Lafayette A. Barnes has more than 25 years of experience working collaboratively with U.S. and global business, nonprofit, and public-sector decision makers and senior executives from diverse cultural backgrounds. Throughout his career, he has established and sustained mutually beneficial partnerships across sectors and markets. 

Lafayette is the founder, President, and CEO of Zulu Global Enterprise, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based professional services corporation. Zulu Global Enterprise builds long-term business partnerships grounded in trust, high ethical standards, integrity, timely market intelligence, and responsive client service. Its core services include global B2B matchmaking, organizational capacity building, and access to capital and grant resources. Under his leadership, the company has established clients in Colombia and South Korea. 

Before establishing Zulu Global Enterprise, Lafayette directed the Office of Partnerships and Grant Services in the Executive Office of Mayors Muriel Bowser, Vincent Gray, Adrian Fenty, and Anthony Williams. He served as a Cabinet Member for all four District of Columbia mayors and as a mayoral-appointed commissioner on the Commission for African Affairs. During his government service, he facilitated signing ceremonies for the District’s Sister City Agreement with Tshwane, South Africa, and the renewal of its Sister City Agreement with Dakar, Senegal. He has also briefed participants in the White House-sponsored Mandela Young African Leaders Initiative and nonprofit leaders in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. 

Lafayette is a graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business Foundation’s International Business Certificate Program, and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators Executive Leadership Institute. He attended Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service’s Master of Science in Foreign Service Program and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from La Salle University. He is also a contributing writer on African affairs for the Washington Informer newspaper.