Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was bornon 29 October 1938 in Monrovia, Liberian, is Africa’s First Elected Female Head of State. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the current President of Liberia. She is Africa’s first elected female head of state, famously dubbed as the ‘Iron Lady of Africa’. An economist by training, she assumed office in 2006 as the first democratically elected female president in postcolonial Africa. Previously she had run for the post of senate, vice-president and president in Liberia and also raised her voice against the unjust rule of military regimes. She spent much of her political career in exile trying to increase international awareness about the chaos and violence that was consuming her country. Throughout her career, she demonstrated passionate commitment to good governance, advocating for the rights of women and the importance of education to provide a better future for her country and its people. Upon becoming the president, she made considerable progress, notably to relieve Liberia from its crushing foreign debt. She also worked towards the liberation of African women, who have long borne the brunt of the violence, instability, and poverty that plagued the continent. She personified the nation's ability to recover from the long nightmare of civil war and has been righteously honored with the ‘Nobel Prize for Peace’ for her sincere efforts. She has revived national hope by strengthening the institutions of national security, leading the revitalization of the national economy, and restoring Liberia’s international reputation and credibility.
| 2018 | $1.2 Billion |
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She won against the ‘Congress for Democratic Change’ party candidate Winston Tubman and took presidential oath for her second presidency on January 16, 2012
In 2011, she decided to run for a second term in office in the presidential election, a decision highly criticized by the opposition leaders
On January 16, 2006, she assumed the office of the President of Liberia
In the 2005 general elections, she returned to contest for the post of President and took over as the leader of the Unity Party
In 1997 she resigned from the post to run for the president in the general elections in Liberia
In 1992, she was appointed the Director of the ‘United Nations Development Programme's Regional Bureau for Africa’ at the rank of Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General (ASG)
She resigned from Citibank following her involvement in the 1985 general election in Liberia and went to work for Equator Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC
In 1981, she moved to Nairobi to serve as the Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank, a post she held for four years
Doe in 1980, she initially accepted a post in the new government as ‘President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment’
Upon completing her studies, she returned to her native Liberia and became the Assistant Minister of Finance under the government of William Tolbert in 1972 but resigned after a year
From 1969 to 1971, she studied economics and public policy at Harvard's ‘John F
In 1961, she went to the United States and earned an associate degree in accounting from Madison Business College, Wisconsin
In 1956, at the age of 17, she married James Sirleaf
From 1948 to 1955, she studied at the College of West Africa
She was born on October 29, 1938, in Monrovia, Liberia, to Jahmale Carney Johnson, a lawyer, and his wife, a teacher
