Diarra was born in
Nioro du Sahel, Mali. He is a Bambara and the son-in-law of former president
Moussa Traoré. After graduating high school in Mali, Cheick Modibo Diarra studied
mathematics,
physics, and
analytic mechanics in
Paris at the
University of Pierre and Marie Curie. He then received a Masters in
aerospace engineering and a
PhD in
mechanical engineering, both from
Howard University in
Washington, D.C. He was recruited by
Caltech's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA Federally Funded Research and Development Center (
FFRDC) operated under contract by the California Institute of Technology, where he played a role in several
NASA programs, including the
Magellan probe to
Venus, the
Ulysses probe to the
Sun, the
Galileo spacecraft to
Jupiter, and the
Mars Observer and
Mars Pathfinder. He later became the director of
education and public outreach for NASA's Mars Exploration program. Diarra also was an executive for the Microsoft Corporation. He also obtained
American citizenship. In 1999, he obtained permission from NASA to work part-time in order to devote himself to education development in
Africa, founding the Pathfinder Foundation. He took a further sabbatical in 2002 to found a laboratory in
Bamako, Mali for the development of
solar energy. In 2000 and 2001 he also was a goodwill ambassador for
UNESCO. In 2002 and 2003 he was CEO of the
African Virtual University, based in
Kenya. Cheick Modibo Diarra was the chairman of
Microsoft Africa from 2006 until the end of 2011. Turning to Malian politics, he founded the Rally for the Development of Mali, a political party, in March 2011, and he intended to stand as a candidate in the
2012 presidential election.
Acting Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra was appointed interim
Prime Minister of Mali on 17 April 2012 to help restore civilian rule after the
March 2012 ''coup d'état''. His government, composed of 24 members, was appointed on 25 April 2012. Three of the most important posts—the ministries for defense, internal security, and territorial administration—were assigned to officers associated with the military junta that seized power in March and retained an important role even after formally returning power to civilians. Otherwise, the government was composed of
technocrats rather than political figures. On 11 December 2012, soldiers reportedly sent by coup leader Captain
Amadou Sanogo arrested Diarra as he prepared to leave the country for a medical check-up in France. Shortly after his arrest, Diarra appeared on state television and announced his resignation and that of his government. On 1 December 2013, ALN, an alliance of independent top tier African law firms, announced the appointment of Diarra as its Chairman. Diarra succeeded John Miles, the CEO of J Miles & Co. ==References==