Guest Speakers
Udo Udoma
Udoma Udo Udoma was elected Senator for the Akwa-Ibom South constituency of Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, running on the People's Democratic Party platform. Udo Udoma is a Cambridge University trained Lawyer. He first took office as a Senator on 29 May 1999.and was reelected in April 2003, again running on the PDP platform. After taking his seat in the Senate in June 1999, he was appointed to committees on Public Accounts, Judiciary, Banking & Currency, Science & technology, Privatization and Drug & Narcotics (vice chairman).
Donald Duke
Donald Duke was the Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. Duke has been praised for his contributions to the fields of agriculture, urban development, government, environment, information and communication, investment drive, and tourism. Through his work, Calabar is seen as the "cleanest city in Nigeria. Mr. Duke started off his professional career by establishing the highbrow Lagos based Law partnership of Onyia & Duke. coupled with active practice, he soon assumed full management of the family's shipping business when he became Chief Executive of Hegeds International Limited.
Mr. Duke's first entry into public Governance was in 1991 when he was first appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Voice of Nigeria. This was quickly followed by another appointment in 1992 when Governor Clement D. Ebri appointed him as a member of the Cross River State Executive Council and Commissioner for Finance, Budget and planning, during which tenure he chaired the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting of September, 1993.
Hakeem Belo-Osagie
Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist. He was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014. Mr Belo-Osagie started his career as a petroleum economist and lawyer, following his graduation from Harvard Business School. For more than three decades, he has been a key player in the Nigerian economy through his participation in several private sector businesses; particularly in the fields of energy, finance and telecommunications. Hakeem Belo-Osagie is the chairman of Etisalat Nigeria, Nigeria's fourth largest mobile telecom network, with more than 18 million subscribers
Tunde Irukera
Babatunde Irukera is a managing partner with SimmonsCooper Partners and has over 19 years of transactional, commercial litigation and practice management experience. Nigerian-born and currently living in Nigeria, his experience includes over 10 years in the United States engaging in complex commercial litigation and settlements including several jury trials and significant appellate work. Mr. Irukera has an active practice in Nigeria on a broad range of commercial and corporate issues. He has provided strategic planning advice both from political and business risk standpoints for foreign businesses, government agencies and international investors. Among his most significant client work, Mr. Irukera represented the Nigerian Federal and State Governments in corporate misconduct cases concerning drug trials by a major pharmaceutical company, resulting in a settlement of over $80 million, the largest settlement to date in Nigeria
Rumundaka Wonodi
Rumundaka Wonodi is the pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), aka the Bulk Trader. Prior to his appointment, in August 2011, he led the Regulatory & Transactions Monitoring team of the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP), mandated with driving the power sector reform roadmap of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). He led the team of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and PTFP experts in establishing the Bulk Trader. Rumundaka has an MBA from Yale University School of Management, USA and was a J. Olin Research Fellow at Yale University.
Jayjay Okocha
Jay-Jay Okocha is a Nigerian former professional footballer, who played as an attacking midfielder. A quick and skilful playmaker, who is widely regarded as the best Nigerian player of his generation and one of the greatest African players of all time. Okocha has done commercials for products like Pepsi, Samsung, V.Mboil, B-29 watch detergent, Holandia milk amongst many others. He is still highly regarded all over Africa due to his commitment to grassroot football development
Bilikiss Abiola-Adebiyi
Bilikiss Adebiyi is an inspiring Nigerian social entrepreneur and founder of WeCyclers. Her company offers waste collection and recycling services to the Lagos informal settlements, where an estimated 66% of Lagosians live. As a part of the process, residents are offered an incentive for collecting their household waste which is picked up for free by Wecyclers using specially adapted bicycles. To create incentives among low-income households to participate, rewards are given to them for every kilogram recycled, via points sent by SMS. These points are then redeemable against goods they value, such as cell phone minutes or basic food items. The rewards have been funded in partnership with big brands such as Coca Cola and GlaxoSmithKline.
