Zacharie Liman-Tinguiri
SCKIN Founder
Zacharie Liman-Tinguiri is an American, French, and Nigerien national who was born with sickle cell disease (SCD). Over the course of his life, he experienced more than a hundred hospitalizations and multiple surgeries.
Zacharie earned a Bachelor’s degree in Honours Economics with a concentration in Political Science from the University of Ottawa in 2006, followed by a Master’s degree in Economics with a specialization in Development Economics in 2008. During his time at the University of Ottawa, he served as the Graduate Student Representative for the Humanities on the University Senate and as a Director on the Graduate Students’ Association Board, where he managed the Graduate Student Insurance Plan.
From 2009 to 2012, Zacharie worked at TD Securities in Toronto—first as an Investment Representative, then as a Risk Analyst. While in Toronto, he made history as the first patient to serve as President of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario (2010–2012). His health challenges, however, prevented him from obtaining Canadian permanent residency, leading him to relocate to the United Kingdom. There, he joined Aon Risk Solutions as a Business Analyst and earned the Certificate in Insurance from the London Insurance Institute in 2014.
Zacharie later pursued an MBA at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, where he served as Vice President for Capital Markets and Asset Management for the Old Ezra Finance Club, sat on the university’s Health Insurance Advisory Committee, and became a Fellow of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute. During his MBA studies, he underwent a pioneering bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins University Hospital that successfully cured him of sickle cell disease.
After completing his MBA, Zacharie joined A3 Ventures—the corporate innovation lab of the American Automobile Association—before moving to Amazon in several finance roles. He then joined Google, where he served as a Senior Product Manager focused on large language models and AI systems that help ensure the safety and integrity of Google’s advertising inventory.
In 2024, Zacharie trained a large language model on the latest sickle cell disease research and integrated it with Facebook, WhatsApp, and web platforms to deliver accurate, up-to-date information to patients and caregivers. To expand this mission of “making useful and reliable information about sickle cell disease universally accessible,” he founded the Sickle Cell Knowledge and Information Network (SCKIN)—a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals and communities affected by SCD.
He is currently building an AI startup focused on sports analytics, applying his experience in data science, machine learning, and product innovation to a new domain.