Otto Saki is a senior program officer, having joined the foundation in 2017 as program officer for Southern Africa. In 2019, Otto joined the Civic Engagement and Government global team and relocated to the NY office in 2022. Otto was subsequently appointed program officer for global governance in 2024.
Before Ford, Otto held executive leadership and senior management positions at non-profit organizations and bilateral funders such as USAID, providing technical assistance to various civil society, African governments, and institutions.
Since 2020, Otto has provided visiting lectures to the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, Stanford Law School International Human Rights Clinic, and NYU Law School on the role of philanthropy in a shifting global landscape. In addition to executive certifications, Otto holds an LLB (Zimbabwe), an LLM in human rights (Columbia), an LLM in information technology and security (Tanzania), and a PhD/LLD from the University of the Western Cape in mercantile law.