Strive Masiyiwa is a telecommunications and technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. In his nearly four decades as an entrepreneur, he has started and invested in businesses throughout the world including Africa, the European Union, India, Latin America, the Middle East, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA.
Some of his most prominent start-up companies and investments include Mascom Wireless Botswana, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Econet Wireless Nigeria (now Airtel Nigeria), Liquid Intelligent Technologies Group, Econet Wireless New Zealand (now 2 Degrees Mobile), Trilogy Capital Partners Canada (early investor), Cassava Technologies, Africa Data Centres, Sasai Fintech, and Telrad Group Israel. He continues to invest privately through his investment companies, and family office.
Born in Zimbabwe and now living in the UK, Strive currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the board of Netflix Inc. and the not-for-profit board of trustees of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Geographic Society. He sits on the Global Advisory Boards of Bank of America, Bloomberg New Economy Forum, and Stanford University, amongst many others. He is a former Non-Executive Director of Unilever PLC, and one of the longest-serving members on the Board of Trustees of The Rockefeller Foundation, amongst many pan-African and international initiatives he co-founded or led.
Amongst Strive’s honors and awards include induction in 2023 as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, 2017, and 2021, he was named to Fortune Magazine’s list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
His family foundations, Higherlife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies, have supported over 300,000 scholarships to African children, public health, girls empowerment, youth mentorship, rural transformation, and other critical social impact initiatives in Africa. The foundations are led by his co-founder wife, Tsitsi, and their oldest daughter, Elizabeth.
Strive graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Cardiff. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Yale University, Nelson Mandela University, Morehouse College, and Cardiff University. He and his wife have six adult children and are committed Christians.
