For over three decades, Aline O’Connor has built and mentored teams across the seed and agribusiness sectors in both the United States and Africa. Her journey into agriculture was unexpected, but it has since evolved into a lifelong commitment to ethical leadership, knowledge transfer, and Africa’s agricultural transformation. In this interview, she reflects on her path, her connection to Ashesi, and her hopes for the next generation of African leaders.

You have spent over three decades building and mentoring teams in both America’s and Africa’s seed and agribusiness sectors. What first inspired your passion for agriculture and its role in Africa’s development? 

Like many entrepreneurs, I landed on my main career area of expertise quite by accident.  I agreed to help some agricultural seed specialists start a new business in the US, with my focus being on business management.  I never intended to stay beyond getting the business up and running.  However, I found the seed sector fascinating and after eight years I became the CEO of the company until we sold it nine years later, as quite a large enterprise.  As I was exiting, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation approached me to ask if I would consider advising them about seed in Africa as a consultant.

I agreed, which launched me into a new and fascinating career chapter: crop seed in Africa.  Of course, I had to learn a great deal – in the US I had focused a lot on crops such as maize (corn) and soybeans, whereas here I needed to learn about a host of other crops such as cassava, rice, common beans, millet and sorghum.  Cultural practices, crop diseases, crop varieties, the regulatory environment and more were all different.  It was incredibly stimulating to be on such an intense learning journey in a field that I loved.   

Upon beginning to work here in Africa, I was astounded by the untapped potential of both the hard-working farmers and also the land resources.  I was also deeply humbled by how hard so many of the women farmers worked, with so few tools to mitigate the risks they faced.  I embarked on a multi-year journey of training seed company entrepreneurs, working with governments, and teaching PhD level crop breeders at three universities on the continent, including here at Legon.  I eventually moved to Africa about fifteen years ago  and then founded Agri Experience Limited.   

Through Agri Experience, you’ve worked to empower local teams across Africa. How does that align with Ashesi’s mission of educating ethical, entrepreneurial leaders for Africa? 

Agri Experience is a Nairobi-based seed sector consulting firm that I started to provide a platform for knowledge transfer to young Africans who could play major roles in developing their countries’ seed sectors.  Historically, there have often been unethical practices in seed sectors in many parts of the world, resulting in low quality or even counterfeit seed getting to farmers.  In addition, there was a fairly low knowledge base about how to produce high quality seed with improved germplasm, at scale, in sub-Saharan Africa.  Agri Experience’s focus on well-educated and ethical seed sector participants is almost completely parallel to Ashesi’s focus on developing a new generation of leaders.  

You’ve recently joined Ashesi’s US Foundation Board of Trustees. What about Ashesi’s vision for the future motivated you to take on this leadership role?   

It is quite simple – I first met Ashesi’s founder in 2008 and was immediately impressed with his vision for the vibrant role that a new generation of educated, ethical leaders could play in making the world a better, more just, humane place.  I hadn’t even read the mission statement at that point.  I stayed in touch and began to support Ashesi financially.  Importantly, I then became very impressed with the Ashesi management team’s ability to make tangible progress towards achieving the founding vision.  Many people can dream but not everyone can execute a plan to achieve that dream.  So, when I was approached about joining the US Foundation Board for Ashesi it was an easy decision.  The combination of a great mission and the ability to execute plans to achieve it is very powerful.  

With your experience in agribusiness, how do you see universities like Ashesi contributing to Africa’s agricultural transformation—especially through initiatives like the Centre for Entrepreneurship? 

This question makes me chuckle because I have been trying to sell Ashesi leadership on contributions to agriculture in Africa since I first became involved with Ashesi!  In sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is deeply important both economically and culturally, and I don’t think this is going to change.  In my opinion, despite great potential and progress in industrialization, agriculture will continue to be central to the continent, which is a good thing.  However, the sector needs to modernize and become more vertically competent and integrated.  Shipping raw agricultural commodities to other continents for processing and value addition robs Africa of the opportunities to create its own products and earn the returns.  In addition, low yielding crop harvests and low levels of agri-processing often result in Africa having to pay for high levels of imports, including imports of finished products made from its own commodities!