Behind the Chairman of UBA and Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu are dedicated and hardworking women, who have emerged and proved beyond reasonable doubt that they have all it takes to serve in their different capacities as CEOs. They run Tony Elumelu’s different companies in their capacity as members of the Tony Elumelu Group. This set of women are the head honchos of Tony Elumelu’s companies such as Transcorp Hotels, Tony Elumelu Foundation, UBA and many more. These women are powerful women in their own right and whose profile will intimidate you.
The management team of the groups is made up of a crop of seasoned and industry-recognized professionals, with diverse (but complementary) skills in various backgrounds, as well as depth of experience (garnered from national and international institutions). Over the years, these executives have brought their knowledge, experience and leadership to bear on the development and delivery of solutions to meet the needs of their customers and, in the process, contributing to sustaining the performance of the group till date.
Let us start from his wife, Awele Elumelu. The highly revered Dr, Awele Vivien Elumelu is Chairperson of Avon Medical Practice Limited. She is also the Chairperson of Avon Healthcare Limited and oversees the healthcare investments of Heirs Holdings.She is one of the leading voices in Africa Health Care and this has shown in her practice and companies that she is involved in. As Tony Elumelu’s wife, she sits atop many of her husband’s companies. There is nothing going in on any of the companies that she is not aware of. 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 is a Trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and serves as a Director on the Board of Heirs Holdings, a family-owned investment company. On this is board also their daughter, Oge Elumelu who is speedily taking after her Dad. on several occasions during the holidays, she was always invited by her father to resume office with him at the United Bank for Africa, (UBA) as an intern to learn the fundamentals of economics. Before she got admitted into the University, she was mentored severally as Elumelu was positive about exposing Oge to the corporate world even while a lot of people felt she was too young to comprehend business at that level. There has been speculation that Oge Elumelu would be the heir to Tony Elumelu’s several companies and investments. This is as a result of the choice of her career path which is significantly pointing to assuming leadership positions in her father’s company.Oge Elumelu has joined her father as a member of the Tony Elumelu Foundation on a path of youth advocacy and youth empowerment? She is the co-founder of LSE Talks.
Let us move to the board of UBA, there are some women about 8 in number who are game changers in that financial organization. One of them is the former First Lady of Cross River State, Onari Duke. She has led a distinguished career which has straddled the roles of lawyer, public servant, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The former First Lady of Cross River State has used her position to raise awareness and currently serves as the chairman of the board of Dizengoff Nigeria and non-executive director at United Bank for Africa. There is also Aisha Hassan Baba, OON who is the founding and Managing Partner of Ebo, Hassan Baba & Co. She is also one of the Directors of UBA. Aisha was admitted to practice law in Nigeria in 1981 and in the ensuing 35 years thereafter, served in very senior and sensitive positions in both federal and state public service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, notably as Deputy Director Public Prosecution, Director, Legal Services under the Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Federal Legal Aid Council (now Commission), Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, and as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Anambra State. Aisha is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, Commonwealth Bar Association, Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK. She currently serves on the Board Audit Committee, the Board Governance Committee and the Finance & General Purpose Committee of the Board. Angela Aneke is the UBA Board Advisor, Banker and strategic thinker with over 30 years’ experience in financial services, in the areas of Financial Control, Strategy, Transaction Banking, Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, and Governance.
Angela has held executive management and board positions in several international and regional institutions, including Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Citigroup and the United Bank for Africa. Angela holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The American University, Washington DC, USA and became an International Associate of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1985. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK. She has attended several courses in banking and governance including Harvard Business School’s “Making Corporate Boards More Effective.”
Erelu Angela Adebayo is another top woman in the UBA board. She is the former First Lady of Ekiti State. She obtained a BSC (Hons) Social Science from the University of Ibadan, an MBA from the University of Lagos, and a MPhil (Cantab) in Land Economy from Cambridge University. She is the Chairman of Afriland Properties Plc. She was also the first Female Chairman of the Board of WEMABOD Estates.
Erelu Adebayo serves on the Boards of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Meyer Paints Plc and Women at Risk International Foundation. She is also a Council Member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and has worked extensively on real-estate development across Nigeria. Erelu Adebayo is the Founder of Erelu Adebayo Foundation and Erelu Adebayo Children’s Home. Another UBA boardroom guru, Caroline Anyanwu is a First Class graduate of Statistics, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and a Prize Winner in the ICAN Professional Qualifying Examination (overall 2nd). She obtained top-rated core basic and intermediate management competencies as a Trainee Accountant in Price Waterhouse (Chartered Accountants) – now PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry, covering Strategic Planning, Financial Control, Retail & Commercial Banking, Banking Operations and Risk Management.
Caroline who previously occupied the position of Head, Credit Risk Management at United Bank for Africa Plc, has worked at senior level positions with several international financial institutions. She has also served on various Boards both as an Executive Director and a Non-Executive Director, including Diamond Bank Plc, Diamond Bank D’Benin, CRC Credit Bureau Ltd and FinBank Plc. Caroline is currently the Founder/Principal Consultant of Fineline Business Advisory Ltd, an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, and a member of the Risk Management Association of Nigeria.
