Keynotes

Dr. Ezekwesili began her career as an auditor and management consultant with focus on financial planning, SME financing, audit and regulatory compliance in Deloitte & Touche.  She served as one of the founding Directors of Transparency International as Director for Africa from 1994-1999. She worked with Professor Jeffrey Sachs as the Director of the Harvard – Nigeria Economic Strategy program between 2000 and 2002 during which time she was also appointed as an aide to President Obasanjo.  In 2003, she went on to serve as Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence.  In this capacity, Dr. Ezekwesili spear-headed institutional reforms through the establishment of “Due Process” mechanisms and strategies resulting in markedly reduced procurement costs to Government projects and turnaround time for completion of  Government projects while improving transparency.

As Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Ezekwesili provided leadership in the drafting and subsequent passage of the Minerals and Mining Act, the establishment of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office and the opening of the mining sector to private participation.  Dr. Ezekwesili also served as the Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2004 and pioneered the voluntary sign-on of Nigeria to the EITI ++ Principles as well as the first ever process, financial and physical audit of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

As a member of President Obasanjo’s Economic Team, Dr. Ezekwesili was responsible for developing the government’s overall comprehensive anti-corruption, transparency and good governance strategy and it was in this capacity that she negotiated the partnership between Nigeria and the G8 known as the “Compact to Promote Transparency and Combat Corruption: A New Partnership between the G8 and Nigeria,” signed by Presidents Bush and Obasanjo during the Sea Island meeting of the G8 in June 2004.

Dr. Ezekwesili served as Nigeria’s Minister of Education from June 2006 to April 2007 with the task of leading a comprehensive reform program within the education sector. During this period, she restructured and refocused the ministry for the attainment of EfA targets and MDGs.  She also introduced the public-private partnership models for education service delivery; revamped the Federal Inspectorate Service as an improved quality assurance mechanism and introduced transparency and accountability mechanisms for better governance of the budget. Dr. Ezekwesili’s commitment to the transformation of Nigeria as one of the 20 largest global economies by 2020 through education led to the launch of the Innovation & Vocational Enterprise Institutions initiatives with focus on human innovation capacity development as well as the launch of the “Adopt-A-School” initiative in conjunction with the Nigerian Stock Exchange in January 2007.

Dr. Ezekwesili is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters in International Law & Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, a Masters in Public Policy & Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a Bachelors degree from the University of Nigeria.  In 2006, she was given the national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR).  She is married and has three sons

Michael was educated at Harvard, St. John’s College, and the University of Chicago, where he worked on a dissertation on ideas and culture as human capital under Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker.