Yaya is the Director of Policy for AML & Cyber Risk at the Crypto Council for Innovation. He spent seven years as an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, briefing federal law enforcement, military personnel, White House-level policy makers and the President.

After government service, he joined the think tank world and as Director of Analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance led research on sanctions evasion and terrorist financing threats.

Yaya is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He is considered a leading expert on China’s CBDC.