On Saturday 24 October 2026, in New York, the association Guineans Succeeding in America celebrated its tenth anniversary and presented its Business Leadership Award to Baba Hady Thiam, founder of Thiam & Associés. Unable to attend, he was represented by loved ones, whom he thanks for attending the ceremony on his behalf.
For Baba Hady Thiam, this distinction carries particular meaning. The association brings together Guineans who chose to leave, built their success in the United States and never stopped maintaining a strong bond with their country. That it chose to honour a lawyer practising on the African continent illustrates, in his view, a path that works in both directions: leaving to learn, returning to build, and continuing to build bridges between Africa and the rest of the world.
It is the path he chose in 2017, when he returned to Guinea to develop Thiam & Associés. Since then, Guinea has changed: its economy is transforming and remarkable entrepreneurs emerge every day in many sectors. The legal profession, too, is undergoing a profound transformation, with lawyers increasingly seen as entrepreneurs, institution builders and actors in economic development. That a law firm should be recognised for its entrepreneurial leadership reflects the road travelled and confirms that it is possible to build, from the African continent, ambitious and lasting institutions, capable of acting across the entire value chain and of meeting the best international standards.
Baba Hady Thiam wishes to share this recognition with the whole Thiam & Associés team, who carry this ambition every day, and with all those who taught him, in Dinguiraye and then in Conakry, the value of work well done. He remains deeply convinced that the diaspora is one of Guinea’s greatest assets: the collective responsibility is to create the conditions for the talents, experience and achievements of compatriots abroad to contribute fully to the country’s transformation.
He thanks the association and its board of directors for this mark of trust, and everyone who made the evening a moment of pride for Guineans in America.
