The Judges already made their decisions before we went to print, but the 7 Wonder Women Awards Winners will be revealed at tonight’s gala taking place at Federal Palace Hotel. Hosted by Investing In Women and powered by The Guardian
Our judges were carefully approved by The Guardian and the research committee of US-based Impeccable Collaboration for having expertise in the 7 awards categories, with every judge voting only on sectors which they were comfortable with making an informed decision on. Our judges also demonstrated some interest in wanting to drive the sustainable development of Nigeria and/or are already social impact champions. Our overseas judges in particular provided an independent international perspective (looking at Nigeria from the outside), which made the competition even more exciting and more competitive than we imagined. We are grateful for your time and consideration, and trust your judgment and decisions. Together, we arrived at the final 7 Wonder Women For Nigeria.
Akudo Anyanwu
Dr. Akudo Anyanwu is an award-winning global health expert, public health innovator and social entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the field of international development. She is an Associate Dean at Johns Hopkins University and the Founder of Friends Africa, a pan-African organisation that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by mobilising African businesses, governments and NGOs. She has also served on the boards of Roll Back Malaria, the Global Health Council and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Anyanwu’s pioneering work on the Gift from Africa Campaign has been recognised by the Rockefeller Foundation as a top 100 next century innovation. She has also been recognized as Tufts University’s Distinguished Service Award (2015), a Harvard School of Public Health Innovator of the Year (2013), an Ogunte Social Leader of the Year (2013) and Stevie Innovator and Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2012).
Olatowun Candide-Johnson
Olatowun Candide-Johnson
Olatowun Candide-Johnson LLB (Hons); BL, MBA is a lawyer with thirty+ years’ experience in Corporate and Commercial Law and in Business Development and the Governance of multinational corporations. During the course of her career, she worked in the Shipping and Oil & Gas industries. Whilst working with the Total Group, she worked in different divisions including three years at the New Business Division in the Paris HQ. Before taking early retirement, she held the roles of General Counsel, Executive General Manager, Management Services Division (incorporating Legal, Audit, Insurance and Anti-Corruption Compliance) and Chief Compliance Officer for the Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria. She is currently working on her dream of opening an exclusive space in a secure and serene part of Lagos to help bridge the business connections gap currently experienced by Women in Nigeria – GAIA – a Women-only business and social hub in Victoria Island, which has at its core, the objective of encouraging women to do more business together.
Temi Awogboro
Temi Marcella Awogboro (MBA, Stanford Business) is a Director at the Abraaj Group and Co-founder of Kairos Angels, an investment club aiming to transform Africa by partnering with visionary entrepreneurs to build scalable and sustainable businesses in Africa. She has more than a decade of experience in finance across developed and growth markets. As an investment professional, Temi has committed nearly US$500 million in private capital across strategic sectors in a bid to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Temi commenced her career at Goldman Sachs International, where she was a recipient of the Goldman Sachs and Institute of International Education’s Global Leaders Award. Temi also has a First Class Honours degree in Economics from Christ’s College, Cambridge, where she was a matriculation scholar and is a Kauffman Venture Capital Fellow, an African Leadership Institute Tutu Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper (Lagos Hub) and Alumni Ambassador (London Hub). She is the recipient of the M&A Advisor’s European Emerging Leaders Award and has been recognised as the Female Lead’s Top 20 Women under 20 and Management Today and The Telegraph’s 35 Women Under 35 in the UK.
Dr Kemi Dasilva-Ibru
Kemi DaSilva-Ibru
Dr Anita Kemi Dasilva-Ibru MD (Founder, Women at Risk International Foundation – WARIF), is a specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with a medical background that extends to Public Health. A qualified and experienced specialist, Dr Dasilva has worked in Lagos for over 10 years in private practice, where she has dedicated her time to working closely with non-governmental organisations and related agencies in addressing the prevailing issues of gender-based violence, rape and the trafficking of young girls and women in communities throughout Lagos State in Nigeria, by offering free medical support and counselling. Dr Dasilva is a strong advocate of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, and is known for her unmitigated passion for women’s rights, which has shaped her life and has led to her establishing WARIF. The Foundation is one of the nation’s foremost anti-sexual violence organisations that raises awareness and addresses the prevalence of rape and gender-based violence in Nigeria. Dr Dasilva believes that it is our primary social responsibility to ensure that globally, all young girls and women live in a society free of rape and sexual violence.
Mark Nwani
Mark is an MBA graduate with over 11 years work experience in risk operations, business development, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and project management, spanning several sectors in various countries. Furthermore, he has led successful mentoring-centric events, as well as high-level fraud risk projects that resulted in improvement of processes. Currently, he is a Senior Risk Analyst with JPMorgan, where the core of his job description includes evaluating existing policies and procedures to ascertain areas that need improvement, designing processes to mitigate potential risks, project supervision, and creating contingency plans to manage crisis among others. He is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and offers advisory services to companies looking to build an inclusive culture.
Aishetu Dozie
Aishetu Dozie (MBA, Harvard Business) recently completed her fellowship at Stanford University (The Distinguished Careers Institute) and just launched a beauty business, California-based Bossy Cosmetics on International Women’s Day this year. As well as being the founder, she holds the role of Chief Executive Officer. Her company is a mission-driven beauty brand that serves professional women who love the convenience of ecommerce, appreciate affordable prices and the mission to amplify the efforts of nonprofits that advocate for social change for women and girls around the world. Aishetu is also a 20+ year investment banking and finance veteran and worked at leading financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, among others. Aishetu also founded a first-of-its-kind children’s play and activity centre in Lagos and authored a children’s picture book entitled “Paloo & Friends in Imaginaria”, loves writing, and has been a contributing columnist for Business Day Newspaper.
