Alieu is an innovative leader, skilled entrepreneur, and seasoned executive with a decade of experience working in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa, Europe, and North America, supporting and building ventures. He brings expertise in strategy & execution, startup consulting, innovation, and entrepreneurship, leading high-performance teams, project management, and program execution. He has developed a keen ability to accomplish concrete goals at work (either independently or by delegating to others). He is Pragmatic and practical. He can juggle many tasks and reliably produce results.
He leveraged his problem-solving skill and innovation and launched The Gambia’s first business incubator (Startup Incubator Gambia), which has supported over 1,500 startups and created over 1,000 jobs. He worked in the biomedical industry, focused on finding ways to bring early-stage healthcare technology to validate their business model and provide clinical value.
Alieu has received several awards and recognitions, including the prestigious President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders, US-Africa Young Entrepreneurs Award 2018, and Young Leader European Development Days 2017.
Alieu serves in various board and advisory groups, including advisory board member for Solution for Youth Employment initiative of the World Bank Group; as well at the $10 million Innitave, as a Business Expert, AU – EU Youth Cooperation Hub, connecting Africa and Europe.
He holds a Master of Management Innovation & Entrepreneurship (MMIE) at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, and a certificate in business and entrepreneurship at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
He has several licenses and certifications, including Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Sustainable Business Strategist Designation (CSBS.D), Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Certificate in Disruptive Technologies, and Advanced Tableau for Business Intelligence & Data Analytics.
He is at his best in a culture that appreciates his innate drive to seek new ways of doing things, whether improvements to what already exists or wholly original ideas.
Alieu’s role as Director of Sector Innovation is leading the sector-specific NEXT Initiatives at Foresight.