Forty Under 40: Jonathan Mwaba

Jonathan Mwaba, 28, is in some ways unconventional.

“My first passion is business, but not the traditional way of doing business,” Mwaba said, explaining his notion of a “triple bottom line.”

Such a bottom line reflects a business that’s successful not just in financial terms, but one that’s good for the community and the economic well-being of its people.

“That’s what excites me,” said Mwaba, who grew up in Zambia and South Africa before coming to the United States in 2007, later becoming the first African male to graduate from the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.

Mwaba now works on a project-to-project basis, helping people with sound concepts get them “launched into the marketplace.”

One example is the potential for oceanic wind farms near Africa and South America. Mwaba believes they could be a boon to the energy industries there. He also believes they would benefit the citizens in those regions.

That’s evident when Mwaba is asked where he’d like to see himself in the next few years. Rather than talking about personal progress, Mwaba said he’d love to travel to one of those places, “to see how the projects I’ve done have helped in terms of liberating people in an economic sense. I want to look at the people I’ve touched,” he said. “That would be my ultimate gain.”