Astou Dia (she/her) is the Regional Director Africa at SEEK Development. She brings over 18 years of advisory, investment, and program leadership experience across private sector development, sustainable finance, gender lens investing, agriculture, and health systems, working across more than 30 countries in Africa and Europe. At SEEK, she leads SEEK's work in Africa across the Health, Education, Climate, Sustainable Finance, Private Sector, and Entrepreneurship verticals, building pipeline and driving high-impact engagements.

With cross-sectoral expertise spanning blended finance, SME support, agri-finance, gender lens investing, and multi-stakeholder program design, Astou supports clients, including development finance institutions, foundations, and private sector actors, in translating complex development challenges into investable, scalable solutions. She advises senior decision-makers at critical junctures, helping organizations structure strategies, design programs, build partnerships, and mobilize financing for lasting impact.

Previously, Astou was an Associate Partner and Office Director at Dalberg Advisors in Abidjan, overseeing a team of 15 and a consulting portfolio exceeding USD 2 million per year, leading assignments for IFC, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation, GAVI, and others across West, Central and East Africa. Following Dalberg, she worked as an independent strategic advisor and delivery partner on major development programs, including serving as Portfolio Enterprise Lead and Deputy Team Leader for the EIB Boost Africa Technical Assistance Programme, where she designed and directed TA strategy across a pan-African portfolio of 70-plus technology start-ups,coordinating investment partners and delivery teams across seven cities. She began her career in strategic consulting with Stanwell Consulting and Advention Business Partners in Paris, advising private equity funds and leading transformation engagements in banking, insurance, and financial services.

Alongside her consulting career, Astou co-founded the Women's Investment Club Senegal and built its operations including the technical assistance arm, WIC Academie, supporting over 300 women-led businesses. She serves as an investor and board member of WIC Capital, the fund which provides equity and quasi-equity financing to women entrepreneurs across Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire.

Astou holds a Master of Sciences International Economics and Business Administration from the Ecole Normale Superieure Cachan and Universite Pantheon Sorbonne and an Honors degree in Economics, Management and Business Administration with a major in Finance and Econometrics from the Universite Paris XII et Paris I Sorbonne.