Alassane Dramane Ouattara was born on January 1, 1942 in Dimbokro, Ivory Coast. Completing his primary education in Côte d'Ivoire, Ouattara finished his secondary education in Upper Volta, now known as Burkina Faso. He then proceeded to the United States and received a Baccalaureate in Elementary Mathematics from Drexel Institute of Technology, followed by a Master's and Ph.D in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania by 1972.

In April 1968, Ouattara joined the infamous International Monetary Fund (IMF) and in 1973, joined the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and became Deputy Governor there in 1982. Two years later, Ouattara returned to the IMF to serve as Director of Africa and succeeded Abdoulaye Fadiga at the head of the sub-regional institution.

In early 1990, he joined the government of Ivoirian President Felix Houphouet-Boignyas and took an unelected position as Prime Minister at the end of this same year. Following the death of President Houphouet-Boigny in 1993, Ouattara returned to the IMF and was appointed to Deputy CEO in 1994. Finally, in 1999 he seceded his position at IMF to run in the 2000 Ivoirian presidential election. In October 2000, an Ivoirian court canceled his nationality certificate, thus nullifying his eligibility as a presidential candidate by the 1998 Constitutional amendment that a presidential candidate has to be of Ivoirian birth, of direct Ivoirian descent, and a continuous resident in Côte d'Ivoire for 10 years. This also nullified his eligibility to run in the 2005 Ivoirian presidential election.

In 2010, Ouattara was permitted as a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Despite fraudulent electoral results reported, Alassane Ouattara was declared to be winner by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), though the only authority to legitimize results is the nation's Constitutional Council who has declared Gbagbo as winner.

Sources:
Main bio: www.ado.ci/rubrique.php?np=7&ns=21
Election eligibility: pp.330-331 in "Africa South of the Sahara 2004". Europa Publications (Google books result)
Constitutional council says Gbagbo winner http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/7220564.html
(used in the timeline) or another is http://www.france24.com/en/20101203-ivory-coast-gbagbo-winner-provisional-poll-election-ouattara