A global authority on sustainable tourism, including the planning and design of eco-lodges in Africa, Hitesh Mehta wears Africa on his sleeve. He is also credited with creating environmental- and social-friendly master plans for many national parks and protected areas on the continent.
This writer first met Mehta at a lecture, Africa–The First World, in Miami, Florida, where he spoke about the achievements of Africa and its inhabitants over the course of several millennia.
Mehta was born in Nairobi of Indian parents, and attended the University of Nairobi where he obtained a degree in architecture in 1985. After receiving the Aga Khan Scholarship, he attained a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. Furthermore, he also represented East Africa and Kenya in first-class cricket
