The U.S. – Saudi Business Opportunities Forum

The 2nd annual U.S. – Saudi Business Opportunities Forum is a high-level gathering of senior officials and business leaders from Saudi Arabia and the United States. This three-day forum will explore opportunities for greater economic collaboration between the two nations as well as provide an unparalleled business networking environment.

Zemedeneh Negatu

Zemedeneh Negatu
Managing Partner for Ethiopia and Head of the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) for Eastern Africa
Ernst & Young

Zemedeneh is Ernst & Young’s Managing Partner for Ethiopia and the Head of the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) for Eastern Africa, which includes Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and several other countries. He had previously served on the firm’s Africa board and as a member of E&Y’s Global Partner Council (GPC).

Zemedeneh, who is an Ethiopian-American senior global executive, has extensive experience living and working around the world including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. His global clients have ranged from Fortune 500 companies to Latin American multi-nationals.

Across Africa he has advised clients extensively in various sectors including financial services, airlines, telecoms, manufacturing and agro-industry. Zemedeneh is presently advising investors from several emerging markets about investments in Africa. And this past August, he led a high powered Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) team which advised on a very successful project for one of the biggest UK multinationals in its largest acquisition ever in Africa. Previously, Zemedeneh had led the E&Y team which helped transform Ethiopian Airlines to become the 2^nd biggest in Africa and more profitable than all African airlines combined.

Frequently invited to high profile international gatherings, Zemedeneh has spoken on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange, at the Harvard Business School’s annual conference, the Dubai-Africa Summit, the Saudi-East African business conference and at the Corporate Council on Africa summit in Washington. He has also been interviewed by various international media organizations including the BBC TV, Bloomberg TV, the Financial Times, Africa Investor magazine, Summit TV South Africa and on Indian National TV’s “Insight” program.

Zemedeneh completed Harvard Business School’s “Leadership for Senior Executives” (LSE) program and received his undergraduate business degree from Howard University, Washington, D.C. He is a U.S. CPA.