Larry Madowo overjoyed after interacting with Her Excellency Queen Maxima of the Netherlands

On Tuesday, June 14, CNN International correspondent Larry Madowo had the honour of hosting Her Excellency Queen Maxima of the Netherlands as a moderator at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Madowo was joined in the discussion by the only other Kenyan Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi.

Larry Madowo had the honour of hosting Her Excellency Queen Maxima of the Netherlands as a moderator at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Pulse Live Kenya

“It was a great honour having HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands on one of my panels at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan. I’m venturing outside again, one royal panel at a time,” he said on Twitter.

Queen Maxima is an international financier by training and attended the Abidjan event in the capacity of UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA).

The trip was Queen Maxima's first in-person "country tour" as the UNSGSA since before the outbreak.

Larry Madowo had the honour of hosting Her Excellency Queen Maxima of the Netherlands as a moderator at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Pulse Live Kenya

The event is termed the largest international meeting of the African private sector and hosting the panel was a big deal for Madowo who recently celebrated his in-person graduation from Columbia University.

The journalist had enrolled for a master's program in business and economics journalism which he completed in 2020.

However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the university did not hold an in-person graduation ceremony.

The CNN journalist expressed joy at being able to finally rock the graduation gown and share the accomplishment with fellow graduands.

“My in-person graduation from Columbia University was delayed by 2 years but it was still special. I came back to New York to confirm that my master’s in Business & Economics Journalism was real. It is & they haven’t changed their minds,” he shared the photo on his social media.

Larry Madowo finally celebrates in-person graduation after 2 year delay Pulse Live Kenya

Madowo also recently celebrated one year since joining CNN in a post online.

“I'm one year old at CNN today. It's been an extraordinary year reporting and anchoring from 4 continents and I couldn't be more grateful. But I'm an African first and I'd love to tell more of our stories,” he expressed.

In May 2021, the media personality joined CNN as a Nairobi-based correspondent but was quickly promoted to be an international correspondent.

He was then given an opportunity to regularly host news bulletins, giving him more responsibilities.

Before joining CNN as their Nairobi-based correspondent, Madowo was assigned to North America as a correspondent for BBC based in Washington DC where he covered the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 US elections, the death of George Floyd, and the trial of Derek Chauvn.

At BBC, Madowo anchored breaking news from the BBC’s DC studios and presented its flagship program BBC World News America.