Magatte Diop, MBA

Magatte Diop is president of Peacock Investments, a financial services firm in Dakar—one of several companies he has founded in West Africa. He earned his MBA from Stern Business School at New York University, and subsequently worked as an analyst on Wall Street and at MetLife Insurance. From 1978–1993, he served as an executive for Citibank/Citicorp in Africa, eventually overseeing relations with more than 200 financial institutions as vice president and regional director of branches in West and Central Africa.

In 1993, Diop founded the Intercontinental Life Insurance Company (ILICO) in Dakar, and two years later, SAGEF, a subsidiary of ILICO focusing on low- and middle-income housing and public construction.  He served as ILICO’s CEO until 2003, and is now chairman of the group.  From 1993–1997, Diop also led MRB International, another company he founded after leaving Citicorp.

Diop is president of the African Chamber of Commerce in the United States and founder of the Center for Strategic Studies for the Emergence of Senegal, a think tank for Senegal’s economic development.  In 1998, he was awarded the medal of merit by the Republic of Senegal.