Society
Inside Details: Meet Tony Elumelu’s Corporate Ladies
Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu better known as Tony O or TOE or simply Tony Elumelu is a year older today.
The extraordinary businessman – and one of the most visible advocates of a better African economy – clocks 58.
And many are extremely happy that the man of many enviable business parts who is providing opportunities for many to excel sees today hale and hearty – and with lots to offer in shaping a better tomorrow.
The checks by societynow.ng revealed that the king of commerce shaping the fortune of Africa – and the world with the multiplier effect – with the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s $100million Entrepreneurship Programme is giving the girl child audacity to dream and hope for a greater tomorrow by providing increasing opportunities for more women to thrive and serve as role models in different spheres.
Further digs by societynow.ng revealed that a clear feedback in the move by Elumelu – of providing opportunities for women to excel – was evident in the 2020 edition of the UBA Foundation’s National Essay Competition. Aside from populating the competition with their entries, the results showed that ten (10) out of 12 (twelve) winners were girls!.
Societynow.ng parades some of the wonderful women posting amazing results that are giving the girl child the audacity to dream of a better tomorrow in organizations the extraordinary Tony Elumelu is involved in.
Meet the wonderful souls who have joined hands with the incredible mind doing wonderful things – and celebrating his birthday today – to shape the future of the girl child for the better.
Owen Omogiafo, the President/GCEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc. She succeeded Valentine Ozigbo, who retired to pursue a career in public service, having served Transcorp for close to a decade.
Owen has over two decades of corporate experience in organisational development, human capital management, banking, change management and hospitality.
She holds a B.Sc. in Sociology & Anthropology from the University of Benin, an M.Sc. in Human Resource Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School and IESE Business School, Spain.
She is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, UK and a Certified Change Manager with the Prosci Institute, USA and has received multiple awards and been named as one of Africa’s top 100 Female CEOs.
Dupe Olusola appointed as the MD/CEO of Transcorp Hotels Plc,
She has over 21 years of corporate experience including MD/CEO of Teragro Juice Concentrate Plant.
Olusola holds a BA in Economics from the University of Leicester and a Masters in Development Economics from the University of Kent. She is a certified Project Manager, with qualifications in PMP and Prince 2. She has received numerous awards and was named by the Ventures Africa’s as one of the 10 Most Influential Nigerian CEOs of 2015.
Abiola Bawuah, the Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of United Bank for Africa, in charge of six countries comprising Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
A former Managing Director and CEO of UBA Ghana – the woman to occupy such a position -, she joined UBA Ghana on March 1, 2013 as the Deputy Managing Director was an Executive Director at Zenith Bank. She also previously held the positions of General Manager, Marketing and Group Head Retail Banking. She also worked at Standard Chartered Bank as a Business Financial Manager, Cal Bank as a Senior Financial Analyst and at Strategic African Securities as an Authorised Dealing Broker.
Bawuah holds a BSc in Actuarial Science, an LLB, EMBA (Finance) from University of Ghana, as well as numerous leadership qualifications from Harvard Business School, Columbia, INSEAD and Institut Villa Pierrefeu in Switzerland.
Bola Attah, UBA Foundation”s M.D\ CEO and , Group Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications.
Attah is also the producer of famous REDTV.
UBA Foundation, which is just one of her briefs “aims to make sustainable improvements in the lives of the needy and underprivileged by supporting entrepreneurship programmes which benefit the community at large” while REDTV “is a fast paced lifestyle channel that puts Africa on the global stage. Proudly associated with the United Bank for Africa, REDTV is here to entertain and inform with content that features the very best in entertainment, fashion, news, design, music, sport, movies and travel.”
Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation according to information obtained on the official website, “is a lawyer and a passionate advocate of the transformative power of entrepreneurship as the key to the economic development of Africa.
Appointed in April 2019 as the third Chief Executive Officer of The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy, Ifeyinwa holds the distinction of being the first African to hold this position.
Ifeyinwa joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2017 as the Director of Partnerships & Evaluations, a role she held for two years. In this position, she developed the Foundation’s institutional framework for financial and value-add partnerships to scale the impact of the US$100m TEF Entrepreneurship programme beyond its initial target to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs.
The resulting strategic partnerships with governments, development finance institutions, multilaterals and private organisations led to a record-breaking selection of 3,050 entrepreneurs in 2019.
“As CEO, Ifeyinwa is responsible for the overall development and implementation of the Foundation’s initiatives, overseeing its day-to-day operations including the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, TEFConnect – the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs, monitoring and evaluation, research, and alumni engagement. She also steers the Foundation’s positioning, partnership and engagement with the wider development ecosystem as TEF launches into its next stage of scale, expanded impact, and intelligent mining of its proprietary data on African entrepreneurship.
Ifeyinwa is a proven leader with business vision and the ability to bring people together, leveraging her insights and global perspective as the Foundation executes its strategy to transform Africa through entrepreneurship while delivering value for Africa and Africans through the thousands of entrepreneurs it has already empowered and the many more thousands to come.”
And, the heart beat of Tony O… Dr Awele Elumelu, a Trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Avon Medical, She oversees the healthcare investments of Heirs Holdings.
She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Benin. Her experience as a medical doctor includes medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and emergency medicine.
In Nigeria, Dr Elumelu has worked with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and, in the UK, with Grantham and District Hospital, Grantham.
She was appointed to the Yale Institute for Global Health Advisory Board.
She joined Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman, Connecticut’s Third Congressional District; Jeffrey Koplan, Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Indra Nooyi, Board of Directors at Amazon and Former Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo, among other reputable individuals.
Dr Elumelu also recently celebrated a significant public health victory as the Gavi Private Sector Champion for Immunisation in Africa, following the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s announcement that Africa is now free of the wild poliovirus.
The Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) is the focal point for global health at Yale, bringing together expertise and knowledge from across campus with partners around the world. With a centre of gravity close to the Yale Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health, YIGH represents a University-wide mission. By actively collaborating across disciplines and seizing opportunities for innovation, YIGH aims to speed the translation of new scientific discoveries into better health for all.
