On March 26, Beatrice A. Hamza Bassey, Esq., will be one of the honorees at The Network Journal’s 17th Annual “25 Influential Black Women in Business” Awards Luncheon, a highly anticipated annual event in New York City.
A leading Black-owned and operated magazines in the United States, with a target audience of Black professionals, small business owners, corporate decision makers and policy makers, The Network Journal chose Hamza Bassey as one of its honorees with good reason. She has been on the magazine’s radar since 2003, when it placed her on its annual list of “40 Under Forty” Black men and women in the United States—all under the age of 40—who have achieved a significant level of career success and made substantial contributions to their communities.
She did not disappoint.
Born in Nigeria, Hamza Bassey holds a bachelor of law degree from Nigeria Law School, and law degrees from the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria and Harvard Law School. She sits on the boards of PowerPlay N.Y.C., a nonprofit dedicated to educating and empowering girls through sports and academic enrichment programs; Self Help Africa, dedicated to empowering women in rural African communities to achieve economic independence; Save Africa’s Children; Twana Twitu, a Kenyan organization that supports Kenya’s AIDS orphans; and the Nigerian Higher Education Foundation, an effort established by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to promote excellence in higher education in Nigeria.
She is a member of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution Arbitration Committee, and is the immediate past secretary of the Litigation Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a former president and current chair of the board of directors of the Nigerian Lawyers Association. She also serves on the Anti-Corruption and Litigation committees of the International Bar Association, and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, the International Association of Defense Counsel, the Nigerian Bar Association and the New York Bar Association.
“To whom much is given, much is expected,” Hamza Bassey remarked to The Network Journal, quoting a biblical exhortation popular among high achievers, including Bill Gates of Microsoft and philanthropy fame.
She continued: “‘Doing well while doing good’ is a mantra that I live by, and which aptly captures my outlook. I love giving back to my community and investing in the next generation.”
Less than a month ago, Hamza-Bassey stepped into the role of general counsel at Atlas Mara Ltd., the ambitious African investment bank set up in 2013 by Bob Diamond, former Barclays CEO and now CEO and founder of Atlas Merchant Capital LLC, and Ugandan entrepreneur, Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of Mara Group Holdings Ltd.
Headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, Atlas Mara jumped into what it perceives as a capital void left by retreating European institutions. It aims to become the premier financial services institution in sub-Saharan Africa, and has assembled some of the best and most experienced brains on the African financial landscape, including Hamza Bassey, to execute an action plan grounded in acquisitions, product innovation and technology.
Among its acquisitions to date are a 50.1 percent stake in Botswana’s pan African BancABC, and a further 20.9 percent stake in Union Bank of Nigeria that brings its total stake in the bank to 30 percent. Other subsidiaries and investments are in Germany, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Atlas Mara hired Hamza Bassey away from the U.S. law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, where she was the first African partner, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, and chair of its Africa practice. At Atlas Mara she oversees and coordinates legal and compliance functions across the group, drawing on expertise and experience acquired in her compliance, ethics and complex litigation practice at Hughes Hubbard.
In that practice she litigated several headline-grabbing cases. Most notably, she represented the Trustee for the failed Lehman Brothers Inc., overseeing litigation involving more than $25 billion in trustee-controlled assets. She provided advice related to activities in Angola, Brazil, China, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Argentina, Seychelles, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
For Hamza Bassey, economic advancement cannot be sustained if it is not inclusive, if it does not benefit every social group. As an attorney she has been known to perform countless hours of pro bono work on behalf of low-income New Yorkers, receiving widespread coverage in major New York publications for her efforts and earning her Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Publico award in 2010.
Asked what she would do if she had more time and money, she said: “I believe that education is the key to success in life. So the one thing I will do with more time and money is focus on more initiatives that ensure that inner city kids in the U.S. and rural communities in Africa have access to quality education at various levels.”
Often it is harder to find a successful professional filled with compassion than a merely successful professional. Beyond experience, expertise and brains, Atlas Mara took in a huge dollop of compassion when it hired Beatrice Hamza Bassey.
