Akua Gyekye is a Public Policy Manager covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for WhatsApp. Prior to this, Akua was a Public Policy Manager covering Sub-Saharan Africa and also lead the cross-functional integrity work for elections across Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East for Facebook. Akua has been with the company for over 6 years.

Before joining Facebook, Akua was working as a project finance lawyer in the international law firm Clifford Chance. She also previously worked in Nigeria and Liberia as a senior legal adviser and rule of law specialist at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation and as an anti-corruption lawyer at USAID.

Akua has over 15 years’ worth of experience working in the international development, legal and tech policy sectors and has worked for and with a variety of government departments, NGOs and international think tanks in Europe, the US and in various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Akua holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Society with minors in International Relations and Spanish from American University, a Law Degree from Cambridge University in England and a Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from The George Washington University Law School. She is also admitted as a lawyer in England & Wales and in the state of New York in the USA.