Mr. Tadesse is President Emeritus and Group Managing Director and serves as Chairman of the TDB Group Executive Management Board. Prior to this role, he served as CEO of TDB (2012-2022). He serves on the governing organs of several global and continental industry bodies, notably the International Development Finance Club, Finance in Common and the Africa Investment Forum. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Financial Sector Deeping Ethiopia, a-not-for-profit financial sector development agency. He is a member of the boards of directors of the US Corporate Council on Africa, ZEP Reinsurance and Gulf Africa Bank, in addition to the boards of directors of TDB subsidiaries and special purpose funds. In the past, he has also served on the boards of various financial institutions and investment funds in Paris and Geneva, as well as Johannesburg, Gaborone, and Abidjan.

Prior, he served for 10 years at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he served as Executive Vice-President and was responsible for international finance and investment, as well as corporate strategy. He began his career much earlier in the 1990s in New York City in various economist and management consulting capacities with international development funds, including at the United Nations.

He holds an MSc and MBA from the London School of Economics and Wits Business School, and is also an alumnus of Western University, Harvard Business School and INSEAD, where he trained in economics, executive management and advanced banking. Mr. Tadesse is a frequent public speaker and recipient of several international awards and honours, notably African Banker of the Year and African Business Leader of the Year.