Mo Ibrahim Biography and Photos

Dr. Mohamed "Mo" Ibrahim (born 1946) is a Sudanese-born British mobile communications entrepreneur. He worked for several other telecommunications companies before founding Celtel. He is currently on the board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School.

Ibrahim earned a Bachelor of Science from University of Alexandria and a master's degree from the University of Bradford, both in electrical engineering, and a PhD from the University of Birmingham in mobile communications

Ibrahim was employed by Sudan Telecom for a time, and later worked as the technical director for Cellnet, a subsidiary of British Telecom. In 1989 he founded MSI, a consultancy and software company, which was bought by Marconi in 2000. MSI had 800 employees, who owned approximately 30% of the stock at the point of its sale; Ibrahim says he gave employees stock as a form of bonus.

In 1998, MSI spun off MSI-Cellular Investments, later renamed Celtel, as a mobile phone operator in Africa.

Ibrahim created the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. In 2007, the Foundation inaugurated the Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, with the first recipient former president Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique.

The Foundation also published the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, ranking the performance of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.