Lydie Hakizimana

Rwanda

Occupational Information

Job Title: CEO, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS

Professional History

Lydie is the Chief Executive Officer of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). She is also the founder of Drakkar Ltd, a pioneering Rwandan educational publishing house, Lydie has over 10 years of experience in the production and distribution of textbooks. Through her work at Drakkar, Lydie edited and published 16 Kinyarwanda titles and distributed over one million textbooks. Drakkar’s textbooks have been supplied to 3,800 primary and secondary schools, reaching three million children across Rwanda. She also founded Happy Hearts Preschools in 2015 to provide quality preschool education for all. Now the fastest growing network of private preschools in Rwanda, Happy Hearts serves children aged 1-6 years from diverse backgrounds, utilizing an innovative and harmonious blend of Montessori pedagogic principles with Rwandan values and culture. In 2018, Lydie was appointed as a board member of the African Leadership University (ALU), which was named one of the most innovative companies in the world (#1 in Africa) by the influential magazine Fast Company. She previously worked for OTF Group, a Boston-based consulting firm that advised the governments of Rwanda and Gabon in Information Communication Technologies, the Hides and Skin, and Timber industries respectively. She earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2018 and is a certified Montessori teacher from the North American Montessori Center (NAMC) in Canada. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2016 and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellowship in 2012. She sits on the board of the African Leadership University.

Qualifications

BBA in Marketing from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.
Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Program

2012 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow

Additional Tags: Marketing, Education, Media, Information Communication Technologies, Nonprofit Organizations, Budgeting, Business, Sales,  Early Childhood Education, Public Administration, Science and Technology