Magatte Wade

Wade was born in Senegal and grew up in France with her parents.⁠[1]

She says a question from her childhood never left her and came to define her life: why some countries are poor while others are rich.⁠[2]

She recalls that she studied in France, holds French nationality and once worked as a supermarket cashier; an exchange stay in the American Midwest changed her life, and within a year she was a headhunter in Silicon Valley for companies including GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

In 2004 Wade founded Adina World Beat Beverages, which sold coffee, tea and hibiscus-based drinks, brought in revenues of nearly $3.2 million and was sold at Whole Foods and Wegmans.⁠[4]

It was her first company and brought the Senegalese drink bissap to US consumers, with distribution also through United Natural Foods, Inc.⁠[5]

In 2009, unhappy that the company’s African roots were being steadily diluted, Wade left Adina to found Tiossan, which makes and markets luxury skin-care products based on indigenous Senegalese recipes, and planned to move all manufacturing to Senegal once the company gained enough traction.⁠[6]

Tiossan brought Senegalese skin-care recipes to US consumers through Nordstrom and boutique beauty retailers.⁠[5]

She has said she created Tiossan as a fun, value-creating way to positively change how the world perceives Africa.⁠[7]

In 2011 the World Economic Forum named Wade a Young Global Leader.⁠[7]

The same year ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry listed her among the 20 most influential African women.⁠[8]

In 2014 she appeared on the cover of Forbes Afrique as the person in Francophone Africa having the greatest positive impact on the future.⁠[9]

That year she received the first-ever Leading Woman in Wellness Award at the 2014 Global Wellness Summit in Morocco.⁠[10]

On February 24, 2015, the Global Wellness Summit announced Wade’s appointment to its board of directors and said she would lead its new African initiative to promote Africa’s health, beauty and healing traditions to the global wellness market.⁠[10]

SkinIsSkin grew out of the racial tensions of 2016 over police shootings of African Americans. On a flight en route to a talk in Paris, Wade met Sharon Miller, a British expatriate who runs a marketing firm in Austin, and the two then founded the company together.⁠[11]

On August 27, 2017, she gave the talk “Why it’s too hard to start a business in Africa -- and how to change it” at TEDGlobal 2017, arguing that many African countries are poor because governments have created far too many obstacles to starting and running a business, and offering solutions of her own.⁠[12]

In 2018, at the Foundation for Economic Education’s annual FEEcon conference in Atlanta, she presented a short film and remarks about building SkinIsSkin and the restrictions and red tape imposed by Senegal’s government, arguing that people in poor countries need economic freedom rather than handouts.⁠[13]

On May 1, 2019, Atlas Network announced the Center for African Prosperity under Wade’s direction to support its roughly 20 partner organizations in Africa in promoting economic freedom and strong institutions.⁠[14]

Drawing on the “cheetah generation” identified by the Ghanaian economist George Ayittey, she argues that a new cohort of African entrepreneurs and professionals will create local pathways for change.⁠[9]

As of May 2019, SkinIsSkin’s lip balms were made in Senegal and sold online and in 28 natural stores and co-ops across the US, with half of profits going to organizations working to end bias.⁠[11]

As of February 2020, Wade, who is married, divided her time between Senegal and Austin, Texas.⁠[4]

On August 13, 2022, she appeared on episode 311 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, which introduces her as an entrepreneur seeking positive change in Africa through economic freedom; topics included Africa, her own story, corruption, identity, BLM, critical race theory, African geopolitics and overpopulation.⁠[15]

In 2023 she published her memoir The Heart of A Cheetah.⁠[16]

Subtitled How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty and What That Means for Human Flourishing, the book follows her life story and contends that Africa’s problems stem not from colonialism, corruption, bad leadership or lack of education but from something bigger that only entrepreneurs have seen.⁠[17]

In November 2023 she said in an interview that Africa is the world’s most over-regulated continent, that over-regulation breeds corruption and that 90% of Senegalese businesses are informal; she called for starting small with “start-up cities.”⁠[3]

On January 10, 2024, Reason released Nick Gillespie’s interview with her on her book, “conscious capitalism,” charter cities and the role of cryptocurrencies in building Africa; the introduction notes she lives in Austin and calls the late economist George Ayittey her mentor.⁠[18]

On July 11, 2024, the Competitive Enterprise Institute announced that Wade would receive its 2024 Julian L. Simon Memorial Award at a dinner on September 19 at Washington National Cathedral; CEI described her as fluent in Wolof, French and English.⁠[16]

She says the economist George Ayittey “liberated” her from socialism and argues that “Poverty is solved by prosperity. Prosperity is built by entrepreneurs.”⁠[1]

She is a co-founder of Prospera Africa, a governance platform for special economic zones, a senior fellow at Atlas Network and the host of The Magatte Wade Show; she has also appeared on Jordan PetersonJordan PetersonJordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, author and podcast host who taught at Harvard University and the University of Toronto; he drew wide attention for publicly opposing Canada’s Bill C-16 in 2016 and the ensuing free-speech debate, wrote the bestseller 12 Rules for Life and founded the online education platform Peterson Academy.Open the full entry’s podcast.⁠[19]

Projects listed on her website include working with local African governments to establish “Startup Cities,” Cheetah Made for African products made in Africa by Africans, and Tiossan Academy to teach Africans skills for the 21st-century global economy.⁠[20]

In April 2026 she spoke with students at MSU Denver’s College of Business as part of its Exploring Economic Freedom Speaker Series, and students received copies of her book.⁠[21]

Personal website: Public link: https://www.magattewade.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]

X: Public account: https://x.com/magattew (opens in a new window)⁠[9]

SkinIsSkin: Official website: https://skinisskin.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[2]

Atlas Network: Official website: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]