Boubacar Kane, who recently exercised his retirement rights, is a pure product of Mali’s national electricity and water company, Energie du Mali (EDM-SA), where he worked for 22 years before being appointed as the first Chairman and CEO of the newly created Malian national drinking water company (SOMAGEP-SA), in August 2010. He served as CEO of that company for 10 full years before his appointment as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at EDM-SA in December 2020.
Before the above appointments, he held the post of the Central Director of Water at EDM-SA after leading the Directorate of Studies and Works. As such, he was in charge of all matters relating to water within the company that managed both electricity and water together before the implementation of an institutional reform that separated the two activities and created three distinct companies. His responsibilities include the coordination, supervision and control of the production and distribution of the whole water sector.
In May 2002, he taught a short course on Erosion and Sedimentation and Open-channel flow at the School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Mali in Bamako. The program called TOKTEN, which stands for Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals is sponsored by the United Nations Development Organization (UNDP) and is aimed at transferring knowledge of expatriate professionals to their native countries. TOKTEN consultants perform tasks that might otherwise be performed by international consultants at a higher cost. By volunteering their services, TOKTEN consultants derive satisfaction of knowing they have participated in a way in the development of their country of origin.
 
Dr. Kane, who speaks four languages fluently (English, French, Spanish, Bambara), undertook all his higher education studies in the American continent. Indeed, after five years of study at the Instituto Superior José A. Echeverria of Havana (ISPJAE), he obtained his Bachelor degree in hydraulic engineering in 1985.
However, eager to improve, he applied and was selected in June 1993 by the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program, sponsored by the US Congress to benefit a postgraduate courses in the fields of water resources management and environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he obtained a Certificate in Water Resources Management in June 1994. Within that program, he undertook a training with the Bureau of Water and Wastewater of the City of Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
In January 1997, Dr. Kane obtained a scholarship from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), which led him to Colorado State University (CSU) at Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, where he received a Master degree in 1999 and a Ph.D in Civil Engineering in May 2003.
To prepare for his return to his home country, Mali, Dr. Kane also acquired work experience in the United States, in Littleton, Colorado, within the consulting firm « Engineering and Hydrosytems », from 2001 to 2003.