Reginald Mengi, a newcomer to Forbes' list of Africa's Richest, chairs privately held IPP Group, a Tanzanian conglomerate that owns 11 national newspapers (including Tanzania's Financial Times, ThisDay and The Guardian), three of East Africa's most popular television stations (EATV, Capital and ITV), and about ten radio stations. He also owns gold mines and Coca-Cola bottling plants in the country. Mengi grew up poor in northern Tanzania, studied accountancy and articles with Cooper Brothers in the United Kingdom, was accepted as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. He returned to Tanzania in 1971 and was employed by the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand Tanzania (now PriceWaterHouseCoopers) until 1989, when he left to concentrate on his own businesses.