Abiola Bawuah-She is the first ever female CEO of UBA Africa. Previously, she was the Regional CEO, West Africa, supervising our operations in nine subsidiaries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. In 2013, she left Zenith Bank Ghana; where she was the Executive Director; having previously held the positions of the General Manager, Marketing and Group Head, Retail Banking; and joined UBA Ghana as Deputy Managing Director the same year. Mrs. Bawuah also worked with Standard Chartered Bank as the Head of Sales; with CAL Bank as Relationship Manager; Strategic African Securities as an authorized dealing broker and with the then Bentsi-Enchi and Letsa; now Bentsi-Enchil, Letsa and Ankomah law firm as an investment officer.
Bawuah holds a BSc in Actuarial Science from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, an LLB from the University of London, a diploma in Marketing from GIMPA and EMBA (Finance) from the University of Ghana. She also has numerous leadership qualifications from Harvard Business School, Columbia, University of New York, INSEAD and Institut Villa Pierrefeu in Switzerland.
Sola Yomi-Ajayi is a highly experienced banker with over 25 years of banking experience managing Corporate and Institutional relationships with significant experience in, Structured Lending, Transaction Banking, Risk Management, Financial Inclusion, Correspondent Banking, and Operations.
Currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBA America with responsibility for growing the UBA franchise in the US, Sola is responsible for strategy formulation as well as oversight for various business groups at UBA such as Global Financial Institutions (GFI), Embassies, Multilateral, and Development Organizations (EMDO) as well as our Global Investor Services (GIS) teams. She leads the respective teams in the execution of corporate strategy and delivery of unique best-in-class financial solutions to UBA’s customers across these business segments.
Also a Director in UBA, Adesola has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and an MBA from the Aberdeen Business School. She has also attended leadership and executive programs at Harvard Business School and Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, UK and a Member, Board of Trustees for the US-based Institute of International Banking.
Emem Usoro, UBA’s Executive Director, Nigerian North Bank, boasts over 20 years’ banking experience spanning Customer Service, Retail, Commercial, Corporate Banking and Public Sector, covering all the regions in the country. Before now, the astute banker, who joined UBA in 2011, has worn several hats. She was the Directorate Head, Abuja and North Central Bank and was also the Regional Director, Lagos Island region in charge of 32 branches in the Apapa and Lagos Island region, where she was responsible for developing, planning and implementing strategies to grow and turn around ailing branches, amongst other activities. She has a strong track record of winning and executing high-powered transactions.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) with strong capabilities in business development, financial and business advisory, strategic planning and execution, Emem holds a B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry and an MBA degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and is also an alumnus of Lagos Business School and Harvard Business School. She has attended several international courses on Leadership, Corporate Credit, Marketing and Negotiation Skills.
Dupe Olusola is the newly appointed Managing Director/CEO of Transcorp Hotels. Before her appointment as CEO of the hotel, she used to be the Group Head, Marketing, of UBA Group. Modupere Olusola was born in 1974, in Lagos State. She is a product of Queens College, Lagos, where she obtained her GCE O-levels in 1991. After obtaining her O-levels, Dupe proceeded to the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, where she studied economics and graduated in 1996.She further obtained her Masters (MSc) in Development Economics from the University of Kent in 1997. Dupe also has certifications in Prince 2, Project Management Professional (PMP), and Investor Management (all from the UK).Owen omogiafo is the President and Group CEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc. Before her appointment, she served as MD/CEO
of Transcorp Hotels Plc where she was responsible for driving positive transformation both in Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Transcorp Hotels Calabar. Owen has over two decades of corporate experience in organisational development, human capital management, banking, change management, hospitality, and energy. She was the Chief Operating Officer at the Tony Elumelu
Foundation, before joining the Transcorp group, She also worked as the Director of Resources at Heirs Holdings Limited, a family-owned investment company chaired by Tony O. Elumelu, CON.Her experience includes working at the United Bank for Africa as HR Advisor to the GMD/CEO, and at Accenture as an Organization and Human Performance Consultant, specializing in Change Management. She sits on the Board of Avon Healthcare Limited in a Non Executive capacity and is a member of the Finance, Investment & Risk Committee as well as the Audit & Governance Committee of the company.
Owen holds a BS.c 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.
Somachi Asoluka, Chris-Asoluka joined the foundation in 2014 and served in various departments including head of research, head of policy and external relations, and most recently, as the director of partnerships and communication.
Somachi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BSc. in Economics and minor in Mathematics, and received the “Adam Smith” award given to the highest performing graduating student in Economics. She also has a Master’s Degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University. She is a Deputy Champion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) EDISON Alliance. She joined the Foundation in 2014, has served as the Foundation’s Head of Research, Head of Policy and External Relations, and most recently as the Director of Partnerships and Communications.
Until her appointment, Somachi Chris-Asoluka was the Head of Policy and External Relations for the Tony Elumelu Foundation. She also managed all external engagements and relationships for the Foundation and its Founder, Mr Tony Elumelu CON. Prior to joining the Foundation, Somachi worked with the Corporate Governance and Finance division of Phillips Consulting Limited and she served as a research assistant at the Lagos Business School in 2013 and has interned as a columnist with BusinessDay newspaper.
-TAYO OYEDIJI
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