Ambassador Rama Yade is senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and senior fellow for the Europe Center. She is also a professor of African affairs at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco and at Sciences Po Paris.
She is a Senegalese and French citizen.
Prior to joining the Council, she was a consultant for the World Bank. She also has experience in the private sector as an editor in London and as director for development at a French consulting firm in corporate and social responsibility.
Ambassador Yade has twenty years of experience working in French, European, and international politics. At the age of thirty, she was appointed as the deputy minister for foreign affairs and human rights of the Republic of France: the first ever French minister for human rights and the first woman of African descent to become a member of the French cabinet. In recognition of her work, she was Nelson Mandela’s personal guest on his ninetieth birthday in Johannesburg. At that time, she was also recognized as a young leader by the World Economic Forum.
She was subsequently appointed to the position of deputy minister of sports. Ambassador Yade was also appointed as the ambassador of France to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ambassador Yade started her professional career as a parliamentary high civil servant at the French Senate and director of communications of the TV network of the parliament.
Ambassador Yade received a master’s degree in political science and public affairs from Sciences Po Paris. She is the author of several books, including Noirs de France, Les droits de l’homme expliqués aux enfants de 7 à 77, Lettre à la jeunesse, Plaidoyer pour une instruction publique, Carnets de pouvoir, and Anthologie regrettable du machisme en politique. In October 2024, she released her eighth book in Paris, Les leçons de l’Amérique: Nation et puissance (L’Harmattan).