Page 22 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition
P. 22
The Top 10
6
Ebele Okobi
Public Policy Director
Africa, Facebook
NEW
2019
escribed by some as ‘secretary of state of Facebook’ senior director at Catalyst in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam;
for the African continent, lawyer Ebele’s official title and an MDP in Nike’s EMEA headquarters, where she
Dis Facebook’s Public Policy Director, Africa. created marketing, corporate responsibility, and business
Based in London, she spends most of her time jetting development strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa.
between African countries – when the Democratic Republic In 2001, she took a sabbatical to volunteer for human rights
of Congo shut down the internet during political protests in organisations in the US and Senegal.
2016, Ebele flew to Kinshasa to persuade the authorities of Ebele was a founding board member of the Global
the importance of internet access. When Facebook founder Network Initiative, is a life member of the Council on Foreign
and CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Africa for the first time, Relations, and serves on the advisory boards of Women in
it was Ebele who stood next to him and Nigerian president Technology in Nigeria and TipHub.
Muhammadu Buhari. She earned a BA from the University of Southern
Ebele has spent her career fighting for internet freedom California, a Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School, and
and online privacy. She was previously the founding Global a Certificat des Études from HEC-Paris.
Head and Senior Legal Director for Human Rights at Yahoo, Ebele is now in the midst of creating Junior Achievement
where she led global efforts to address the legal and policy Africa, a global non-profit group dedicated to empowering
issues related to privacy, free expression and access. young people to own their economic success, and to getting
Before that she was a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & more African women on boards.
Wardwell in New York, Paris and London; a consumer rights
policy attorney at Consumers Union in San Francisco; a Ebele Okobi interview, pg 100
18 Powerlist 2019
