Benjamin Fernandes

Benjamin Fernandes
Born	25 November 1992
Residence	Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Nationality	Tanzanian
Alma mater	University of Northwestern - St. Paul (B.A.)
Occupation	The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Religion	Christianity
Awards	Africa MBA Fellowship, MBA World Summit

Benjamin Fernandes (born 25 November 1992) is a Tanzanian award winning speaker and national television personality currently working at the The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the United States. He is the first^[1] Tanzanian to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business as an Africa MBA Fellow ^[2] and the youngest African to ever be accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Early life

Raised in Tanzania, Fernandes attended Haven of Peace Academy where he was known as being one of the lowest academically performing students who failed to improved by the time he left.^[3] Fernandes was given a conditional scholarship offer by the University of Northwestern - St. Paul, in Roseville, Minnesota, U.S. where he was president of numerous clubs and groups on campus. He was a community organizer in Dar es Salaam before moving to the United States for his MBA. He worked as a national television personality from the age of 17. He began hosting sports shows and later started interviewing politicians and entrepreneurs.

In 2012, Fernandes received national attention during the London 2012 Olympics as a presenter on national TV in Tanzania. In 2014, he graduated from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul with top honours. Shortly after graduation, he was asked to host the 2014 World Cup on national TV in Tanzania, and then continued his career in television. In 2014, he was accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business, winning a $160,000^[4] fellowship to attend–an award received by 8 students from 8000 applicants to Stanford. With his sister he worked with their church in Tanzania to co-found an orphanage called Diamond Village. They cleared a field in Bunju, Dar es Salaam to build the orphanage, teaching the children English and Mathematics.

Stanford

In August 2015, Fernandes moved to Palo Alto, California to begin his time at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is part of the Africa Business club and has been working on a financial technology project to launch in Tanzania. In January 2016, he was selected by TRUE Africa as one of the "Top 16 Africans leading change in 2016.".^[5] Shortly after, FastJet airlines featured^[6] his work in Tanzania in their online airline magazine. He was listed as a "Voice of Hope for Tanzania." In March 2016, he was selected to attend the MBA World Summit in Miami, Florida, and, at the conference, he was awarded^[7] as the best speaker for the event. He was presented with the MBA World Summit Award for 2016.^[8] In mid-September 2016, he was featured on several live television shows on Clouds TV Tanzania, CNBC Africa,^[9] and TV1 Tanzania.^[10]

In 2016, Fernandes worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington before returning to his final year of business school at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

References

External links

• LinkedIn Profile