Dr. Abdou Tenkouano is Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, based in Dakar, Senegal. His academic background is in plant breeding and genetics and he has a PhD from the Texas A&M University.

He has worked across sub-Saharan Africa with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT, 1994–1996, Mali), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, 1996–2008, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana) and The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC, 2008–2016, Tanzania and Mali). Dr. Tenkouano also served as a member of the research for development council at IITA, and as deputy chair of the institutional research and development committee and a member of the institutional management committee at AVRDC.