François Bonnici

François is the founding Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. The Bertha Centre has rapidly become the leading academic centre in Africa dedicated to advancing social innovation in Africa. The core approach of the Bertha Centre has been to uncover, pioneer, connect, social innovations and social entrepreneurs that work to generate inclusive opportunities and advance social justice in our country and continent. Since leaving medical school at UCT as the Gold Medal graduate, he did his Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and read for a MBA at the University of Oxford, again graduating top of his class, co-chairing the Oxford Business Network in Social Entrepreneurship. He has had a career spanning 17 years working in clinical medicine, humanitarian & development programmes, public private partnerships and innovative social change projects with civil society, foundations, governments, multilaterals, business and social investors. He has been recognised as a Rhodes Scholar; Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum; Archbishop Tutu African Leadership Fellow and was awarded the inaugural Social Innovation Leadership Award at the African Leadership Awards in 2015. He is a board member of the newly formed Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education.