Born in 1939 in rural Ambo, Ethiopia, Tesfaye Dinka was educated at the elite General Wingate Secondary School, the American University of Beirut, and Syracuse University, earning an MBA in 1970 and an MS in engineering the following year. After his return, he worked for the Ethiopian Grain Corporation before moving to the Ministry of Community Development and Labor Affairs. In early 1975, he was appointed by the revolutionary government as one of the department heads in the ministry tasked with organizing and supervising the newly nationalized economic entities. As a technocratic official, he continued to serve as permanent secretary, then headed the Ministries of Industry and then Finance before being named Foreign Affairs Minister and finally Prime Minister of Ethiopia. During these years, he also served as a member of the Central Committee during the party-organizing phase and as alternate Politburo member of the party. Post 1991 having worked for the World Bank's Global Coalition for Africa, he lived in Virginia with his family until he died on 7 December 2016.