The Tony Elumelu Foundation Appoints Three New Advisory Board Members

• New TEF Board members are: H.E. Badr Jafar, leading businessman and social entrepreneur from the United Arab Emirates; Per Heggenes, with about a two-decade track record in the humanitarian and development sectors, and grant-making philanthropy, who served as the first CEO of the IKEA Foundation from Norway; and Professor Paul Gompers, the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, from the United States of America.
• The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy committed to catalysing youth entrepreneurship across Africa, disbursing over USD$100m to over 24,000 young African entrepreneurs, who have collectively created over 1.5 million jobs, generated over US$4.2 billion in revenue and lifted more than 2.1 million Africans from poverty.
• Appointments represent the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s belief in strategic philanthropy built on global partnerships and best practice

 

Lagos, Nigeria – February 17, 2026 – The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy empowering young entrepreneurs to create sustainable jobs and drive economic transformation, today announced the appointment of three distinguished new members to its Advisory Board. These strategic additions enhance TEF’s global reach and expertise in fostering Africapitalism, youth entrepreneurship, and inclusive growth across all 54 African countries.

 

The new members:

• Professor Paul Gompers, Harvard Business School – a preeminent scholar of venture capital and entrepreneurship.
• Per Heggenes, former CEO of the IKEA Foundation, with about a two-decade track record in global grant-making and sustainable development.
• His Excellency Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises and Special Envoy for Business and Philanthropy for the United Arab Emirates.

 

They join existing Advisory Board member, Fatou Assah, Executive Director (Alt) at the International Monetary Fund, from the Central African Republic.

 

Commenting, Tony O. Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, said:

"Entrepreneurship is the most powerful engine for Africa’s long-term prosperity.

We welcome H.E. Badr Jafar, Per Heggenes and Professor Paul Gompers to our Advisory Board.

Badr’s experience in championing innovative solutions and strategic philanthropy will be instrumental, as we scale our mission and bridge Africa with global partners who share our commitment to economic inclusion. Per’s career experience will be invaluable as we continue to scale our impact and strengthen institutional capacity in support of African entrepreneurs. Professor Gompers’ long-standing academic engagement with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, including his Harvard Business School case study on TEF’s work, reflects the growing global recognition of entrepreneurship as Africa’s most powerful development catalyst.”

 

The appointments reflect the Foundation’s ability to convene global voices and champion African solutions. TEF has partnered with the European Union, the Ikea Foundation, Google, the UAE Office of Development Affairs (ODA), the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the French Development Agency (AFD), the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and more, running bespoke entrepreneurship programmes including targeting female empowerment and growth in fragile states.

 

Commenting on his appointment, H.E. Badr Jafar said: “It is a privilege to support the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s work, at a time when Africa’s entrepreneurial energy is reshaping the future. The UAE has emerged as a global platform for innovation and cross-sector collaboration, and I look forward to helping build bridges between regions, sectors, and generations to drive sustainable impact at scale.”

 

Commenting on his appointment, Per Heggenes said:
“The Tony Elumelu Foundation has built one of the most ambitious and impactful entrepreneurship platforms in the world. I am pleased to join the Advisory Board at a time when Africa’s young entrepreneurs are increasingly central to solving global challenges. I look forward to supporting the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission to strengthen entrepreneurship as a pathway to economic independence, resilience, and inclusive growth.”

 

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Paul Gompers stated:
“Entrepreneurship is a critical driver of innovation, job creation, and economic transformation. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has demonstrated what is possible when capital, training, and long-term commitment are aligned. I am delighted to join the Advisory Board and contribute to the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s efforts to deepen Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystems and expand opportunity at scale.”

 

To learn more about the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s impact, please read the latest TEF Annual Report et Impact Report and explore how Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs are transforming Africa.

 

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is currently accepting applications for its 2026 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme via www.TEFConnect.com till March 1, 2026, focusing on supporting early-stage businesses and fostering innovation across Africa.  

 

About the new Advisory Board Members 

H.E. Badr Jafar

H.E. Badr Jafar is the CEO of Crescent Enterprises, a diversified business operating across nine industry sectors in 15 countries. He also serves as Chairman of Gulftainer, the largest privately-owned container port operator in the world. Badr is actively engaged with organisations and initiatives focused on humanitarian aid and international development, strategic philanthropy, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, education and the arts. Consistent with his interest in promoting social entrepreneurship in the MENA Region, Badr co-founded the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP).

 

Per Heggenes

Per Heggenes brings nearly two decades of global leadership across strategic philanthropy, international development, and corporate affairs. As the first CEO of the IKEA Foundation from 2009, he led the organisation’s evolution into one of the world’s leading strategic philanthropies, overseeing funding and innovation strategies supporting programmes in more than 45 countries. Under his leadership, the Ikea Foundation partnered with the Tony Elumelu Foundation and UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited, to launch the BeGreen Entrepreneurship Programme, empowering hundreds of young green African entrepreneurs with critical green training, funding, and technical assistance in launching green businesses across the African continent.

 

Professor Paul Gompers

Professor Paul Gompers is one of the world’s leading scholars on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and high-growth companies. He is Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, with appointments in both Finance and Entrepreneurial Management. In 2024, Professor Gompers and his Harvard Business School research team launched a case study on the Tony Elumelu Foundation titled “The Tony Elumelu Foundation: Democratising Luck Across Africa”. The case study examines TEF’s distinctive philanthropy model and documents how the Tony Elumelu Foundation has empowered thousands of African entrepreneurs with more than US$100 million in direct funding, alongside training, mentorship, and ecosystem development.

 

À propos de la Fondation Tony Elumelu

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is the leading philanthropy committed to catalysing youth entrepreneurship across Africa.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly, entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

Since our launch in 2010, TEF has empowered over 2.5 million young Africans with access to business management training on our proprietary digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over US$100 million in seed capital to more than 24,000 selected entrepreneurs on the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. Collectively, these entrepreneurs have generated $4.2 billion in revenue and created more than 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs. Through our support for African entrepreneurs, TEF has lifted 2.1 million Africans above the poverty line, and positively impacted more than 4 million African households, with 46% of supported entrepreneurs being African women.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector and, most importantly, entrepreneurs as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

TEF’s ability to fund, train, mentor, and network young African entrepreneurs has created a unique platform for catalysing growth across the African continent. The robust ability of the Foundation to reach entrepreneurs across geographies and sectors has enabled it to conduct innovative partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United States Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), The French Development Agency (AFD), The German Development Finance Institution (DEG), The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), The African Development Bank (AfDB), Google, UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU), IKEA Foundation, the UAE Office of Development Affairs and Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (an affiliate of Erth Zayed), and others, with bespoke programmes including targeting female empowerment and growth in fragile states.

 

Contact: Moyo Awotile; moyo.awotile@tonyelumelufoundation.org