Julie Essiam is the Group Executive for Human Resource & Corporate Affairs, for the Ecobank Group, and CEO, Ecobank Foundation. She is an accomplished executive with a professional career that spans Europe, North America and Africa with global organizations such as Citigroup. With a passion for development work and transforming communities, under her leadership role at the bank, she has repositioned the Ecobank Group and the Ecobank Foundation to be a private sector lead, and enabler of structured social transformation of Africa. Julie is a firm believer in investing in the next generation and has dedicated the last fifteen years of her professional life working with the youth in mentoring and supporting them shape their thinking around their respective life journeys and has founded several other impactful community based programs, She is a founding partner of the A4A (Africans4Africa) initiative; a private sector led development organization that calls for a collaborative effort across the leadership of Africa to contribute to the successful achievement of an impactful transformation of the continent towards a thriving and prosperous Africa. Born in Ghana, Julie is an MBA graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in the United States.