From Africa’s AIDS Crisis to Global Pharma Leadership | Dr. Eslie Dennis

Well, your time in industry has been so fascinating and very accomplished.

We're gonna get all-- to all those things.

But first, I wanna know what it's like to grow up in Africa.

Tell us about that.

Thank you so much for that question, Michael.

You know, um, Africa will always have a very special place in my heart.

Africa is, is a really fascinating continent.

You know, firstly, Africa's huge.

It's the second largest continent after Asia and bigger than all of the US and China and most of Europe combined.

And it's actually made up of fifty-four different countries.

So there's tremendous diversity in Africa, not just between countries, but also within countries.

I think the other piece about Africa is that each of those fifty-four countries has their own unique identity and cultures and histories.

Um, the other piece about Africa is that it's definitely a continent of sharp contrasts.

So we see deep-rooted traditional beliefs and customs, you know, alongside modernization.

We see extreme poverty and extreme wealth, and we see peace and conflict.

So Africa is actually quite a complex continent.

But for me as a child growing up in Africa, it was truly magical.

I, I would say idyllic.

I can't imagine a better childhood than growing up in Africa.

I was born in South Africa, but I grew up on a farm on an agricultural college in-- just outside of Lusaka in Zambia.

And my dad was a microbiologist and my mom a geography teacher, and both wonderfully supportive and loving parents.

And my brother and I went to school at the International School of Lusaka.

And Michael, I think we probably had over fifty different nationalities represented between the students and the teachers.

And so to be different was actually the norm, and people were super excited to learn about you.

They were curious about where you came from, what your country was like.