Biography of Lucy Quist

Lucy Quist Née Afriyie is a Ghanaian-British Business, and Technology Executive, founder and CEO of Quist Blue Diamond, co-founder of FreshBakery, and the author of the Bold New Normal. She is also a co-founder of the Executive Women Network and served as the Vice President of FIFA’s normalisation committee in Ghana.

Her career spans the manufacturing, telecommunications, banking, and automotive industries in Europe and Africa. Lucy Quist is known as a trailblazer in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector having become the first Ghanaian woman to lead a multinational telecom company (Airtel).

In her book the Bold New Normal, Lucy advocates for Africans to take bold actions toward Africa’s prosperity. She believes that with a change in visions, mindset and language of its people, Africa can create prosperity for itself.

Lucy Quist was born in the year 1974 to Ghanaian parents Peter and Mary Afriyie in London. While growing up Lucy spent her formative years both in London and Ghana. It was worthy to note that Lucy had the opportunity to travel even at an early age within Africa because of the work engagement of her parents.

Lucy had her secondary education at the elite Wesley Girls’ High school in Cape Coast and then continued with her sixth form education at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School. For her undergraduate studies, she studied Electrical Engineering at the University of East London and graduated with First Class Honours. She also holds an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Career

Lucy began her professional life as an electrical engineer at Ford Motors Company, and while with the automobile company she attained her Chartered Engineer (IET), UK Certification.

Shortly thereafter, she joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as a change manager and was with the company from 2007 to 2008. In 2008, Lucy changed her career path from electrical engineering into the telecommunications industry. Lucy had her first telecommunications job with Millicom International Cellular (MIC), where she worked in business development, sales, distribution, and marketing. Lucy stayed with Milicom from 2008 to 2011 serving in various capacities, such as head of business development, Africa, Head of Operations, Africa, Deputy Head of Territory Management (Consumer Sales & Operations), Ghana.

From Milicom, Lucy joined Vodafone Ghana as Head of Strategy & Planning and later became the Managing Director. Right after her position as Managing Director with Vodafone Lucy moved on to assume the position as the first Ghanaian woman to lead a multinational telecom company, Airtel.

At Airtel Lucy successfully re-positioned the company into the fastest growing telecom brand growing customer market share for both voice and data. She has also led the telecom company to win about 20 reputable awards during her tenure of office.

In 2017, Lucy resigned from Airtel in the face of a merger between Tigo and Airtel. Below was the speech she gave at her send forth;

“After three and a half years of leading the amazing team at Airtel Ghana, the time is right for me to move on to the next chapter. It has been a truly remarkable journey and I thank each and every one of you for your support, encouragement and business partnership over the course of my stewardship. We are proud of our achievements,” Quist posted on social media

“Particularly, I want to thank all those who have been part of the many initiatives I have led over the last few years to empower young people and every young person who works with me for that matter. Notably the Evolve with STEM and the Bold New Normal initiatives. I look forward to empowering more young people even as I continue my professional leadership journey. Together we will create the Bold New Normal of prosperity for our country and continent,” she added.

Not long after, Lucy was appointed by FIFA in September 2018 as the Vice President of the Normalization Committee to restructure football in Ghana.

And then in 2019, Lucy became the Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in its London office and in 2020 was appointed Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Technology and Operations.

Lucy has also been engaged in public speaking at events such as Hogan Lovells African forum 2017, the Mobile World Congress, Pan African Women Forum, TEDxEuston, Wharton African Business Forum, the Sanford C Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics Conference at the Columbia Business School and the African Development Investment Convention.

Among other things, Lucy Quist is a strong advocate for greater participation in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics for Africa’s development and continuously encourages young people to harness the game-changing power of STEM. She believes that technology has the potential to leapfrog Africa’s development.

Personal life

Lucy is married to Sean Quist and a proud mother of three children. Lucy is a native English speaker, she is professionally proficient in French and has elementary proficiency in Portuguese.

Boards

Lucy Quist serves on both international and local Boards of several establishments including the International Board for African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Petra Trust Company Ltd, Obaatan Pa Women’s Hospital, the Business Environment Enabling Programme under the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Business Sounding Board for the Danish Embassy, the Industry Advisory Board for Ashesi University, The Exploratory – an initiative of the African Women Advocacy Project, Ghana Climate Innovation Centre and Women in Business Initiative, the Africa CEO Forum.

Honours

Lucy Quist has been recognized numerously for her work and exemplary leadership through the following awards:

– 2016 8th Most Influential Public Figure (Ghana Social Media Rankings)

– Corporate Leadership Award, Ghana Legacy Honours 2017

– Top 50 Women Corporate Leaders in Ghana (WomanRising)

– 100 Most Influential Ghanaian Women, WomanRising

-CSR CEO of the year 2015, Ghana CSR Excellence Awards (GHACEA)

– Telecom CEO of the Year (GITTA Awards 2016)

– Excellence in Corporate Responsibility (Ghana Women of the Year Honours 2016)

– 58th Most Influential Person in Ghana (Ghana’s Most Influential Awards 2016)

– CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year 2014 (CIMG 2015 Awards)

– Special Recognition to the Telecom Industry (GTA 2015)

References

1. “Airtel attributes sterling growth to deep consumer insight and connection | Companies -“. thebftonline.com. 
2. “Lucy Quist, the dynamic force behind the fastest growing telecommunications company in Ghana – Business World Ghana“
3.  Myjoyonline.com. “Ghana News – Director of Vodafone Business Solutions to head Airtel Ghana”. myjoyonline.com.
4.  ModernGhana.Com. “Lucy Quist Picks Up CSR CEO Of The Year In The Light Of The Company’s Impactful CSR Programmes”. ModernGhana.com. 
5. Lucy Quist, http://www.wikipedia.com

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