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# 									Digital Press Briefing: U.S.-Africa Business Summit							

IME Upcoming

May 8, 2024

**MEDIA ADVISORY | May 9 Digital Press Briefing: U.S.-Africa Business Summit**

**EVENT****:**  Please join us on **Thursday, May 9, 2024**, for a digital press briefing with the U.S. Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, **Joy Basu**, Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, **Alice Albright**, and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, **Reta Jo Lewis**.  Speakers willreview the 2024 U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas, and how the U.S. works to increase trade and investment in Africa.  After brief opening remarks, the speakers will take questions from participating journalists.

**DETAILS:**

**Speakers:****Joy Basu,** Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State 

**Alice Albright,**Chief Executive Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation

**Reta Jo Lewis,**President and Chair of the Board of Directors, Export-Import Bank of the United States

**Date**:**Thursday, May 9, 2024**

**Time:****15:00 Johannesburg | 13:00 GMT | 09:00 Washington, D.C.****| 08:00 Dallas**

Language:               EnglishGround Rules:         The briefing will be on the record

Login Info.:              To be provided upon RSVPZoom RSVP:          Please RSVP by clicking here

Twitter:          ****Join the conversation #AFHubPress and follow us on @AfricaMediaHub. 

 

**BIOGRAPHIES:**

**Joy Basu**

**Deputy Assistant Secretary**

**Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State**

Joy Basu serves as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, overseeing Economics and Regional Affairs across Sub-Saharan Africa. DAS Basu’s portfolio includes commercial diplomacy, trade and investment, strategic competition, food security, climate, energy, democracy, human rights, and multilateral matters. Immediately prior to this appointment, Ms. Basu served at the United States Department of Justice as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General.

Before joining the Biden Administration, Joy worked in business at the nexus of investment, innovation, and development. As the Chief of Staff at a global alternatives investment firm, she championed opportunities to facilitate investment in emerging and frontier markets; she built a groundbreaking multibillion-dollar impact investment platform and served as its global lead for food and agriculture. Ms. Basu started her career as a management consultant; in addition to supporting multinational companies on corporate strategy, she also served international nonprofits investing in economic growth. Joy has helped manage major multi-stakeholder alliances for agricultural development and served as a senior advisor to major public, private, and civil society development institutions, as well as to executives of startup, growth-stage, and established food businesses.

Joy earned her JD and MBA from Stanford University with a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation. At Stanford Law, she served as President of the Women of Stanford Law and a leader of the Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP). Born and raised in Illinois, Joy strives daily to be an active citizen with strong Midwestern roots.

 

**Alice Albright**

**Chief Executive Officer**

**Millennium Challenge Corporation**

Alice P. Albright is the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation where she provides strategic leadership and vision to the agency helping deliver on programmatic priorities. Ms. Albright has more than 30 years of international experience in the private, non-profit and public sectors.

Prior to MCC, Ms. Albright served as the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). As a political appointee of the Obama Administration, between 2009 and 2013, she was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). Beforehand, she was the Chief Financial and Investment Officer for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI). Prior to working in international development and government, Ms. Albright was a banker focusing on emerging markets, working principally at J.P. Morgan.

Ms. Albright has served on two G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils, appointed first by the President of France for the 2019 G7 and subsequently by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the 2021 G7. Additionally, she has served on the Boards of Williams College and Mercersburg Academy.

Ms. Albright received her MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and her BA from Williams College. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

**Reta Jo Lewis**

**President and Chair of the Board of Directors**

**Export-Import Bank of the United States**
On February 9, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Reta Jo Lewis as EXIM’s President and Chair of the Board of Directors. Chair Lewis was sworn in by Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris on February 16, 2022. Ms. Lewis is a senior executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in international affairs, legal, public policy, business and regulatory affairs, and subnational diplomacy.

Ms. Lewis was most recently a Senior Fellow and Director of Congressional Affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. At GMF, Ms. Lewis led and oversaw initiatives, programs, and bipartisan exchanges for members of the U.S. Congress and their European counterparts, focusing on leadership development and subnational diplomacy efforts. Prior to her time at GMF, she served as the first-ever Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs under Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State during the Obama-Biden Administration. As Special Representative, Lewis was the chief diplomat in charge of the international efforts to build and support strategic relationships between the federal government, state and local leaders, and their foreign counterparts. In 2013, she was awarded the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.

Ms. Lewis was the first Black woman to serve as Vice President and Counselor to the President at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She led the Chamber’s initiatives focused on fostering strategic alliances between small businesses, especially women- and minority-owned businesses, entrepreneurs, and executives. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Member of the Board of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. Ms. Lewis received a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, an M.S.A.J. from American University, and a B.A. from the University of Georgia. She is a native of Statesboro, Georgia.

**LOGISTICS:**
- Participants should log in to join the conference 10 minutes early.      
- Participants will be asked to type in their name, press affiliation, and location.      
- The speakers will give brief opening remarks, and then the moderator will open the floor to questions.      
- Participants will be instructed to type their questions or indicate to the moderator in the chat that they wish to ask a live question.  Journalists may also submit written questions in advance when registering on Eventbrite or via e-mail to  afmediahub@state.gov .     
- If you experience technical difficulties during the briefing, you may send an e-mail to  afmediahub@state.gov   to alert the moderator to any issues.    

 

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