Modupe Taylor-Pearce recently created 12 new jobs in Africa. That’s 12
down and 999,988 to go.
A million new jobs in 20 years may sound like a dream. However, Taylor-
Pearce bases his vision in facts—his country’s untapped natural resources
and the growing interest of international investors.
“The resource that I am most inspired by,” he says, “is our people, starting
with the more than 1 million unemployed young people in my home country,
Sierra Leone. So much talent.”
A growing clarity of purpose
Not long ago, Modupe was working as a U.S.-based turnaround
consultant—helping troubled businesses redefine their future. At the same
time, he founded a nonprofit organization for leadership development in
Sierra Leone.
Then both of those passions grew into a single, compelling purpose: “To
bless others in Sierra Leone and all of Africa through a new generation of
leadership and a strong private sector.”
Today Taylor-Pearce can look back and trace how that goal was fueled by his
family’s values, his leadership training at West Point, his combat experience
in the Sierra Leone civil war, and his mentoring and growth in business
leadership. It was all about the need for leaders with integrity, and a sense
of mission.
“When I look back, I see that I received all this rich training in leadership
so that I would have something of value to give to others. There are
thousands of talented people in Sierra Leone, but not all of them have the
opportunities I have. I never forget that.”
Accepting the PhD path
After earning a master’s degree from Cornell, Taylor-Pearce at first felt that
from then on, his lessons “were out there to be learned in the business
world, not in a classroom.”
Until he finally recognized and accepted his larger purpose.
“Suddenly, I understood why I needed the PhD journey to supplement my
working knowledge of leadership. If I am to accomplish my goals, I cannot
afford to have any door closed to me because I lack the full depth of my
field. I need my ideas tested and challenged and enlarged.”
In choosing a university for that journey, he looked at it through his lens as a
business evaluator: Where do I find the brightest signs for the future?
“What I saw in Capella was a steady, continuous path of improvement, from
the beginning through the present. That told me a lot about the future of
Capella, and I was ready to be part of that.”