered PLC, which will be effective from November 1, 2017.
According to her Wikipedia page Okonjo-Iweala is also Chair of the Board of the African Union’s African Risk Capacity, an innovative weather based insurance mechanism for African countries.
- She is also Chair of the Board of the Nelson Mandela Institution, an umbrella body for the African Institutes of Science and Technology and Chair of the Board of the African University of Science and Technology in Nigeria.
- In addition, she is a member of numerous boards and advisory groups, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government’s International Advisory Board, the Harvard University Advisory Council, the University of Oxford Martin School’s Advisory Council,
- She is also a member of numerous boards the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank International Advisory Panel, the International Commission on Financing Global Education (Chaired by Gordon Brown), the Center for Global Development, the Mercy Corp Global Leadership Council, the Women’s World Banking, Results for Development Institute, the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Foundation, the B Team (Co-chaired by Sir Richard Branson), the Commission on the New Climate Economy (co-Chaired by President Felipe Calderon and Lord Nicholas Stern) and the Global Development Network amongst others.
Twitter was founded in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams.