Deanne De Vries

Dr. Deanne De Vries—who has spent thirty years working and living across Africa for startups (including her own), venture capital firms as well as global non-profits and international organizations—looks at life, and Africa, differently. Find out more at www.drdeannedevries.com and book her to speak at your next event, be your venture partner or join your board. With an intimate understanding of the vibrancy, largesse and diversity of Africa’s 55 countries, how this impacts business and where the opportunities lie, her advice and vision changes the way people and companies start, operate and grow their operations across the Continent. Through the wisdom of African proverbs and many first-hand stories, Deanne, introduces her readers and her audiences to the reality on the ground so they can leave behind the misleading conventional wisdom and outdated images of Africa. As comfortable climbing to Everest Base Camp to fundraise to build a maternity hospital as she is addressing an audience at Madison Square Gardens, interviewing Heads of State across Africa for her recently completed PhD, or crossing on foot the South Sudan border with Uganda to understand the situation her truck drivers face daily, Deanne looks to understand the “why” of the on-the-ground reality so she can raise others up as well as introduce everyone to AfriCAN: the can-do Continent.