Mrs. Ndidi O. Nwuneli (MFR)
Founder, LEAP Africa

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is the founder of LEAP Africa. She is also the co-founder of AACE Foods, an indigenous agroprocessing company. In addition, she is the founding partner of AACE Consulting through which she has shaped agriculture strategy and policy and supported a range of clients in Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia, including ECOWAS, Oxfam International, AGRA, Technoserve, and the Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture for West and Central Africa.

She started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, working in their Chicago, New York and Johannesburg Offices, with a focus on fast moving consumer goods. She returned to Nigeria in 2000, to fulfill her passion of promoting entrepreneurship and leadership development in Africa. She served as the pioneer executive director of the FATE Foundation from 2000, and then established LEAP Africa, and NIA in 2002 and 2003 respectively. NIA empowers female
university students to achieve their highest potential in life, while LEAP Africa provides leadership, ethics and management training and coaching for youth, business owners, social entrepreneurs and the public sector.

Ndidi holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. During her time at Harvard, she founded the Annual Africa Business Conference. Ndidi received her undergraduate degree with honors in Multinational and Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
 

Ndidi has received numerous honors and awards. She was recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She received a National Honor, Member of the Federal Republic, from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2004, was recognized as the Young Manager of the Year 2005 by THISDAY Newspapers and received an Excellence Award from the Africa Business Club at Harvard Business School in 2007.

Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, FCA
Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO)

Stephen Olabisi Onasanya has over 23 years post qualification experience and until his appointment as GMD/CEO was Executive Director, Banking Operations & Services. Prior to joining the Board of FirstBank he was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Pension Custodian Nigeria Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Bisi started his banking career as Senior Accountant with Wema Bank in 1985. He joined FirstBank in 1994 as a Senior Manager and held several positions. He was Deputy General Manager and Group Head, Finance and Performance Management Department, as well as Coordinator, Century 2 Enterprise Transformation Project, before his appointment as MD/CEO of First Pension Custodian in 2005. He holds an HND Upper Credit in Accountancy from Lagos State College of Science & Technology and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and an Associate Member of the Nigeria Institute of Taxation. He is also a Director of FBN Bank (UK) Limited and FBN Insurance Brokers Limited.

Mrs. Nike De Souza
MD PeoplePrime and PeopleTemp Limited

Mrs. Nike De Souza is the founder and Managing Director of PeoplePrime and PeopleTemp Limited. She attended the American University Kogod School of Business Administration, Washington D.C. USA. She is a certified public accountant (CPA) from the American Institute of Public Accountants, State of Maryland, USA, and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ACCA).

She started her career in the US in 1987, working for several consulting and audit firms as a Consultant/Auditor and attained the post of Senior Auditor/Consultant in 1990. On her return to Nigeria in 1992, she joined Arthur Andersen Nigeria (now KPMG Professional Services). She left Arthur Andersen in December 2002 to establish PeopleTemp; a sister company of PeoplePrime. PeoplePrime in July 2007 conducted the first Nationwide Graduate Recruitment Fair to test approximately 15,000 graduates, with over 2,000 talented graduates attending the Fair.

Mrs. Abisola Longe
CEO Human Capital Development Consultants

Mrs. Abisola Longe is the Chief Executive Officer of Human Capital Development Consultants (HCDC). She is a visionary and a business coach. Human Capacity Development Consultants (HCDC) Limited is a vibrant and innovative company committed to the goal of developing human capital for exceptional business results.
 

Mr. Lanre Olusola
Principal Partner of Impression Management Consulting

Mr. Lanre Olusola is the principal partner of Impression Management Consulting. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, Boston Massachusetts USA; An ASET, U.K certified Life Coach. He graduated as a Performance Coach from Europe’s Number one coaching institution: The Coaching Academy, U.K. He has worked extensively with the UK Government through the Department for International Development (DFID), and the Nigerian Government, various state governments and government agencies, and other international donor organizations such as The World Bank, and the British Council etc. He is involved in various capacities and sits on the board of some of the following not-for profit organizations: FATE Foundation, NESG, Linkachild GTE Ltd, and Inspire Africa Foundation. He is a prolific writer; and contributes to Next, The Nation, BusinessDay and Genevieve Magazine.

