Mr Sheriff is a veteran who is versatile in international trade development and small business specialist with nearly 35 years practice in the private, public and third sectors; supporting the small and medium-sized businesses across different industries both in the UK and in Africa. He has led and participated in many high-profile international trade missions to the USA, Asia and Africa and comes with a wealth of experience, working with business executives from diverse cultural backgrounds. He has accumulated several years of business experience from his engagements in the Eastern and Western Sub-Saharan Africa regions, with an excellent working knowledge of business in southern Africa.

Sheriff’s vast overseas business adventures have taken him into the MENA and South East Asia regions, including trade missions to Vietnam.  A management and marketing professional by training, he has a keen focus on entrepreneurship, small business management and entrepreneurial education; supporting C-suite boards and directors of SMEs with specialist skills; as a UK government, SFEDI certified small business practitioner, mentor and coach. He has delivered on, and managed, several UK-government funded business support schemes involving financial and skill input, to mainstream and specialist sector-specific businesses in manufacturing, engineering, branding, leisure, hospitality, travel and tourism, health and medical sciences.

Sheriff has also worked with a number of government departments as well as not-for-profits across west and east Africa, in delivering organisational development and capacity building programmes. He has a demonstrable evident passion for Africa. He is frequently engaged to speak on wider socio-economic development issues; particularly as they impact on sub-Sahara Africa and he regularly contributes to the discourse in broadcast and print media.

Sheriff proactively encourages the development of young Africans and, pro-bono, support many graduates, PhD students, research fellows and young professionals through mentoring and coaching in education, vocational and professional skills, and new business start-ups. He is currently Head of Africa (Governance, Development and Strategic Partnerships) for NBI-Blueprints UK, and is on the roster of the African Development Bank Group as a consultant on policy matters relating to private sector development, human capacity, education, skills and livelihoods.

He has taught widely within the UK academia and was a former professor of marketing and management, an external assessor for the MBA programme at London Metropolitan University and an examiner for the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He regularly writes on issues of governance, leadership, education, business, skills and socio-economic development on the continent of Africa and often appears on TV and radio interviews/debates about these subjects. Sheriff is a regular keynote speaker and is frequently requested to contribute to and lead panel discussions on issues of business investment in Africa, youth development, apprenticeships, training and entrepreneurship.

Sheriff is a passionate gardener and a photography enthusiast. He loves the outdoors, fishing, cooking, motor-biking, off-road driving and fitness training. He is blessed with four grandchildren who keep him ever looking so youthful.