Business analyst: AT Kearney

At their Davos summit this year, the World Economic Forum named Msizi Khoza a Global Shaper, and it’s easy to see why. First, there’s Khoza’s master’s in electrical engineering, in which he used engineering tools — chiefly artificial intelligence — to model the entire South African economy.

He has already presented aspects of this groundbreaking work in Europe, and plans to take it to Australia and Korea next. Khoza’s consulting work also impresses. Having worked originally in what he calls “hardcore engineering”, he recently moved into management consulting, where his engineering skills and creativity are used to tackle his clients’ most enigmatic fifinancial conundrums.

As for political aptitude, he has published articles in journals including The Thinker and The African Pioneer. Khoza also reckons he can “sing — and sing well” but admits that asset is least likely to have swayed one of the great institutions of the globalised world.

— Ian Macleod

Website: za.atkearney.com