Amrote Abdella, an Ethiopian national, will be based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after serving as Africa Director for Microsoft’s “4Afrika” initiative, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the cloud computing platform for Amazon’s cloud services. AWS brings together more than 100 services in various categories such as cloud storage, computing power, data analytics, artificial intelligence or even video game development. AWS powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries. It has data centers located in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
Several achievements for Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative
Prior to her appointment, Amrote Abdella was the Africa director for Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative since 2013. In this role, she spearheaded Microsoft’s Africa investments in all 54 African countries. She worked closely with internal teams in the Middle East and Africa – and globally – to enable and accelerate digital transformation opportunities on the continent. As Africa Director at 4Afrika, Amrote Abdella is credited with several accomplishments. She developed the multi-year strategy calling for additional investments in technical engineering talent and infrastructure, which led to the launch of development centers in Kenya and Nigeria, and the creation of a corps of 160 software engineers (growing rapidly) working at the same level as their peers in Redmond and Seattle, USA. She also developed Microsoft’s innovation, skills development and affordability strategy in Africa, reaching more than 1.7 million SMEs, training more than 180,000 students and professionals, and placing more than 3,000 interns.
Amrote Abdella also led the initiative to successfully implement connectivity projects in nine African countries, providing high-speed Internet access to more than 2.5 million people in total. She also co-created a digital transformation roadmap for the public sector in Africa, resulting in a 40% increase in technology adoption. Much more, Amrote Abdella was responsible for leading senior executives in their engagements with key stakeholders and policy makers on the continent. In addition, she presented a market performance review directly to the Microsoft executive team, including Bill Gates.
Prior to leading Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative in Africa, Amrote Abdella was 4Afrika’s Director for Venture Capital and Startups, where she worked closely with startups supporting the innovation ecosystem in Africa.
World Economic Forum
Prior to joining Microsoft, Amrote Abdella worked for the World Economic Forum in Geneva as Associate Director for Africa. In this position, she was responsible for mapping and driving engagement between the World Economic Forum and key public and private sector stakeholders and policy makers in Africa. As such, she built relationships with government and business leaders across the African continent to better understand emerging market trends and investment needs. Amrote Abdella was also responsible for policy guidance, advocacy support and program development on African policy issues across all sectors.
World Bank
Amrote Abdella also served as a financial analyst at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where she played a key role in a core team analyzing and assessing pan-African states’ access to global financial channels, as well as the extent of domestic consumers’ engagement in the formal financial sector. In this capacity, Amrote Abdella supported data collection in 150 countries. In addition, she led the team’s regional survey and analysis mandates for sub-Saharan Africa and contributed to the “Financial Access 2010” report, which was disseminated to all global central bankers to help them understand the depth of international financial markets and their relative positioning in promoting financial inclusion.
Managing rural projects in Africa
Long before, Amrote Abdella worked in microfinance with the Global Hunger Project, a New York-based NGO. As Senior Program Officer of the African Food Farmer Initiative, she was responsible for managing a portfolio of rural loans for microfinance projects in eight sub-Saharan African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda). She conducted due diligence, financial risk assessment, program evaluation and site visits. She also organized and delivered two bilingual trainings per year in each of the eight program countries, targeting an audience of microfinance project managers. Amrote Abdella has also monitored 18 government-recognized rural banks to ensure their effectiveness and institutional sustainability.
Amrote Abdella holds a Master’s degree in Executive Leadership from The Wharton School, USA and the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD), France; a Master’s degree in International Economic Development from the Heller School at Brandeis University, Massachusetts; and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Davidson College, North Carolina.
Amrote Abdella has been recognized and awarded by several organizations as a regional thought leader and impact maker. Additionally, in 2017, she received an honorary doctorate from the International University of Geneva.
