Mimi Alemayehou (born 1969) is a development finance executive who has served as Executive Vice President of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and as United States Executive Director of the

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...

. She is the recipient of a

Distinguished Honor Award The Distinguished Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or i ...

Early life and education

Mimi Alemayehou is a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

U.S. citizen; she was born in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and spent her childhood in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

before immigrating to the United States. Alemayehou earned her bachelor's degree from

West Texas A&M University West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It was established on Se ...

“Mimi Alemayehou.”
Ethiopian Women Unleashed. Retrieved 28 July 2014. and holds a master's degree in International Business and International Law and Development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Career

From March 2010 to April 2014, Alemayehou served as Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).“Africa: U.S. Private, Public Sectors Step Up to Power Challenge - Mimi Alemayehou.”
, AfricanLiberty.org. Retrieved 28 July 2014. In June 2010, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Alemayehou to the board of directors of the

African Development Foundation The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent United States government agency that provides grants of up to $250,000 for operational assistance, enterprise expansion and market linkage to early stage agriculture, e ...

. While at OPIC, Alemayehou oversaw a portfolio of approximately $16 billion invested in over 100 countries.“Mimi Alemayehou: Top African Female Executive At The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) - Part One.”
Forbes. Retrieved 28 July 2014. During this time, the agency partnered with President Obama's Power Africa Initiative, a blueprint for improving access to electricity in underdeveloped regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

.“My Personal Journey As An Ethiopian American Working For Power Africa.”
USAID. Retrieved 28 July 2014. In March 2014, Alemayehou testified on behalf of OPIC at the

United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid pr ...

hearing on the Power Africa Initiative.“Testimony of Mimi Alemayehou, Executive Vice President Overseas private Investment Corporation.”
Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. Retrieved 28 July 2014. Prior to her position at OPIC, Alemayehou served as the United States Executive Director at the

(AfDB), where she executed board decisions on behalf of the

U.S. government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

. She received a Distinguished Honor Award from then-U.S. Secretary of Treasury

Henry Paulson Henry Merritt Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is an American banker and financier who served as the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the Chairman a ...

for her service in this role. Prior to the AfDB, she was founder and Managing Partner of Trade Links, LLC, a development consulting firm that worked with clients on

emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or were ...

issues and on promoting African exports under the

African Growth and Opportunity Act The African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA (Title I, Trade and Development Act of 2000; P.L. 106–200) is a piece of legislation that was approved by the U.S. Congress in May 2000. The stated purpose of this legislation is to assist the ...

. Previously, Alemayehou was with the International Executive Service Corps where she managed a multi-country trade project in Africa. She also served as a Director of International Regulatory Affairs at WorldSpace Corporation, a satellite

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company focused on emerging markets. In December 2013, Forbes Magazine featured Alemayehou on its list of "The 20 Young Power Women in Africa 2013."“The 20 Young Power Women In Africa 2013.”
Forbes. Retrieved 8 August 2014.

Other Activity

In 2015, Alemayehou signed an open letter which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma (née Dlamini; born 27 January 1949), sometimes referred to by her initials NDZ, is a South African politician, medical doctor and former anti-apartheid activist. A longstanding member of the African National Cong ...

, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alemayehou, Mimi Living people 1969 births West Texas A&M University alumni The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni Ethiopian emigrants to the United States American financial businesspeople