Sarah Dimson

The Mastercard Foundation 2013 - 2014

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

United States of America

Sector:

Real Estate

Location:

Tanzania

Degree:

MCP, School of Architecture & Planning

Sarah Dimson is focused on the scale of investment and resources needed to support economic and human development in sub-Saharan Africa between now and 2030. The key areas for future investment and the linchpins for socioeconomic progress, particularly in Tanzania, include energy infrastructure, planning for urbanizing communities, and R&D.

Her company, sd-International (sdI), is a private-sector energy infrastructure and real estate development entity. It seeks to increase electricity access and the supply of grid- and microgrid-scale renewable energy as well as to revitalize the physical landscape of urbanizing sub-Saharan African communities beginning in Tanzania.

With her on-the-ground experiences and growing knowledge, Sarah is looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead for sdI in Tanzania (and eventually throughout East Africa). She expects sdI to break new ground in its collaborative, real-time approach to the delivery of renewables for electricity and planning for emerging communities.

Sarah’s academic pursuits at Stanford (BA in Science, Technology, and Society, 2002) and Oxford (Stanford Overseas Program, 2002) and her professional experiences in management consulting, affordable housing development, and urban planning have given her a strong base for her pursuits in Tanzania. Sarah is currently an MCP candidate at the MIT School of Architecture in the Urban Studies and Planning Department.