President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia

“AFRICA AND ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD”

Internationally known as Africa’s “Iron Lady,” President Sirleaf is the continent’s first elected female president and a leading promoter of peace, justice and democratic rule. She has lead her war-torn nation of Liberia in the restoration of peace and freedom, while enacting economic, social and political change. In 2009 she chronicled her journey, from an abused young wife to a powerful political figure, in the memoir This Child Will Be Great. President Sirleaf will be the first-ever sitting head of state to address The Richmond Forum.

BACKGROUND

Internationally known as Africa’s “Iron Lady,” President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a leading promoter of peace, justice and democratic rule. She grew up in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, where she married and had four sons.

President Johnson Sirleaf later moved to the United States where she earned an accounting degree from the Madison College of Business and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

In her efforts to bring justice to her people in Liberia, she spent more than a year in jail at the hands of the military dictatorship of General Samuel Doe and had her life threatened by former President Charles Taylor. She campaigned relentlessly for Taylor’s removal from office and played an active and supportive role in the Transitional Government of Liberia as the country prepared for elections in October 2005.

President Johnson Sirleaf was a presidential candidate in the 1997 Liberia general election where she finished second in the field of 13. Before that, she served for five years as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Program as Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and was the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Project for Africa.

She served as the Chairperson of the Governance Reform Commission of the National Transitional Government of Liberia until she resigned in March 2004 to accept the nomination of the Unity Party of Liberia as its Standard Bearer.

In November 2005, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African nation. The Harvard educated former World Bank economist defeated George Weah with an impressive 59.4 percent of the vote.

In October 2007, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian award, for her personal courage and unwavering commitment to expand freedom and improve the lives of people in Liberia and across Africa.

She is also the author of This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President, published in 2009.

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