Tewodros Ashenafi

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Person.png Tewodros Ashenafi  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(businessman)
4583961378 9e6b9ef910 c.jpg
Born26 August 1969
Addis Ababa
NationalityEthiopian, US?
Alma materColumbia University, Harvard Business School
Member ofAtlantic Council/Board, EastWest Institute, WEF/Young Global Leaders/2009
Ethiopian businessman on the board of Atlantic Council with a monopoly in many of the country's industries

Tewodros Ashenafi is one of Ethiopia's most influential businessman, having a monopoly position in many of the country's industries and services, and also acting as a middleman for foreign capital.

He was selected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2009. In 2013, Ashenafi was elected the first African to the International Advisory Council (ICC)[1] of the Atlantic Council – one of the most powerful deep state organizations in the world. He is also on the Board of the EastWest Institute, another deep state think tank.

In 2010, Tewodros Ashenafi was appointed Guatemalan Honorary Consul to Ethiopia, on the surface of it a strange connection.

Education

Ashenafi holds a degree in Economics from Columbia College of Columbia University,[2][3] where he studied under the guidance of Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Professor Edmund Phelps.[4]

During his studies, Ashenafi made a career in the international relations division of Merrill Lynch & Co., for whose clients he invested in emerging markets.[5]

He graduated from Columbia in 1991.[6] Ashenafi is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and attended the Owner/President Management Programme (OPM),[2] which he graduated at age 41.

Business career

Africa: The World’s Rising Energy Power? , 21 June 2022, Qatar Economic Forum

Ashenafi is Chairman of SouthWest Energy,[7] Ethiopia’s first and only indigenous oil and gas company.[7] He also serves as Chairman of SouthWest Development,[2] which provides various services to oil and gas companies in Ethiopia, and Chairman of Ambo Mineral Water,[8] a beverage brand in Ethiopia cooperating with Coca-Cola.

In July 2016 Ashenafi played a key role in Ethiopia’s largest ever privatisation deal, where Japan Tobacco International (with Ashenafi acting as the local partner) acquired 40% of Ethiopia’s National Tobacco Enterprise. The enterprise value of the deal was $1.4 billion (the origins of the money for Ashenafi's stake is unknown[9]) which is also one of largest private transactions in Africa.[10]

In 2016 he founded an equity company, Cepheus Growth Capital Partners[11], which is registered in Mauritius (a tax haven) and has an office in Addis Ababa. Cepheus invests in the most promising Ethiopian companies, finances them through international banks and guarantees them a complete service: foreign trade offices, legal, logistics and customs assistance, creation of a common investment fund for Ethiopian companies (Cepheus Growth Capital Fund Ltd. Port Louis), based on manufacturing industry, on agri-food and services. At the head of the fund, two experienced bankers with in-depth knowledge of the market and of political power (Kassahun Kebede and Berhane Demissie). Behind it are English (CDC Group PLC London[12]) and Norwegian (Norfund AS Oslo[13]) development support agencies, as well as the EIB European Investment Bank of Luxembourg[14].

Guatemalan consul

In 2010, Tewodros Ashenafi was appointed Guatemalan Honorary Consul to Ethiopia: a post that reports to the Guatemalan Embassy in London. He has a partner in this role: The Guatemalan Ambassador to London, Acisclo Valladares Molina, who chose Ashenafi and gave him a diplomatic passport[15]. This ambassador has a controversial history. He and his son, former Guatemalan Minister of Economy Acisclo Valladares Urruela, are involved in an investigation into drug trafficking in Florida that has reportedly earned the former minister $ 9.5 million over five years[16]. At the same time, Urruela was accused of corruption by a United Nations organization, the CICIG (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala): When an arrest warrant was issued against him, Acisclo Valladares Urruela fled Guatemala[17].

A 2016 study by two international NGOs (the Sahan Foundation and IGAD-Security Sector Program) found that the slave trade of refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea takes place in the United Arab Emirates and Guatemala[18] as a transit to the US. No connection to Ashenafi have been shown.

Further reading

This article by the Democracy Centre analyses his career thoroughly - many of the points above are from this article.


 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
WEF/Annual Meeting/201126 January 201130 January 2011World Economic Forum
Switzerland		2229 guests in Davos, with the theme: "Shared Norms for the New Reality".
WEF/Annual Meeting/201225 January 201229 January 2012Switzerland2113 guests in Davos
WEF/Annual Meeting/201323 January 201327 January 2013World Economic Forum
Switzerland		2500 mostly unelected leaders met to discuss "leading through adversity"
WEF/Annual Meeting/201422 January 201425 January 2014World Economic Forum
Switzerland		2604 guests in Davos considered "Reshaping The World"
WEF/Annual Meeting/202021 January 202024 January 2020World Economic Forum
Switzerland		This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting.
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. ↑ https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FA-2019-ETHIOPIA-36pags-FORBES-vok_FORBES_Sept2019lr.pdf
  2. ↑ a b c World Economic Forum, [1], World Economic Forum, Accessed November 11, 2012
  3. ↑ http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_037
  4. ↑ SouthWest Energy, [2], [SouthWest Energy], Accessed November 11, 2012
  5. ↑ https://www.eastwest.ngo/profile/tewodros-ashenafi
  6. ↑ http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_053
  7. ↑ a b Ethiopian Investor, [3], [Ethiopian Investor], Accessed November 11, 2012
  8. ↑ Ambo Mineral Water, [4], [Ambo Mineral Water], Accessed November 11, 2012
  9. ↑ https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FA-2019-ETHIOPIA-36pags-FORBES-vok_FORBES_Sept2019lr.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/content/japan-tobacco-pays-usd-510-mln-acquire-stake-national-tobacco
  11. ↑ https://cepheuscapital.com/
  12. ↑ https://www.cdcgroup.com/en/about/our-company/
  13. ↑ https://www.norfund.no/about-norfund/
  14. ↑ https://www.norfund.no/app/uploads/2020/03/Cepheus-press-release-Jan-31-2018.pdf
  15. ↑ https://www.minex.gob.gt/noticias/Noticia.aspx?id=3744
  16. ↑ https://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/quienes-delataron-acisclo-valladares
  17. ↑ https://apnews.com/article/191f0d1f2237cc99781c8c8e813cfc5a
  18. ↑ http://eritreanrefugees.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/IGAD-Sahan-2015-Trafficking-Report.pdf
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