Yacine grew up and followed her primary and secondary studies in Senegal. She graduated from INSEEC Paris (a French Business school), and began her career as Sales Manager at CISCO SYSTEMS in Paris.

She then returned to Senegal in 2004 to open the first representation of MICROSOFT as Business Development Manager for West and Central Africa. In 2008, Yacine joined the headquarters of the Celtel Group (now Bharti) in Amsterdam to launch the corporate segment of the mobile phone operator in 21 African countries.

With her experience, which enabled her to acquire a proven versatility in strategy, project management and business development, Yacine embarked on the Africa24 adventure and launched the first international news channel in Africa.  She held the position of CEO and led the daily deployment of Africa24 in the global media landscape.

In July 2017, Yacine returned to Microsoft as General Manager of the West and Central Africa Region, based in Dakar. A year later, she was very quickly promoted to the position of Director of the Small and Medium Business Segment for Emerging Markets in the Africa and Middle East region. And since January 2022, she leads the Skilling and Infrastructure strategy at the Microsoft newly-formed department called the Africa Transformation Office.

Meg has spent her career focused on building the necessary consensus, resources and political will to bring health solutions to those who need them most. Meg is currently Senior Program Officer for Family Planning & Women’s Health Financing Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), where she started her tenure driving efforts to move the global agenda on malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

Between those roles at BMGF, Meg was the Global Engagement Director for WomenLift Health leading strategic communications and building partnerships to accelerate the advancement of talented women into senior leadership by investing in mid-career women and influencing the environments in which they live and work. Prior to BMGF, Meg was the first-hired Director of Advocacy and Communications for PATH’s malaria program and drove the now-accepted best practice of integrating advocacy strategy into disease-specific global health programming. She has 25 years of experience in advocacy, public policy and resource mobilization for a range of global health issues from sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to malaria.

A lawyer by training, Meg has taught courses on gender equality in law at Georgetown University, brought gender-based asylum claims pro bono and worked to influence policy from a village council in Botswana to the US Congress to the World Health Organization to improve the lives of women and girls.

Meg earned her undergraduate degree at Kenyon College in anthropology and international studies and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Adrien Diouf is the Managing Director of Agence UMOA-Titres since September 2013. He is responsible for setting up and developing this institution whose mandate is to assist the eight (8) WAMU member countries in raising financial resources on the capital markets. Agence UMOA- Titres is also in charge of the development of the Union’s public securities markets which constitute the local sovereign debt stock.

He has significant experience in finance both in Senegal and abroad. He spent more than 10 years in France and Canada, where he held various positions in the banking sector and in pension funds industry. He joined APIX in Senegal in 2006 and participated in the financial structuring of several public projects pertaining to the State of Senegal.

In 2008, he was appointed Head of the Investment Banking and Public Sector Department of the Senegalese subsidiary of Ecobank Group. He was then recruited by Diamond Bank to take up the position of Manager of the Treasury for the WAEMU region until 2012, when he moved to Egypt as Head of the Treasury Department of Afreximbank, where he stayed before joining Agence UMOA- Titres.

Adrien DIOUF holds an MBA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He also has Master degrees from Université Paris I in Mathematics and Financial Modeling.

Cecile Niang is a Lead Economist in the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice of the World Bank. Prior to this, Cecile was a Program Leader in the World Bank Caribbean Management Unit over 2014-2018, leading the World Bank’s work on supporting growth in the region.  She was also the coordinator of the Caribbean Growth Forum, a policy platform that accelerates the implementation of inclusive private-sector led growth reforms, while at the same time fostering greater focus on results, transparency and accountability. Prior to her appointment in the Caribbean, Cecile was a Country Sector Coordinator and Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Development department, in South Asia and Africa. She has 20 years of experience in international private sector development, project management, strategy and policy.

Over the past fifteen years at the World Bank, Cecile has specialized on telecom, ICT and energy market and infrastructure development, investment climate reforms, financial inclusion, financial resilience, competitive industries and innovation. Her work has spanned across South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. She has wide ranging operational experience in policy and regulatory reforms and financing of public private partnerships. She has also written extensively on access to finance and productivity and inclusion.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Cecile was an Associate Manager, Business Development at France Telecom North America and a Director, Corporate Development at Juno Online, a US Internet Service Provider. Cecile holds graduate degrees in economics, business administration and information Systems from Columbia University, Paris Dauphine and Telecom Ecole de Management.

Yacine Djibo founded Speak Up Africa in 2011 with one goal in mind: to discover and implement effective, sustainable solutions to the most challenging problems facing the African people. Focusing on strategic communications, policy and advocacy, Speak Up Africa is dedicated to empowering African leaders and citizens to take on issues such as malaria, neglected tropical diseases and sanitation in order to save and improve lives. Yacine currently serves as the co-chair of the strategic communications partner committee for the RBM Partnership to End Malaria.

Previously, Yacine worked as the Senegal country director for Malaria No More, where she developed and managed several high-profile national programs to promote malaria prevention and treatment. She built and maintained relationships with national and local government officials; designed and oversaw the distribution of lifesaving commodities countrywide; and cultivated partnerships with private-sector companies, media outlets, musicians and celebrities to develop marketing programs that raise awareness about malaria. She also chaired the national partner’s coalition in the fight against malaria in Senegal and was the co-chair of the West Africa Regional Network for the RBM Partnership to End Malaria.

Prior to devoting her career to the health and well-being of children and families in Africa, Yacine honed her skills in the areas of business administration, finance and real estate at several private-sector companies, including Intercontinental Life Insurance Company, where she served as managing director; SAGEF Construction and Real Estate Development Company, where she was director of sales; and Fidelity Investments, where she served as a business analyst. Yacine earned her bachelor’s degree in international relations and her master in business administration from Boston University.

Fara Ndiaye has been an integral member of the Speak Up Africa team since its founding in 2011. There she has been able to pursue her passion for public health and sustainable development advocacy, social and behavioral change communication, community outreach, and partnership building and engagement.

Beginning as the Director of Programs, Fara focused on external relations and coordinating partner activities. She then moved to the position of strategy and development director, in which she managed initiatives to advance the organization’s advocacy, programmatic and partnership goals; developed strategies to engage the private sector; and created advocacy and communications tools. Currently, as Deputy Executive Director, Fara has taken on the oversight of all program activities, ensuring proper planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; appropriate liaison and negotiation with government partners; and the meeting of national and international standards and practices.

Before joining Speak Up Africa, Fara spearheaded the communications, partnership and advocacy initiatives in Senegal for Malaria No More. Prior to that, she worked on the research of migration issues for a variety of small non-governmental and major global organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, including the International Organization for Migration and the International Center for Migration and Health.

Fara earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and international development at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and her master’s degree in international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.