Sahle-Work Zewde served as President of Ethiopia from 2018 to 2024. She is the first woman to hold the office of President of Ethiopia.

Sahle-Work was born in the capital Addis Ababa in 1950, and attended the University of Montpellier in France where she studied natural science. After graduating, she came back to Ethiopia and worked at the Ministry of Education in the Public Relations Department as a Public Relations officer. In 1989, Sahle-Work became Ambassador to Senegal with accreditation to Mali, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, and Guinea. She was only the second woman to be appointed as an ambassador in Ethiopian history. From 1993 to 2002, she was Ambassador to Djibouti and Permanent Representative to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. 

She went on to serve as Ambassador to France, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and was accredited to Tunisia and Morocco. Sahle-Work held a number of other high level roles, including as Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa, as well as Director-General for African Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.

In 2011, Sahle-Work was appointed as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. Before her appointment as president, she was elected head of the United Nations Integrated peace-building office in the Central African Republic and in 2018 appointed Special Representative to the African Union and head of the United Nations Office to the African Union at the level of Under-Secretary-General.

She is fluent in Amharic, English, and French.