Chairman: O.B. Sisay OBE

O.B. is a strategic intelligence analyst who advises on political, economic, financial and security risk across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently working to support several African governments through COVID-19 outbreak though the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

He was the Director of the Situation Room at Sierra Leone’s National Emergency Response Centre during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. He was awarded a Gold Medal by the President of Sierra Leone and a appointed an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Before becoming a consultant working for various international organisations he was at Exclusive Analysis as Head of Africa Forecasting and at FM Capital as Head of Africa Research.

O.B. has been the subject of many TV and radio interviews by many networks such as the BBC, National Geographic or CNBC. He has often been interviewed and quoted in written press . His latest written interview was conducted by African Research Institute on his role in ending Ebola. He is an inspiring public speaker and has made many contributions to organisations such as Chatham House and TedX Bermuda.

O.B. has a BSc in Economics from University College London and an MSc in Finance and Investment Management from Aberdeen University.

CEO: Maryam Abdullah BSc FIA

Maryam is a qualified Actuary who has worked in the London Market and Lloyd’s of London for eighteen years before moving to Africa to set up the Situation Hub in 2019. Since then, she has been working on modelling and developing capital markets’ solutions for outbreaks and epidemics for African governments and the African union including covering COVID-19.

Recently, she launched the Sustainable Business Development arm of Situation Hub to support Gambian farmers and small busines holders.

Prior to establishing Situation Hub Maryam was Head of Capital working as a hybrid Actuary-reinsurance broker until late 2018. Her expertise covered capital provisioning & structuring, regulatory capital and Enterprise Risk Management. Her experience span most General Insurance lines of business as well as product development of new lines. She has worked at Arthur J Gallagher, Guy Carpenter, Acrisure, Markel International and Liberty Lloyd’s syndicate.

She is an active industry figure in insurance running seminars and publishing research especially on COVID-19 and Solvency II. She was at the centre of creating successful capital products under Solvency II. She was named as one of the most influential women in the insurance/reinsurance industry by the Intelligent Insurer magazine.

Maryam has studied Economics BSc at University College London.