Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao is the Managing Director, Resource Mobilisation, Private Sector Partnerships and Innovative Finance. Since joining Gavi in 2011, her leadership has been instrumental in raising critical resources to provide equal access to vaccines for all. Under her stewardship, the Global Vaccine Summit in June 2020 raised more than US$ 8.8 billion from 31 donor governments and 8 foundations, corporations and organisations to immunise 300 million children and support the global fight against COVID-19.

Currently, Ms. Saraka-Yao provides leadership and direction to COVAX - the best solution to end the acute stage of the pandemic – and the only global initiative trying to achieve equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

In addition, she is the lead negotiator with G7 and G20 leaders in the expansion of Gavi investors’ base. In her capacity, she also drives the strategic resource mobilisation of the institution, aligning Gavi’s priorities with those of public and private investors but also towards leveraging diverse financial instruments (such as International Financing Facility for immunisation (IFFIm), Advanced Market Commitment (AMC), and the Matching fund (MF) to attract private sector investment and expertise.

Prior to joining Gavi, Ms Saraka-Yao held several senior positions in international investment banks and multinational development agencies.