Speakers

Dr. Guevera Yao is the Vice President for Africa at the U.S.-Africa Business Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Yao oversees programs and policy initiatives to broaden commercial relationships between the U.S. and African markets. He advises the U.S. Chamber’s Fortune 500 companies, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and government
leaders to deepen and expand trade & investment opportunities between the U.S. and markets across Africa. He also leads a number of initiatives within the U.S. Chamber’s U.S.-Africa Business Center, including the Trade and Investment Task Forces, the U.S.-Angola Working Group, U.S.-Africa Digital Innovation Competition for African Start-ups, the U.S. Chamber – African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat Joint Working Group, and the high-level dialogue between International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the Africa Responsible Energy Steering Committee (RESC). Yao is an economist and policy expert with over 20 years of experience in economic integration, regional infrastructure development, and trade and finance for several developing countries. He worked as Coordinator for the ECOWAS Regional Development Program for 8 years, based in Abuja, Nigeria. Earlier in his career, Yao was a senior technical adviser for the governments of Tanzania and Namibia, where he provided policy guidance on the design and enactment of intergovernmental fiscal transfer systems for subnational governments. He also was a senior research associate for the International Center for Public Policy at Georgia State University. There he contributed to several analytical studies, including the USAID project on Fiscal Reform in Support of Trade Liberalization. In addition, he provided consultancy services for the Urban Institute and the World Bank on urban service delivery in South Asia. Yao served as a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) advisory council member and a board member of the ACDI /VOCA. He has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and is fluent in French, English, and several African languages.