Atedo Peterside
Atedo Peterside is the President and Founder of ANAP Foundation, which is a non-profit organization committed to promoting Good Governance and is also the Founder and Chairman of ANAP Business Jets Limited. He is the Founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, where he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from inception of the Bank in February 1989 at age 33 (then IBTC) until 2007 and Chairman from 2007 until September, 2014. He is currently Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and is also a Director of both The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Bank Group Limited.
Charles Edosomwan
After obtaining a BSc in Computer Science from Covenant University, Charles attended London School of Public Relations Croatia. He has worked in a number of roles including Head Digital Media at DigiEngage Nigeria Limited and Head of Digital Media atBluebird Communications Limited before founding TekSight Edge Limited in March 2014.
Uyi Apata
Uyi Akpata has been Country Senior Partner at Price WaterhouseCoopers (PWC) since July 2014. Uyi joined the firm of Coopers and Lybrand in September 1984 after graduating with a BSc Accounting degree from the University of Lagos. He was admitted as a partner in 1992 and has obtained extensive experience in leading the audits of companies in various sectors of the Nigerian economy. Akpata has in the last 15 years acted as assurance engagement leader for key players in the oil and gas Industry and is currently the oil and gas leader for PwC Africa.
Julius Okojie
Professor Julius Amioba Okojie is the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission. Following his education at the University of Ibadan and Yale University USA, he commenced his professional career at the University of Ibadan, reaching the pinnacle of his career as an academic when he became Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture Abeokuta in 1991. His outstanding performance as Vice-Chancellor, endeared him to his fellow Vice-Chancellors who elected him to the exalted position of Chairman, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities in 2001.
Odein Ajumogobia
Henry Odein Ajumogobia was appointed Nigerian Minister of State Petroleum Resources between 2007 and 2009. He was later appointed minister of Foreign Affairs on 6 April 2010. Known as much for his flourishing 30-year-old law partnership of Ajumogobia & Okeke, as for his time in public service as Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum) and Head of Nigeria's delegation to OPEC (July 2007- December 2008) during which period he made the removal of subsidies on petroleum products, and deregulation of the downstream; building of strategic petroleum reserves gas utilisation, monetization & flare reduction, and alternative funding structures in the upstream petroleum sectors, in particular his priorities.
Iyadunni LEAP
Iyadunni Olubode is the Executive Director of LEAP Africa, a non-profit organization committed to developing dynamic, innovative and principled African leaders. She attended the University of Lagos, earning a Bachelors of Science degree in Economics followed by a Masters degree at the University of Surrey in Energy Economics & Policy.
Ronke Adebanjo
Aderonke was on her way to Medical School when she had a change of heart and began a journey through a few career paths that finally lead her to radio and television broadcasting. She has B.A. in Psychology and a background in Community Research, Human Resources, Corporate Affairs, and is also trained in Marketing Strategy. Her first love is singing, which she has been doing for as long as she can remember. She has featured on various music albums including Acoustic Gospel Volume 2, released in the U.K. in 2008 and hopes to release her debut album soon.
Sim Shagaya
Sim Shagaya is a Nigerian entrepreneur and business mogul. He is the founder and C.E.O of one of West Africa's largest electronic commerce website Konga.com and he is also the executive chairman of DealDey, a daily deal website. In 2014, he was named in Forbes' list of "10 Most Powerful Men In Africa". Prior to the establishment of DealDey and Konga.com, Sim worked as a banker in South Africa under Rand Merchant Bank. He later moved to Nigeria where he became Google's head for Africa
Fela Durotoye
Mr. Fela Durotoye is the Chief Executive Officer of Visible Impact Limited. He is a motivational speaker and a consultant. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Economics, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. He acquired financial and management consulting experience with Ventures & Trusts Limited, the sole investment consultants in Nigeria to the European Investment Bank, between 1992 and 1995. He was involved in the set up and management of several venture capital projects including Academy Press Business Forms Limited and Stark Nigeria Limited.