Zemedeneh Negatu

Co-Founder & CEO, and Global Chairman at CBE Capital Investment Bank and Fairfax Africa Fund

Speaker

CEO and Co-founder of CBE Capital, S.C., Ethiopia’s pioneering investment bank, and Chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund, LLC, a Washington D.C. based investment firm with primary focus on high growth emerging economies.

Zemedeneh was previously a Managing Partner at Ernst & Young (EY), member of EY’s Global Partner Council (the firm’s highest global governing body based in the UK), Head of the firm’s Transaction Advisory business for Eastern Africa and run EY Ethiopia. Prior to EY, he was with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) U.S. and had worked on several of PwC’s largest U.S. multinational clients including M&A for Berkshire Hathaway owned companies.

Zemedeneh is widely recognized as one of Africa’s top business leaders and has received numerous global recognitions including:

“AfBC African Business Awards 2026”– Awarded for “exceptional contributions to Africa's global business influence, economic growth and trade development.”

“African Leadership Impact Award 2025”

"100 Most Influential Africans of 2013" (New African magazine)

“Who-is-Who of African Finance 2015” (Global Finance Magazine, U.S, was nominated by Citibank)

“Titans Building Nations 2014” (South Africa)

“Pioneer Diaspora Business Person of the Year 2012”, Washington, D.C.

“Top 10 Most Influental Africans 2018”

Zemedeneh regularly provides influential thought leadership and has appeared on numerous international media including CNN’s “Quet Means Business (multiple times), BBC TV & radio (very frequent appearances), The Financial Times (FT), The Wallstreet Journal, Bloomberg TV and CNBC TV. Furthermore, he has spoken at high profile global events such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), Harvard Business School (HBS), Wharton Shool (University of Pennsylvania), Milken Global Annual Summit, and Bloomberg’s New Economy Summits.

He serves on numerous boards around the world including InvestAfrica (UK), University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) business school global advisory board, board member of a successful Fintech based in the Netherlands, Harvard Business Review (HBR) advisory board and is Chairman of Calzedonia Ethiopia, the Italian multinational fast fashion apparel manufacturer and retailer.

Zemedeneh has a BBA from Howard University, Washington D.C., completed the LSE program at the Harvard Business School (HBS), Boston and is a U.S. C.P.A.