Elizabeth Blacklin

Elizabeth Blacklin is Principal & CEO of Blacklin Associates. She builds on her work with U.S. global tech companies and African and Africa-diaspora-led companies. With over 25 years of international leadership experience in hi-tech and ICT business, she most recently served the U.S. Government as Senior Advisor for ICT with Prosper Africa, a presidential initiative. In that capacity, Elizabeth played a leading role with the Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA) initiative. She led the Africa Tech for Trade Alliance, which was launched at the Africa Fintech Summit in Washington, DC in April 2023 with 20 global ICT companies, including Google, AWS, Intel, Cisco, IBM, Mastercard, Visa, DHL, FedEx, PayPal and others.  With African and African diaspora-led startups, she co-created projects with these global tech members under a PPP model (Public Private Partnership), where transformational African tech companies could partner with a global tech company in digital transformation and AI. Elizabeth continues to lead efforts to create an AI Accelerator for Africa.

Ms. Blacklin began her career with Westinghouse Electric Corporation, focusing on the opportunities of the newly formed European Union as a key shaper of events and a new unified market.   Embracing the new and transformational world of internet connectivity, Ms. Blacklin moved to Moscow and directed business development efforts with Lucent Technologies in Russia/CIS.  She subsequently widened her scope with Avaya, Cisco Systems and leading Systems Integrators to accelerate the economic and social impact of digital technologies in emerging markets, including the Middle East, Asia and Africa.  

Ms. Blacklin has simultaneously addressed the resource dimensions of these enormous objectives.  She has a track record of success in solving the special challenges of trade and project finance in emerging markets, leveraging resources from the U.S. Government, multilateral development banks, and earlier-stage debt/equity offerors.  She remains passionate about opportunities on the African continent and in particular the startup and SME communities.

Ms. Blacklin earned a BA at the University of Iowa in French and Comparative Literature and separate master’s degrees in Politics and Administration at the Collège d’Europe in Belgium and International Transactions at George Mason University.  She is fluent in French, with working level German and Russian.