Gabriel Negatu, one of the top senior officials at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), a multilateral development financial institution, departed his post this month.

Gabriel, who was the director-general of the East Africa Regional Development & Business Delivery Office at the Bank, left the post as of October 1, 2019, due to retirement at the age of 62. He led one of five regional offices for the past three years and was based in Nairobi, Kenya.

An American citizen of Ethiopian origin, Gabriel worked with the continental bank for the past two decades in different capacities. Before his latest assignment, he worked as director of the AfDB's Eastern Africa Regional Resource Center for five years until 2015.

Gabriel has more than a quarter of a century of senior-level programme, operations and managerial experience. He has served as director of operations, country regional programmes and policy and director of operations for sector operations at the Bank. He was also senior and principal programme officer, chief programme officer and sector director for economic and financial governance, where he led the Bank’s first governance department.

Gabriel holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and planning from California State University. He also earned his second degree in public and international administration, specialising in economics and social development, from the University of Pittsburgh.

"He did a lot in increasing the Bank's visibility in the East Africa region," said Abdul Kamara (PhD), country manager of AfDB's Ethiopia Office.

AfDB has 24 ongoing operations in Ethiopia worth 1.7 billion dollars. The activities are in the energy, water supply and sanitation, transport and agriculture sectors. Its most significant investments are in road projects, amounting to 600 million dollars, and energy follows, comprising half a billion dollars of investments.

The 230Kv power transmission project that extends from Mekelle-Dallol to Semera-Afdera, the Ethio-Kenya power transmission line, Addis Abeba-Nairobi-Mombasa corridor, the Jimma Chida road upgrading project and the Adama-Awash Expressway are among the major projects of the Bank in Ethiopia.