BackgroundDambisa Moyo was born in Zambia in 1969, but spent the first eight years of her life in the US. She then returned to Lusaka with her parents who were both economists. At 19 she left for the United States again to study for a degree in chemistry at American University in Washington DC which was followed by an MBA in finance. She also has a Masters from Harvard and a PhD in economics from Oxford. She took positions at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs, before publishing her first book in 2009.CareerThe book - Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa - made her name and became a New York Times bestseller. In it she argued, somewhat controversially, that western aid was hindering the development of 3rd world countries and she was consequently seen by some to be the “anti Bono.”Her next book How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead has been called “a devastating obituary of America's supremacy” and paved the way for her 2012 book Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What it Means for the World in which she argues that China is already well on the way to gaining the upper hand. She outlines how China has embarked on a conscious strategy of taking control of large chunks of the world’s finite resources. Despite being a passionate free market capitalist she is a great admirer of the way the Chinese have gone about courting the unloved countries of Africa and South America, doing deals by co-operation not coercion. However she says the outcome could easily be wars over commodities.Dambisa Moyo has travelled extensively and has studied the political, economic, and financial workings of numerous emerging economies. She looks at the relationship between these countries and international business in order to identify investment opportunities. She serves on the board of Barclays Bank, SABMiller and Barrick Gold.On March 14, 2011, Moyo spoke in Westminster Abbey in London at a ceremony to mark Commonwealth Day in the presence of the Queen. Her work is regularly published in the Financial Times, the Economist, and the Wall St Journal. She is very TV friendly and is a contributing editor to CNBC; she has also made frequent appearances on BBC and Bloomberg TV.Her speaking engagements include the OECD, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and TED.She is a patron of the children’s charity Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) and has homes in New York and London but describes herself as an African.Accolades and awards2011 The Daily Beast selected Moyo as one of "150 Extraordinary Women Who Shake The World"In 2009, Dambisa was named by TIME Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and honoured by the World Economic Forum as one of its Young Global Leaders.2009 Included on Oprah Winfrey's power list of 20 remarkable visionaries.