Distinctions

Since 2003, Léna Sène has received numerous awards.

• In 2020: Léna receives the Prix Ragnée 2020 Femme Manager.
• In 2012, Lena was named one of Savoy Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Black American Women in American Business.
• In 2007: Selected among the 120 world academic leaders of the “Academy of Achievement”.
• In 2006: Appointed by the President of the United States of America (USA) Mr. George W. Bush to the White House Fellowship, a 47-year-old non-partisan federal leadership program with 13 other rigorously selected Americans.

Expériences

CAREER

Lena Sene is Founder and President of DCA based in Dakar, Senegal.

• From 2015 to 2018, Lena Sene was Executive Director in charge of Business Development at CGF Bourse in Senegal, the 1st management and intermediation company (SGI) in the WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) zone.• From 2010 to 2015, she was first a Director and then promoted to Managing Director at Deer Isle Capital LLC, a financial advisory firm in New York where she was responsible for the expansion of the company and in particular the promotion of the investment strategy in Africa.
• From 2009 to 2010, Lena worked at Impact Capital Partners, an international alternative investment advisory firm in New York City focused on emerging markets. In this role, she advised USAID on a $100 million climate change private equity investment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. Also at Impact Capital, Lena served as Special Advisor on Economic Affairs to the Ambassador of Malawi to the United Nations.• From 2004 to 2006 she joined investment bank Lehman Brothers where she was responsible for advising institutional clients and high net worth individuals on a full range of investment strategies.• Lena began her career in finance in 2000 as an Analyst at JP Morgan’s private bank in New York and then as a partner at JPMorgan Chase until 2004. She worked there as part of a team of six bankers advising more than 200 high-net-worth families with total assets under management of more than $4.5 billion.
• Lena was born in the U.S. and was raised in Senegal, Russia and Ukraine. She is fluent in English, French, Russian and Wolof. She serves on the Board of Trustee of Bates College and was an elected Board Member of the United Nations Association of New York. She is a member of The Economic Club of New York.
• Lena has a Bachelor of Economics from Bates College, an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was selected as a member of the Mort Zuckerman Fellowship. Licenses: Obtained the Series 7 and Series 63 Licenses from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) of the USA.

Expertise

PUBLICATION & CONFERENCES

Léna has, to her credit, numerous publications on SME investment in Africa. She has also hosted conferences on investment in Africa and was notably quoted in the April 2011 Dalberg Report entitled “Influencing Investment in West Africa”.

In addition, she contributed to the study of the US State Department on the impact of investment oriented towards the mobilization of private capital generating financial and social benefits in emerging countries.