Arthur Katalayi


Arthur Kalala Katalayi, commonly known as "The Katalyst", is a French businessman, podcaster, mining expert, and entrepreneur based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He is a senior partner at boutique management consulting firm A2k Advisory and host of the "The Right Advice", a mining-focused podcast. Katalayi previously served as a senior advisor to the chairman of the board of directors of Gecamines, the Congolese state-owned mining company, during a period of strategic transformation in the copper and cobalt sectors.
In 2017, he was named to the Global Top 100 list by the Most Influential People of African Descent, an initiative in support of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent, recognizing him among the world's 100 most influential individuals.
Katalayi has lived in five countries: France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Early life and education

A collector of Luba art and of Luba ancestry, Katalayi was born at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in the city of Lyon, France, near the French Alps, and was raised in Paris. He was named after American tennis player Arthur Ashe and the Kingdom of Luba emperor Kalala Ilunga. Katalayi first visited then-Zaire aged 6; traveling to Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in the former Katanga Province.
In July 1998, at the age of 16, Katalayi went to live in the United Kingdom on the advice of his father, who saw in England a system more suited to his son's educational development. After 10 years in Paris, Katalayi initially arrived in London for a year, followed by two years in Stoke-on-Trent, where he completed his A-levels at the City of [Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College].
At the age of 19, in July 2001, Katalayi moved to the United States, arriving in Manhattan, New York City. He spent the summer traveling along the East Coast, visiting Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Miami before returning to New York City, then to Paris – just three days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

University years

Katalayi returned to Pittsburgh for two years and began studying computer science while working various student jobs. A former youth-level footballer, he was recruited in Spring 2003 to join the soccer team at Salem International University in West Virginia on an athletic scholarship. The team was led by Florin Marton; a Romanian NCAA soccer coach and a former goalkeeper for the Romanian national football team. At Salem, he played college soccer as a student-athlete and was part of the team that won the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference cup.
After graduation with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology in 2005, he moved to New Jersey and later earned a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and Information Technology from Rider University in 2009.

Career

In the summer of 2004, Katalayi began his career as an intern in Richmond, Virginia at Owens & Minor, a global healthcare logistics company listed on the Fortune 500. As part of his academic training, he worked in the organization's IT department under then Chief Information Officer David Guzman, a Yale University graduate. During his internship, Guzman invited Katalayi to the Kinloch Golf Club, one of the most exclusive private golf clubs on the East Coast of the United States, known for its prominent business and political members. There, and throughout that summer, Katalayi was introduced to the culture of American corporate leadership and silent excellence, and interacted subsequently with G. Gilmer "Gil" Minor III, then-chairman of the board of directors and Chief executive officer of Owens & Minor.
After earning his bachelor's degree in 2005, he held several analyst positions, first at Bristol Myers Squibb, and later on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange as a market data analyst, shortly before the 2008 financial crisis. He then joined Bloomberg L.P.
Following a decade in the United States, Katalayi returned to Europe, where he worked as a management consultant for Capgemini Engineering and later at FedEx in Paris.

Gécamines

Relationship with Albert Yuma

In 2011, Katalayi approached Albert Yuma, the chairman of the board of directors of Gécamines and President of the Fédération des Entreprises du Congo; the chamber of commerce and industry and the main employers' organization of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yuma hired him at the age of 31 in March 2014.

Restructuring, strategic negotiations and global partnerships

In 2014, Katalayi was appointed senior executive adviser to the chairman of the board of Gécamines, the state-controlled copper and cobalt company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Under the leadership of chairman Albert Yuma, Gécamines launched a modernization program aimed at reducing debt and increasing production capacity through joint ventures with global partners such as Glencore and China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group.
Katalayi publicly backed Glencore's plan to temporarily suspend copper production to stabilize operations during financial distress in 2015, while the company explored strategic options for asset monetization.
At the height of the modernization process, Gécamines explored options for organization restructuring and debt restructuring to monetize portions of its copper and cobalt joint ventures, including the possibility of an initial public offering. A 2015 report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch valued Gécamines’ joint venture portfolio at over $2 billion, including $1 billion attributed to its stake in Kamoto Copper Company, then controlled by Glencore. The DRC holds over 80% of the world's cobalt reserves, making it a pivotal actor in the global shift toward electric vehicles and battery technologies.

High-stakes deals: Glencore, China, and Russia

There was also interest from Moscow for strategic Congolese assets. In an interview in 2023, Katalayi told the Financial Times that in 2015 the Kremlin, via the Russian bank VTB and the state-owned conglomerate Rostec, approached Gécamines with an investment proposal for two of its copper and cobalt mines, the bid was well received but Katalayi stated that China’s influence at the time was too great for Russia to match.
As part of its development strategy, Gécamines then entered a US$880 million joint venture with China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group for the Société Minière de Deziwa SAS, with production ramping up to tens of thousands of tonnes of copper and cobalt annually at the Deziwa mine.
This strategy also included the 2016 resolution of the Freeport-McMoRan – CMOC Group dispute, in which both parties attempted to proceed with a $2.65 billion transaction without Gécamines' agreement, seeking to circumvent its right of first refusal. Gécamines opposed the transaction and obtained a $100 million agreement for the sale of the Tenke Fungurume Mine.
In 2017, Gécamines filed suit to dissolve the Kamoto Copper Company joint venture, citing excessive debt and high interest rates charged by Glencore. KCC's debt had reached $9.2 billion, resulting in a working capital deficit of $4.2 billion. Glencore, then led by billionaire majority shareholder Ivan Glasenberg, had converted $5.6 billion of intra-group debt into KCC shares, bolstering the joint venture's equity. A one-time payment of $150 million was also made to Gécamines to settle various historical commercial disputes. Interest rates on intra-group loans were revised to no more than 6% per annum, and, according to the business plan, Gécamines was expected to receive more than $2 billion in cumulative dividends over ten years, starting in 2019.
This agreement between Glencore and Gécamines reduced KCC's debt from approximately $9 billion to $3.45 billion, stabilizing the company's financial position and strengthening cooperation between the two entities.

