Garreth Bloor has served as President of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business since 2019 and is a co-founder of the Africa Foresight Fund. His research has been published - among others - by Canada's Fraser Institute, where he currently serves as a Senior Associate.
Previously he served as Managing Director of Glenheim Venture Capital, which he set up in 2016 as a joint venture with the South African-based OutsourcedCFO (OCFO).
Glenheim was named one of the top 25 Most Innovative Companies of 2017 by FastCompany SA and was profiled in an inaugural report of the Southern Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s (SAVCA) top 15 success stories. The Africa Foresight Fund (AFF) today includes the OCFO team originally established within Glenheim.
Bloor is based primarily in Toronto and is an active member of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, African Leadership Network and was a 2017 Aspen Ideas Scholar of the Aspen Institute.
As President of The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business he has led trade and investment engagements across Canada and on the African continent. They have included Prime Ministers, leading CEOs, Cabinet Members and entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic. Under his leadership the organization has grown, with new offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Accra, in addition to a growing team: including a Head of Operations, Business Development and Partnerships Manager, Vice Presidents, a Senior Advisory Board and a program for fellows and interns.
In addition to major corporate members, several governments have joined the organization during his tenure; including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Botswana, Tanzania, Senegal and Zimbabwe – represented by their High Commissions or Embassies.
Bloor is committed to free trade and their supporting institutions. He was an invitee to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deliberations during the Extraordinary Summit in Niger in 2019. His work on Canada-Africa trade and investment had been cited publicly by Prime Minister Trudeau and his Trade Minister Mary Ng - for bringing together the ‘who is who’ of business leaders in a non-partisan forum - welcoming leaders holding a wide array of perspectives.
As President of The Canada-Africa Chamber he has led the opening of new offices in the Canadian capital of Ottawa and established an AfCFTA Quarterly Forum, supported by a new office in Accra, Ghana. During his tenure he has rapidly expanded the programs offered by the organization, welcoming thousands of participants drawn from every country on the African continent and receiving coverage in hundreds of media outlets.
Prior to his private sector career Bloor was an executive politician, heading economic development in the City of Cape Town - elected at age 23, and elected to Parliament at age 26.
He led changes to over 300 policies and by-laws through scrapping an equivalent number, inherited from the pre-democracy city planning regime. In the year after the liberalization through municipal reforms the value of new building plans in the city saw a growth of 46% year-on-year. He as addressed events and presented at papers at dozens of conferences globally.
After his post-graduate studies, he served as a member of the University of Cape Town’s Council from 2011 to 2016 and its University Research Committee during the same period.
St Gallen University in Switzerland named Garreth one of the Top 100 global Leaders of Tomorrow at their annual symposium in May 2014 and in 2016 he was named a Leader of Today. The Cape Town Press Club awarded him its Graduate Bursary Award in 2010, recognizing “over 500 articles published locally and abroad with contributions to over a dozen publications undertaken”.
Bloor has been an Abe Bailey Fellow in the UK (2009), a Gilder Fellow (2018) and in 2014 was the youngest elected member of the Mont Pelerin Society. He is a council member of the Johannesburg-based SAIRR and is a contributor to The Library of Economics and Liberty and Law & Liberty in the United States.