Thabo Lenneiye

Staff

Managing Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Fund

Thabo Lenneiye is the inaugural managing director of the Carl H. Goldsmith Sustainable Agriculture Fund at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, where she leads research at the intersection of sustainable agriculture, climate, and energy policy. Her work focuses on building a comprehensive research agenda that explores how agriculture can address the challenges posed by climate change and the global energy transition. Lenneiye is also a senior fellow with the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School.

Her experience reflects a deep commitment to societal impact. Before joining the Kleinman Center, she served as managing director of Penn Praxis, where she oversaw strategic planning, business development, and operations for the applied research center focused on social impact at the University of Pennsylvania. At Gensler, a global design firm, she not only worked as an architect and project manager but also collaborated with the executive team to drive initiatives related to justice, inclusion, and social impact. Notably, she led the establishment of Gensler’s Africa practice and supported CEO Diane Hoskins in her role on the Obama Administration’s Presidential Advisory Council for Doing Business in Africa (PACDBIA). Additionally, she served as the inaugural secretary of the Board for the African Union Pan-African Diaspora Women’s Association from 2017 to 2018.

An entrepreneurial spirit has driven her to found several social ventures, further highlighting her commitment to equitable development. In addition to her professional achievements, she has taught design studios at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland. Thabo serves as Vice-Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Placemaking Product Council, and is an Associate Scholar at the Penn Center for Global Health.

With a diverse interdisciplinary background, she holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the Africa Regional Scholarship, as well as dual master’s degrees from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.