TheCable

The Aspen Institute will be honouring Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former minister for the economy in Nigeria, at the fifth annual Madeleine K. Albright Global Development Lecture taking place at Aspen Meadows campus. 

The Nigerian economist will be the fifth person to be so honoured. In 2016, Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, was also honoured in the same manner.

The lecture, set to hold late Wednesday evening at Paepcke Auditorium, describes Okonjo-Iweala, in recognition, as “an exceptional individual whose vision has provided breakthrough thinking to tackle the challenges of global development”.

Okonjo-Iweala will be featured alongside Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, the former US secretary of state and first woman to assume the position, in a conversation with moderator Peggy Clark of the Aspen Institute.

Okonjo-Iweala was the minister for the economy in Nigeria from August 2011 to May 2015. She is the first female and black candidate to contest for the presidency for the World Bank Group.

Okonjo-Iweala is currently a senior adviser at Lazard, a global financial advisory and asset management firm, and the chairwoman of the board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

Only last week, the 63-year old was named an independent non-executive director of Standard Chartered, a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, England and with presence in 70 countries.