Board Members

Babacar Ngom

President of SEDIMA Group

Mr. Babacar Ngom is the President and CEO of SEDIMA Group founded in 1988. In 2002, Mr. Ngom founded the Sénégalaise de Promotion Immobilière (SPI) which has became one of the leading companies in the field of heritage. In 2012, he created BATIX, the “Construction group of SEDIMA” as a part of the SPI construction division. It is responsible for implementing industrial and real estate projects of SEDIMA. In 2014, SEDIMA launched an initiative to produce flour. Mr. Babacar Ngom’s SEDIMA is now one of the leading companies in several fields including the poultry sector.

Claude Bébéar

Director of AXA Assurances Vie Mutuelle

Mr. Claude Bébéar is the Non-Voting Director at Vivendi SA, Chairman at Institut du Mécénat de Solidarité, and Chairman at Institut Montaigne. He is on the Board of Directors at Schneider Electric SE and AXA Assurances Vie Mutuelle. Mr. Bébéar was previously employed as the Independent Director of BNP Paribas SA, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at AXA SA, Chairman of IMS-Entreprendre pour la Cité, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of FINAXA SA, and Chief Executive Officer at AXA-UAP SA. He also served on the board at AXA Assurances IARD Mutuelle. He received his undergraduate degree from Ecole Polytechnique.

Abdoulaye Diao

President of ITOC

Abdoulaye Diao is head of the company ITOC SA, specializing in the oil sector. The business mogul is also minister counselor of Macky Sall, the President of Senegal.

Ms. Sui Hui

Managing Director of UNIDO

Ms. Sui Hui started her career as Officer for African Affairs and Senior Interpreter, in the Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations in her home country, China. Later she was assigned as the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Greece and after that she served as the General Director of the Foreign Affairs Department at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Currently, she is the Managing Director of the Programme Support and General Management Division (PSM), following a competitive selection process.

Michael Ruff

CEO of Ruff Management, LLC

Michael is a motivational speaker, youth advocate for entrepreneurship, and a community activist. In 2007 he created a development strategy that led to 60% growth in multiple categories for E CITY, a non-profit that delivers a program to teach students entrepreneurial, business and life skills to enable economic independence. A known public speaker, Michael has partnered with the NAACP and ACLU as a panelist on the Anti-Gang Initiative discussion. Additionally, he has spoken to troubled youths in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood, to a South American delegation about youth violence and a Syrian delegation about entrepreneurship on behalf the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.

Brigitte Raynaud

1er Vice-Procureur Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris

Brigitte Raynaud started her judicial career in 1987 as Deputy Prosecutor in Metz in charge of business affairs and business criminal law. In December 2013, she became an investigating judge for the Military Court in Paris, France. She is a member of the INTA association, an international forum for urban development. She was appointed First Deputy Prosecutor of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris in 2014.

Samba Bathily

CEO Africa Development Solutions (ADS)

Samba Bathily is a Mali born, global African entrepreneur and pioneer in sustainable clean energy and solar solutions. He is Founder of Africa Development Solutions (ADS), Co-Founder and CFO of Akon Lighting Africa and CEO of Solektra International. Recognised as one the leaders in driving growth in Africa, Samba is one of the key enablers for setting up sustainable development ventures. With a global network, acute business acumen, he has a particular “forte” in establishing strategic and innovative financial structuring. This has led to partnerships and growth models between private/public entities and local and international financial institutions and banks.

Ibrahima Kobar

Co-Chief Investment Officer, Head of Fixed Income Investment Division, NATIXIS ASSET MANAGEMENT

Ibrahima Kobar began his career with Société Générale in 1989 as a statistician and later joined HSBC Midland Bank as a European fixed income portfolio manager and an actuary. He joined Natixis Asset Management in 1994 as a portfolio manager in the Insurance Management team of the Euro Fixed Income department. In 1998 he was made Head of Insurance Management Activities, specifically Assets and Liabilities Management, Structured Products and Derivatives. In 2007, he became Director of the Fixed Income Department. Ibrahima Kobar is Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income and one of the members of the Executive Committee of Natixis Asset Management. Ibrahima Kobar holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics. He is an Actuary and a member of the French Institute of Actuaries (Paris) as well as a CFA charter holder. Ibrahima Kobar has 25 years of experience and has been working for the firm for 20 years.

Abdelmounaim Faouzi

Associate Director of Capital Consulting

Abdelmounaim Faouzi is the creator of Capital Consulting Group. He is the Former Director at Arthur Andersen and former engineer at the Chérifien Phosphates Office and started his entrepreneurial venture in 2002 building the first consulting and technology groups in Africa. He is a director of NGOs involved within youth entrepreneurship and the reconciliation of schools and companies.

Papa Yusupha Njie

CEO of Unique Solutions

Founder and CEO of UNIQUE SOLUTIONS, Papa Yusupha Njie, is a 37 year old Electronic Engineering and Management graduate of Middlesex University, UK. He is a trained electronic and computer engineer. He has passionately driven the strategic agenda of Unique Solutions over the past 13 years. His dedicated management, young and dynamic staff has taken Unique Solutions from humble beginnings to its current status as one of the leading ICT service and solutions providers in Gambia. He is the Executive Director and local shareholder of RLG Communications Gambia Ltd being the first local computer and mobile phone assembly plant in Gambia and one of the few in the sub region.

Trân Van Thinh Paul

Former Ambassador at the European Union

Paul Tran Van Thinh is a young man who narrowly escaped death at the age of fifteen during the Vietnamese/French War. Despite having a difficult start in life, he has continued to thrive and hopes to have an exceptional career and occupy one of the highest positions in Europe. After high school, Paul Tran Van Thinh studied economics, law, and political science. Later he served to build and establish peace between European countries. (By building Europe and securing socio-economic ties, countries will be less inclined to go to war against each other) Eventually his work led him to Brussels (Belgique), at the European Commission, where he worked for over thirty years (1960 to 1994) as a negotiator for European GATT Agreements. 1994 marked the end of the GATT; replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the retirement of Paul Tran Van Thinh.