Biography
- State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, January 2023 – To date;
- Ethiopia’s Deputy Chief Negotiator for WTO & AFCFTA
Government Posts and Professional Experience
- December 2021–December 2022, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ethio – Engineering Group
- October 2018–November 2021, State Minister, Ministry of Trade and Industry
- May 2018–October 2018, State Minister, Ministry of Labor and Social Affair
- November 2017–May 2018, Chief of Staff, Office of the Prime Minister
- H.E. Abiy Ahmed (PhD), Prime Minister
- H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegne, Former Prime Minister
- December 2013–November 2017, Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Special Envoy to the State of Qatar
- July 2010–September 2013, Consul-General at Ethiopian Consulate in Dubai, and Head of Mission to the UAE
- 2008 –2010, Director General for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- 2006 – 2008, Deputy Mayor and Bureau Head of Addis Ababa City Information and Culture, City Cabinet Member, Addis Ababa Millennium Council Vice-Chairman
- 2005 – 2008, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia
Educational Qualification
- Post Graduate Studies on Peace and Security, Addis Ababa University
- Post Graduate Studies on International Relations, Brussels, Belgium
- BA Degree in History, Minor Geography, Addis Ababa University
Previous State Ministers
Ambassador Tesfaye Yilma has joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992 and served at various levels both within the Ministry and in Ethiopian Embassies abroad.
At the Foreign Ministry he served, among others, as Division Head for African Union, IGAD and Southern Africa region (2001-2007), Director-General for European and American Affairs (2007-2010), Chief of Cabinet (2016-2017), Director-General for European Affairs (2017-2018), Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the AU and UNECA (2018-2022) and State Minister of Foreign Affairs (June 2022 to present)
In his diplomatic postings abroad, he served as Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission at Ethiopian Embassies in Cairo, London, Washington DC and Beijing. He was promoted to the rank of Ambassador in October 2010. He served in the civil service for a total of thirty-five years.
He earned his BA Degree in Political Science and International Relations from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, and MA Degree in Development Studies from University of London, South Bank, in the United Kingdom. He was born in 1961. He is married and has two children.
