Rockefeller Foundation Appoints new Managing Director, Africa Regional Office

Dr. Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, today announced the appointment of Mamadou Biteye as managing director for the Foundation’s Africa Regional Office, effective April 29. In this role, Biteye will oversee the Foundation’s work across Africa. 

Biteye joins the Foundation’s Nairobi-based Regional Office from Oxfam Great Britain, West Africa Regional Center, where he is currently the regional director responsible for strategic program leadership and overall management of the West Africa region, including eight country offices.

“I am delighted to welcome Mamadou to The Rockefeller Foundation,” said Dr. Rodin. “He brings with him decades of experience, and expertise in the development sector in Africa, which will strengthen the Foundation’s impact as we enter our centennial year. I am thrilled to bring on new leadership in Africa that will steer our grant making and partnerships into the future. 

Prior to Oxfam, Mamadou was the Executive Director of the Association for the Development at the Grassroots (Senegal). An agricultural economist by training, he has over twenty years of experience in strategic leadership, human resources management, financial management, program development and implementation, public policy analysis, advocacy and campaigning and community participatory development. 

“The Rockefeller Foundation’s legacy of building resilience and fostering growth with equity, particularly through its longstanding leadership in agriculture and health across Africa, is one that I am honored to carry forward,” remarked Biteye. “I am excited to join the Foundation’s team of innovators, and to lead an expansion of its efforts to secure livelihoods and transform cities as Africa adapts to globalization. Through strong partnerships, we will find new ways to improve the well-being of millions of people from Durban to Dar es Salaam to Dakar.” 

Earlier in his career Mamadou was Financial Officer at the African Development Foundation (Senegal Country Liaison Office), Coordinator of “Sustainable Use of Wild Species Program” at The World Conservation Union, IUCN, Branch Manager and Coordinator of the “Small Rural Operations Program” under an IFAD/World Bank Development Loan Program for Women at the National Agricultural Credit Bank of Senegal, and was a Program Officer at Sahel, Etudes Assistance, Conseil Agency, SEAC. 

A native of Senegal in West Africa, Biteye holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics with specialization in Microfinance/ Microcredit and Management of Financial Institutions from Ohio State University in the U.S. He also earned a Master’s degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from The Crimean Agricultural Institute in the Ukraine.