Biography
Born and raised in Kenya, James Irungu Mwangi earned an A.B. in economics from Harvard University and a mini-MBA from Dartmouth University before joining McKinsey & Company as a business analyst in 2000.
In 2002, he helped found Dalberg Advisors and went on to lead the firm’s expansion into Africa in 2007–2010. He served as Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors from 2010 to 2014 and most recently as Executive Director of the Dalberg Group. During his tenure, James led the growth, incubation, or acquisition of many of the entities that today constitute Dalberg’s operational footprint in over 25 countries on six continents.
James also serves as an independent director on several boards, including the Skoll Foundation, the Global Centre for Pluralism, One Acre Fund, Old Mutual Limited, and Koko Networks.
He was a 2009 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow of the African Leadership Institute, a 2013 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and a 2021 Yale World Fellow. He currently serves as a member of the Global Entrepreneurs Council of the UN Foundation.
In 2021, James co-founded the Climate Action Platform for Africa with Carlijn Nouwen to help unlock Africa’s potential for economic transformation while playing a leading role in climate action.
Breakthrough Program
James Mwangi was selected for the Climate Breakthrough Award program in 2022.
When James looks at his home continent, he sees a climate action powerhouse. It has an astonishing 40% of the world’s solar power potential, though in 2021, it only drew 0.6% of global clean energy investment. It has the youngest population; 70% of Sub-Saharan Africans are under 30. And it has ample land resources that it can use for what James sees as one of the biggest economic opportunities in the coming decades: carbon removal.
In 2021, as a Yale World Fellow, he launched the Climate Action Platform-Africa (CAP-A) to pursue his vision. He wants to take CAP-A to the next level to pursue what he calls “climate-positive growth” for Africa. To complement the work of CAP-A, he has launched Africa Climate Ventures to identify opportunities and spur private investment, at scale, in climate-smart businesses across the continent.
African countries already have some of the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, he notes, and it’s clear that the high-emission pathways followed by others are no longer viable. With the right investments and policies, he argues, Africa can instead “leapfrog” to low-carbon prosperity, using its resources to become a hub for clean energy-intensive industries, carbon removal, and more.