Mills Soko
Research Associate
Biographical Profile
Associate Professor Mills Soko
Mills Soko earned his undergraduate degree in Social Sciences from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1992. Soon thereafter he worked for a year as a research assistant with UCT’s Equal Opportunities Research Project. From 1994 to 1995 he was employed by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa as a researcher on parliamentary affairs, monitoring and preparing reports on the work of parliamentary committees in South Africa’s first democratic national legislature.
In 1996, he joined the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) – the upper house of the South African Parliament – as a researcher to the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Public Enterprises. During this period he completed a Master’s degree in International Studies through the University of Stellenbosch. This was followed by his appointment as Head of Policy and Legislative Research in the NCOP, where he oversaw and coordinated the work of committee researchers.
Subsequently he resumed his academic studies and obtained a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick. In 2004, he completed a doctoral thesis on the political economy of trade policy reform in post-apartheid South Africa at the same university.
Apart from being the Founding Director of Mthente, he is Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and directs the GSB’s Doctoral Studies Programme.
He is deputy chairperson of the editorial board of New Agenda, a member of the editorial board of AfricaGrowth Agenda, and a research associate of the South African Institute of International Affairs. He chairs the board of trustees of Inyathelo (The South African Institute of Advancement), and is a member of the board of trustees of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
He is a member of the Evian Group’s Brains Trust, and of the Evian Group’s Council of Global Thought Leaders. He is also a member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Trade Reference Group, and of the Africa Business Network.
He previously chaired a working group on education and employment under the auspices of the Africa-Germany Partnership, an initiative of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler. He was a member of the panel of judges for the Africa SME Awards in 2006, 2007 and 2009. And he was a member of the Warwick Commission on The Future of the Multilateral Trading System.
Mills’s research interests include: international trade; international business; emerging markets; globalisation; foreign direct investment; commercial diplomacy; regional economic integration, with a specific focus on southern Africa; public-private partnerships; economic competitiveness and innovation; and business-government relations in South Africa.