A2k Advisory

Katalayi is a senior partner at A2K Advisory, a consultancy firm founded in 2018 specializing in the mining, minerals, and metals sectors. The firm guides companies and governments in structuring sustainable mining projects and developing international strategic partnerships, including with actors such as the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
Katalayi has been involved in the facilitation of investments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He is regularly consulted for his expertise in China by China Global Television Network. In June 2025, the Anglo-Swiss mining company Glencore declared force majeure on some cobalt deliveries following a temporary export ban by the Congolese government. This ban, due to excess supply and falling prices, affected cobalt, a component in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
Since 2023, Katalayi has been a consultant for Gerson Lehrman Group in Manhattan, where he advises on natural resources and geoeconomics.

The Right Advice

In 2022, A2k Advisory launched "The Right Advice", an international podcast hosted by Katalayi, recognized as the first mining-focused podcast in Congo. The show explores global industrial dynamics, with particular emphasis on commodities and the $173 trillion global energy transition. It features interviews with industry leaders, investors, and executives, as well as analyses of decisions that affect contemporary markets.
In January 2024, Katalayi interviewed Robert Friedland, billionaire and founder of Ivanhoe Mines. Known for his selective public appearances, Friedland mentored Steve Jobs during their time at Reed College and introduced him to the concept of the "reality distortion field", as described in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs (book)|Jobs].
The interview took place at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, a location historically associated with the anti-corruption of the 2017–2019 Saudi Arabian purge led by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

World record announcement

On September 2, 2025, The Right Advice issued an official communiqué ahead of Episode No. 11 scheduled for September 5, 2025 announcing a verified world record via a mergers and acquisitions operation. The statement confirmed that the $1 billion cash acquisition of EsoBiotec by pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca was completed and validated by the relevant international market authorities, in full compliance with regulatory standards of major exchanges, including the London Stock Exchange and its highest FTSE 100 market-capitalization entity.
The communiqué highlighted that, unlike African unicorns such as Flutterwave, Wave, Chipper Cash, Andela, or TymeBank — whose valuations are based on venture-capital fundraising — this mergers and acquisitions transaction represented the first documented case of an entrepreneur of Congolese, African, or Afro-descendant origin creating, scaling, and selling a privately held company for $1 billion, certified by a major international financial authority.

Esobiotec–AstraZeneca vs. Instagram–Facebook op-ed

In September 2025, Katalayi wrote an op-ed titled "13 persons, $1 billion - Why EsoBiotec Is to AstraZeneca What Instagram Was to Facebook" on the Esobiotec–AstraZeneca acquisition, likening it to the 13-person $1 billion Instagram–Facebook deal led by Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom.

Strategic omission and public reaction

In May 2025, the presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo published the names of 22 members appointed to a strategic task force overseeing the DRC–United States partnership on critical minerals. The absence of Katalayi, widely recognized for his involvement in global networks related to the mining and energy transition sectors, sparked notable reactions in international media and among analysts.
An article published on 10 June 2025 by the Congolese economic outlet Finances et Entreprises highlighted the significance of Katalayi's exclusion, describing it as a paradox given his influence in mining, finance, and diplomacy.

Philanthropy

Giving Back to Africa

From 2008 to 2022, Katalayi served as a senior advisor and global ambassador for Giving Back to Africa, a nonprofit organization focused on education and leadership development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was appointed to this role by Anne Marie Thomson, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington originally from Mbandaka.
In this capacity, Katalayi contributed to strategic planning, international partnerships, resource mobilization, and awareness-raising among academic and donor communities regarding the social and economic challenges facing the Congo. His efforts were particularly focused on investing in education and human capital development in the region.

Awards and recognition

In the spring of 2017, Katalayi was selected among the "Most Influential People of African Descent, MIPAD Global Top 100 under 40," an award recognizing the 100 most influential people of African descent worldwide under the age of 40, across various fields. This prize is awarded under the auspices of the United Nations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and is part of the International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly via resolution 68/237.
The inaugural ceremony was held in September 2017 in the business district of the Millennium Hilton [New York One UN Plaza] in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Katalayi was honored alongside figures such as Beyoncé, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Michael B. Jordan, LeBron James, Lewis Hamilton, Lupita Nyong’o, and Trevor Noah. In 2012, he was recognized as a Mover and Shaker by SAfm, part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Johannesburg, South Africa.
YearAwardCategoryLocationResult
2017Global Top 100 – Most Influential People of African Descent under 40Politics & GovernanceNew York City
2012Mover and Shaker – SAfmLeadership & InfluenceJohannesburg-

Personal life

In 2007, Katalayi married Nathalie Katalayi ; a pediatric nurse practitioner he met in 2001 in Brussels, originally from Kananga in Kasaï-Occidental and school nurse at The American School of Kinshasa.
Born at the American Hospital of Nyakunde in the gold-laden city of Bunia and the daughter of General Adolphe Tshikudi, a two-star officer in the Zairian Armed Forces under Mobutu Sese Seko and trained at the Belgian Royal Military Academy, she was raised in several cities in Zaire — Lisala, Lubumbashi, Kikwit, the Atlantic coast of Muanda and Kinshasa — before settling in Liège, Belgium, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and then a specialization in pediatrics at the Haute École de la Province de Liège, Andreas Vesalius. She then lived in Princeton, in New Jersey.
The couple have two children, Akeelah, a ballerina and Akhenaten, a young footballer; both attend The American School of Kinshasa.