Mrs. Folusho Olaniyan
MD UTC Nigeria plc

Mrs. Folusho Olaniyan is the Managing Director of United Trading Company (UTC) Nigeria Plc. She started her career in the food industry with the Leventis Group in September 1988 as a Management Trainee. She was appointed Head Sales & Marketing for Leventis Foods Limited in 2000. She holds a professional post graduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing Maidenhead U.K, in addition to a Master’s of Public Administration degree from University of Lagos, Nigeria. She joined UTC Nigeria Plc in May 2005 as Head of Sales and Marketing. Her goodwill in the food industry has facilitated rejuvenation of the company’s trading prospects. She is a member of the Institute of Directors and has attended executive management programs at the Lagos Business School and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
 

Mrs. Ibukun Awosika
CEO Sokoa Chair Centre

Mrs. Ibukun Awosika is the founder and chairman of the Chair Centre Ltd, a market leader in the office furniture and banking security systems industries. She graduated with a BSc. in Chemistry from the University of Ife. She is an alumnus of the executive programme of Lagos Business School and the global executive MBA programme of the prestigious IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain. She started her working career with Akintola Williams & Co. (now Deloitte) as an audit trainee during her national youth corps service. Thereafter, she worked at Alibert Nigeria Ltd, a furniture company, as showroom manager. Three and a half months after her employment, she resigned her position to set up her own furniture manufacturing company, Quebees Ltd, from which The Chair Centre Ltd later evolved.

She cofounded the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre (AGDC), a national career centre in Lagos, Nigeria, which was set up in September 2007 to address the high rates of unemployment in the country by helping Nigerian graduates’ become employable and good assets to the economy. In addition, she independently established another ultra-modern furniture facility, furniture manufacturers’ mart, in Lagos in the later part of 2006. The latest additions to her entrepreneurial exploits are the new branches of the Chair Centre Ltd in Accra (Ghana), Tinapa and Calabar (South eastern Nigeria).
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Ibukun Awosika is the immediate past chairperson of the board of trustees of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ). She is currently the Chairperson of Intermac, the organisers of SmartCard Conferences in Nigeria and Kenya, and a director on the board of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
 

Alex C. Otti
Executive Director (Public Sector South)

Alex graduated from University of Port Harcourt with a first class honors in Economics. He subsequently received an MBA from University of Lagos.

At the University of Port Harcourt, he was the best graduating student in the department of Economics and won the subject prize. He was also the best graduating student in the Faculty of Social Sciences and won the Dean’s Prize, as well as the overall best graduating student for the year and the valedictorian

He started his banking career with Nigeria International Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Citibank where he worked in Operations department. He subsequently moved on to Nigerian Intercontinental Merchant Bank. At Intercontinental, he was at various times in the Treasury and Financial Services department and Corporate Banking.

In 1996, he moved to United Bank for Africa Plc where he was overseeing Corporate Banking Sector, South and based in Port Harcourt. His major responsibility was the development of the Oil and Gas business for the bank.

In May 2001, he joined First Bank of Nigeria Plc as an Assistant General Manager with responsibility for Energy Group. In April 2004, he was promoted to Deputy General Manager. He has attended several local and offshore courses. He had gone through the Executive Development Programme of the Columbia Business School, New York and also trained in the prestigious Stanford Business School. He spends his leisure playing squash.

He is married with 3 children.

Mr. Mac Atasie
CEO, NEXTZON Business Services Ltd.

Mr. Mac Atasie is currently the Managing Director/CEO of NEXTZON Business Services Ltd. He has over 20 years experience in business advisory and venturing for several industries. He started his career as an Assistant Manager at Nigerian Breweries Plc. before moving to Accenture where he worked for over a decade and eventually became Head of Venturing/Payment Systems & Senior Manager, Strategy. NEXTON is an enterprise building company that operates an integrated business focused at four business lines including: ventures and business advisory (financial and non financial services), venture development and management, eBusiness and business process outsourcing. In addition to these business areas, the company has investments in several companies emerging as leaders in their various industries.
 

He has delivered several papers at several organized conferences and seminars on topical issues including e-commerce, the future of the financial services industry, customer relationship management and logistics and smart cards and ePayment systems.
 

Mr. Niyi Yusuf
MD Accenture (Nigeria)

Mr. Niyi Yusuf became the company’s new Country Managing Director of the Nigerian office on April 1, 2010. He was head of the Systems and Integration Growth platform in Nigeria before he succeeded Mrs. Omobola Johnson who stepped down as CMD on March 1, 2010, becoming chairman. He joined Accenture in 1995 after 4 years of experience in the Nigerian IT industry. Having spent over 14 years in Accenture, he brings to his new position a broad range of experience, skills, and capabilities with an enviable record of achievements in project delivery and systems improvement. He has managed the implementation and delivery of many turnkey projects for clients in various industries spanning manufacturing, oil and gas, banking, insurance and public sector.

Tijjani Mohammed Borodo
Executive Vice President (Company Secretary)

Tijjani Borodo was, until this elevation as Executive Vice President, a General Manager and the Company Secretary of the Bank. His banking career spans 22 years and he has occupied various managerial positions within the Bank. He is in charge of running the Bank’s Secretariat, as well as Secretary to the Board of Directors and Annual General Meeting of FirstBank. Borodo holds an LLB (Hons) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and an LLM from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. He has attended numerous professional courses within the country and in various continents.