Wilson Center Africa Program Welcomes Inaugural Brown Capital Management Public Policy Fellow, Dr. Patrick Utomi

WASHINGTON—The Wilson Center welcomes Dr. Patrick Utomi as the inaugural Brown Capital Management - Africa Program Public Policy Fellow. A leading African political economist, Dr. Utomi is the founder of Nigeria’s Center for Value in Leadership, a senior fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria, and a professor at the Lagos Business School, which the Financial Times ranked as one of Africa’s finest business schools. Utomi is chairs the African Union’s Pan-African Private Sector Trade and Investment Committee, a unique platform that brings together the African private sector and policymakers to support extra and intra-African trade, investment, and enterprise. A former Nigerian presidential candidate, Dr. Utomi has served at the highest levels of government, the private sector, and academia, including as advisor to the president of Nigeria and Chief Operating Officer of Volkswagen in Nigeria. 

During his time at the Wilson Center, Dr. Utomi will focus on the Sovereign Wealth Funds project under the Brown Capital Management Africa Forum. He will engage with events, provide support for the Brown Capital Management Africa Forum Sovereign Wealth Fund conference, and contribute to the Africa Program’s publications.

“As the appetite for globalization wanes, it is imperative to understand how sovereign wealth funds can encourage infrastructure that facilitates intra-African trade that can lift Africa’s poorest, both intellectually and practically,” said Dr. Utomi. “It is my hope that my time as a policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center can help shape the agenda of policy conversations and scholarship.” 

The Africa Program is honored to welcome Dr. Patrick Utomi to the Wilson Center.