Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was sworn in as Mayor of Freetown in May 2018 with a vision to #TranformFreetown and improve the lives of Freetown’s residents. A finance professional with over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, risk management and project management in the private sector, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr has previously held senior management roles providing consulting services to blue chip clients in the UK financial services industry and raising finance for property developments in the UK and Sierra Leone. She campaigned against the trade in ‘blood diamonds’ during the civil war and in 1999, she co-founded the Sierra Leone War Trust (SLWT) which continues to support disadvantaged children and young people in Sierra Leone. She served as Director of Planning at the National Ebola Response Centre and in collaboration with others, she was instrumental in developing and implementing the strategy to end the 2014/2015 Ebola outbreak. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr was featured by Time Magazine in the Time100 Next 2021 List and by the BBC in the BBC 100 Women 2020 List. She is a Vice Chairperson of C40 Cities Global Group Steering Committee. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is a Chartered Accountant with an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc Hons in Economics from Fourah Bay College. She is married with two children.