Victor Williams

Managing Partner at Lions Range Group

Speaker

Victor Williams is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lions Range Group, where he leads the firm’s investment strategy focused on Africa’s sports, technology and creaGve economy. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of experience across global finance, corporate leadership and professional sports, he works at the intersecGon of investment, business development and transformaGve growth across the conGnent.

From 2020 to 2023, as ExecuGve Vice President of the NaGonal Basketball AssociaGon (NBA) and CEO of NBA Africa, Williams led all the league’s basketball and business development iniGaGves in Africa, significantly enhancing the growth and popularity of the NBA brand on the conGnent. He oversaw the formaGon and capitalizaGon of NBA Africa as a standalone enGty with external investment to conduct the league’s business in Africa. Williams also led the launch and growth of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the NBA’s first professional league outside North America; the establishment of new NBA offices in Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya; the launch of the first NBA Stores in Africa, the expansion of markeGng and fan engagement iniGaGves, grassroots and talent development programs including NBA Academy Africa, media and corporate partnerships, and merchandising and licensing.

Prior to joining the NBA, Williams had more than two decades’ experience as a banking industry leader. As the ExecuGve Head of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), Africa Regions for Standard Bank Group, he oversaw the strategy, execuGon and financial performance of Standard Bank’s business with corporate, sovereign and insGtuGonal investor clients in 19 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. In this pan-conGnental role, Williams was responsible for the growth of global markets, investment banking and transacGonal services businesses across Africa, and helped lead Standard Bank’s expansion into Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Previously, as a Managing Director of mergers and acquisiGons (M&A) in the US with Wells Fargo SecuriGes, Williams led the IT and Business Services M&A pracGce and executed several mulGbillion-dollar transacGons, providing strategic insights to senior execuGves and boards of directors of Fortune 500 companies on complex merger and financing transacGons. Williams started his investment banking career in mergers and acquisiGons at Goldman Sachs in New York where he rose to Vice President.

A dual ciGzen of Sierra Leone and the United States, Williams holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Applied MathemaGcs, with academic honors, from Brown University. He was named among New African Magazine’s 100 Most InfluenGal Africans in 2021.

Beyond his execuGve leadership, Williams chairs the Board of Imagine Worldwide, and serves on the Board of the Smithsonian NaGonal Museum of African Art and Harvard Business School’s Africa Advisory Board, reflecGng his longstanding commitment to advancing educaGon, culture and opportunity across Africa.