Steering Committee

Achu is currently Managing Director and Head of Recordkeeping Solutions Offer and Revenue Management at TIAA. With over 25 years of experience in the financial industry, he has held senior leadership roles across various areas, including investment advisory programs, investment due diligence, and retirement plan services. After a successful career in leadership, Achu transitioned to financial planning to work directly with clients, helping them protect, grow, and preserve their wealth for future generations. Specializing in retirement plans, including 401(k) and other qualified plans, he holds the CRPS and CFPA designations and he is dedicated to leveraging his expertise to ensure a secure financial future for his clients.

Seynabou Ba is the founder and CEO of ESG Africa, bringing over 22 years of experience in environmental and social risk management to help private sector clients achieve sustainability goals and contribute to the SDGs. She is passionate about empowering Africa to lead the sustainability agenda by blending global innovation with local knowledge and is dedicated to connecting with others committed to advancing sustainability and inclusive development in Africa Before founding ESG Africa in 2018, Seynabou led the ESG department at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in sub-Saharan Africa, promoting sustainable private sector investments. She has overseen due diligence and monitoring for over 100 projects and spent 8 years in environmental insurance across New York, Toronto, and London.

Omar Balafrej is a former member of Moroccan Parliament (2016-2021), who joined Bank of Africa as its group Head of Business Development in January 2022. Before entering politics, Mr Balafrej was CEO of TECHNOPARK Maroc (MITC) for almost nine years, during which time the business integrated more than 400 new startups and launched two new technoparks in Rabat (2011) and Tangiers (2015).

With over 20 years of professional experience, Hatim Ben Ahmed began his career as a financial auditor at Arthur Andersen in Paris. He later joined Accuracy : a corporate finance advisory firm, where he gained extensive exposure to various financial processes, including due diligence and company valuations, primarily for large corporations across multiple sectors such as retail, IT services, waste management, real estate, and transportation. In 2008, Hatim transitioned into Private Equity with Fons Mediterrania Capital. He currently serves on the boards of several portfolio companies managed by Mediterrania Capital Partners’ funds and is also a member of the firm’s Investment Committee.

Currently working as Expert in Financial Market Regulation at the Autorité des Marchés Financiers de l’Union Monétaire Ouest Africaine (AMF-UMOA), Ripert Bossoukpé previously served as the Secretary General of the same institution. In this role, he was responsible not only for the core regulatory functions of the authority, but also worked closely with the President of AMF-UMOA to define the strategic direction of both the financial market and the institution itself. He was also tasked with overseeing the operational implementation of various reform projects aimed at modernizing and strengthening the regional financial market of WAEMU. He has twenty years of professional experience in the financial sector in West Africa. His professional career began in the Benin office of the international audit and consulting firm Mazars. As Head of Mission, he supervised or directed, between 2003 and 2007, numerous missions of advice, audit, restructuring of companies in various sectors (telecommunications, industry, insurance, banking, aeronautics, development projects, etc.). He continued his career at the AMF-UMOA where he was Director of Issuers for ten (10) years from 2009 to 2019, after a first experience of a few months as an Inspector in charge of market surveillance. After a first course in public accounting, Mr. BOSSOUKPE is currently preparing a Doctorate of Business in strategic management at Georgetown University in the United States. He holds numerous certifications from Harvard Law School (Boston), the International Law Institute (Washington DC), the Toronto Centre and IESE. At the international level, Mr. BOSSOUKPE was selected as an Expert, after a rigorous process, to participate in the work of the Working Group set up by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) for the elaboration of the IFSB 24 standard devoted to the guidelines for the protection of investors in Islamic capital markets (IFSB 24) and published in December 2020.