Alexander McLean is the Founder and Director General of the African Prisons Project. He trained as a barrister and magistrate. During gap year travels to East Africa, McLean fundraised to provide better health facilities and educate inmates in Ugandan prisons about the law. After graduating from the University of Nottingham, he moved to Kampala, where he created a team of local and international staff and volunteers to develop the work of the African Prisons Project, which supports over 30 prisons across East Africa.

He appears in TIME’s 30 Under 30 Changing the World, and ‘The Power List’, featuring Britain's most influential people of African and African-Caribbean heritage.