Amira Elmissiry

For a period of two years, from September 2005 until September 2007, Elmissiry worked as the programme manager and principal researcher at a non-governmental organization called Initiatives of Change International, where her work took her between London and Geneva. She also worked as a project manager and human rights lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, as part of a project funded by the German Technical Cooperation and the Southern African Development Community called Drama for Life, from January 2007 until May 2008.^[2]

In August 2009, she was hired by the African Development Bank in Tunis, Tunisia, as assistant to the secretary general, where she worked until August 2010. She then was appointed as an investment officer in the Private Sector and Microfinance Operations Division of the bank, helping to establish its private equity practice. She was promoted to senior legal counsel in private sector operations, serving in that capacity for nearly three years, until April 2014.^[2]

In April 2014, Elmissiry was transferred to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and was appointed as a special assistant to the president of the African Development Bank, a position she occupied for nearly two years, until February 2016. In 2016, she was promoted to chief equity and catalytic investment officer, Private Sector Operations at the bank.^[2]

In 2014, she was named among "The 20 Youngest Power Women In Africa", by Forbes Magazine.^[1] For five consecutive years, from 2015 until 2020, she was named by Choiseul 100 Africa as one of the Top 100 Economic Leaders of Africa. In 2017, she was named one of the 100 Global Most Influential People of African Descent Under 40 (MIPAD).^[3]