South African technology entrepreneur and philanthropist, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School

South African technology entrepreneur and philanthropist, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, will be speaking at an event co-hosted by Harvard’s Center for African Studies (CAS), the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) and the Africa Caucus at the Harvard Kennedy School. The event is a student-led initiative, established to bring respected leaders in their field to the Kennedy School to share their experiences with Harvard students and faculty in the form of a moderated 'fireside discussion'. The theme of Alan’s address is "Risk and Rebirth" and will deal with risk, resilience and recovery for leaders in both professional and personal contexts. The discussion will be off-the-record. The event will take place at 6:30 pm in the Perkins Room (R-415), 4th Floor, Rubenstein Building, Harvard Kennedy School.Alan Knott-Craig Jr is the founder & CEO of Project Isizwe, a non-profit company managing the deployment of the largest public Free WiFi network in South Africa. He is the former CEO of Mxit, Africa’s biggest social network and of World of Avatar, an investment house for mobile apps for Africa. From 2006 to 2009, Alan was the CEO of iBurst, where he presided over the roll out of one of South Africa’s largest wireless broadband networks. Between 2003 and 2013 Alan also co-founded and/or funded 17 companies in the TMT sector in Africa, including Cellfind, Lucky Mobile, iFind34600, COLV, World of Avatar, Toodu, FSMS, Triloq, 6th Line, The Daily Maverick, ARC Telecoms, Pondering Panda, MorMor Media, and Boom.fm. He was named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2009. In April 2008 he published Don’t Panic, a best-selling book aimed at persuading South Africans to stay in the country. In 2012, he co-authored Mobinomics, the story of Mxit, the biggest social network to come from Africa. In 2014 he published Really, Don’t’ Panic and Moenie Stres Nie, a follow up the 2008 edition of Don’t Panic.