Trustees
Howard Flight
Howard Flight is a former Member of Parliament and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was joint founder and Managing Director of Guinness Flight, an asset management firm based in the City of London. Previously, he lived and worked in India where he set up the investment banking division of HSBC. He serves as an adviser to Investec, the South African investment banking group, and is a director of Investec Asset Management and of several other companies.
“My interest in Africa was triggered, principally, by Investec taking over Guinness Flight in the late 1990s. I began to observe that many of the positive things happening in Africa, often way beyond Southern Africa, had the business backing of Johannesburg.
It was also brought home to me that the best-performing African economies tended to have more sound legal systems and more democratic governments. During my time as a Member of Parliament I had become somewhat disillusioned by the shallowness of some of the “aid politics” and a tendency to rather patronising assumptions about “how the West should help Africa”.
My great interest is, therefore, in identifying the things that have worked well and succeeded in Africa, both economically and politically. Citizens of Africa need to suggest to the West what measures and assistance are helpful and work – and those which have not worked.
I hope the Africa Research Institute will play a useful role in channelling this new interest in Africa, in ways which will contribute to economic and political success”.
