Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was born in
Monrovia (Liberia) on October 29, 1938. She is considered by Forbes as the most powerful African Women.
In 2011, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), and Tawakkol Karman (Yemen) in recognition for their non-violent (Ahimsa) struggle for women's
safety and rights
In 1965, she joined the Liberian Treasury Department
In 1979, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected to
Minister of Finances of Liberia
In 1980, after the coup d´etat; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf worked at the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment, but she has fled from Liberia
She was hired by Citicorp in Nairobi (Kenya), and later
she joined the World Bank (U.S.)
In 1992, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf joined the United Nations Development Programme working in African affairs
In 1997, she resigned to the UN work and returned to Liberia. In the elections;
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was ranked second (first was Charles Taylor)
Then; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf auto-exiled in Ivory Coast where she founded “Kormah Development and Investment Corporation”
In 1999; she works in the Organization of the African Unity (today, African Union) committee of the Rwandan genocide
In 2003, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf returned to Liberia and was elected to Chairperson of the Governance Reform Commission
In 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected as the first female President of Liberia. As the Liberian President, the country has attracted more than 16 billion dollars in FDI, mainly in the mining sector
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the President of the Mano River Union,
a West African regional integration institution formed by Ivory Coast, Guinea,
Liberia, and Sierra Leone
She studied at Harvard and the University of Colorado