Anya Duroha
Anya Duroha is the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of Nova Merchant Bank Limited. Preceding this appointment, he was the Executive Director, Wholesale Bank responsible for development and management of the Bank’s corporate banking relationships. Prior to joining the Bank as a pioneer staff, he was the Head, Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC, where he was responsible for Commercial Banking and SME businesses in Nigeria. In that role, he had the responsibility for both relationship and portfolio management. In this capacity, he designed and implemented interventions and strategies that ensured the rapid growth and profitability of the business. He started his banking career in banking operations in Citibank and has 25 years banking experience spanning across many areas of banking. He was the Head Corporate Banking, United Bank for Africa Plc; Head Corporate Banking, Diamond Bank Plc and Head of Business Development (Designate), Diamond Bank, United Kingdom. In all these roles, he has managed portfolios in various sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, construction, oil & gas, infrastructure, aviation, power, maritime, telecommunications, FMCG and structured trade finance.
Ladi Balogun
Ladi Balogun (MBA, Harvard Business) has spent the last 20 years at First City Monument Bank, rising to the position of Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, before retiring from the bank and moving to the holding company, FCMB Group Plc in March 2017, when he became the Group Chief Executive. FCMB Group Plc is a holding company with interests in commercial and investment banking, investment management and pension administration. FCMB Group has an operating history of 40 years in Nigeria, and since the establishment of its investment banking business, over 500,000 shareholders, 5 million customers and N1.4 trillion in assets. Ladi led the team that transformed the bank from a small merchant bank with less than 200 employees to a large commercial bank with 10,000 employees, over 4 million customers, 200 branches and a banking subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Ladi is also Chairman of Tenet Investment Company, an impact investment firm focused on agribusiness in Nigeria, and serves as President of the Otunba Tunwase Foundation – a charitable organisation focused on the health and welfare of children.
Solape Hammond
Solape is a business executive with over 19 years’ experience in Management Consulting, Risk Management, Banking and Financial Advisory. She earned a B.Sc in Economics and an MBA from INSEAD. Solape is Co-Founder and CEO of Impact Hub Lagos, an innovation hub for entrepreneurs which is part of a global network with 16,000 members in 50 countries worldwide. She is also the founder and CEO of Ten Talents Limited which provides consulting, recruitment and financial advisory services to a variety of companies. Solape is passionate about social change and serves as Secretary to the Board of Trustees for the Handicapped Education Foundation and Chairperson of KHAN Regenesis, a non-profit organisation focused on bringing positive change to the vocational sector. She also sits on the Board or Advisory Councils of various other organisations including Olorunsogo Power Plc, Page Financials, Gerocare.org, Studio Lumiere, Mums in Tech UK LLC and the Nigerian-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce.
Giles Peppiatt
Giles established the first international sale of Contemporary African Art, ‘Africa Now’, in April 2009. This sale and exhibition was critically acclaimed and brought this hitherto unknown but vibrant market to the attention of many collectors and institutions. The auction established Bonhams as the market leader in Contemporary African Art and also confirmed Bonhams credentials as the world leader in all matters relating to the art of Africa. Many believe that Giles was instrumental in making the record-breaking sale of Tutu happen (sold for £1.2m in February 2018), a huge milestone that will contribute positively to the rising interest in Nigerian and other African artwork for sale. As well as his engagement as an auctioneer, Giles also encourages the hosting of special preview events at Bonhams, sometimes in the form of charity fundraisers. For example, in partnership with The Malaika Foundation (a charity dedicated to empowering girls in DRC through education) and AMADE, Bonhams worked with the foundations’ two presidents Noella Coursaris Musunka and HRH Princess Caroline to host a special evening to help raise funds in aid of these two foundations. At the Africa Now Sale itself the proceeds of the works by Congolese artists Freddy Tsimba and Patrick Bongoy were donated to The Malaika Foundation.
Anita Kouassigan
Anita is a business catalyst and Consultant between London and Lagos. A serial entrepreneur and networker, Anita brings extensive expertise in media, inclusion programming, human capital investment, and Corporate Social Responsibility. She is the Founder of Investing In Women, a global social impact organisation centred around connecting, empowering, and amplifying women – via the creation of content, her engagements as a speaker, and the hosting of live media events. In addition to her consulting career, Anita is a columnist for Guardian Woman and a sponsorship and advertising broker for The Financial Times. Anita is also Founder of Minerva Recruitment Consultants, and after just 2 years in operation, she was nominated under the category of ‘Professional of The Year’ for THE FUTURE AWARDS (2006) and went on to win another award she was nominated for: The African Role Model Award Winner and Fellow of the Emblem of Africa, conferred by The African Youth Society in June 2009. She was recently named on LEADING LADIES AFRICA’s annual list for 2019 as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Nigeria.
Nike Sotade
Adenike Sotade is a journalist with over two decades of experience in the print media.
She holds a BA (Hons) English degree from the University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria; Postgraduate Diploma (Mass Communication) and Masters degree in Mass Communication also from the University of Lagos. She is currently the Editor of The Guardian on Saturday. Adenike joined the reputable national newspaper as a reporter where she has honed her skills, and by dint of hard work and diligence, has risen to the rank of a title editor. A renowned StyleWriter, prolific and versatile journalist, she was also at one time the Assistant Features Editor and Metro Editor of The Guardian. In her current position as a female title editor, she has utilised the opportunity to espouse the cause of women. This is evident in the 8-page GuardianWoman pullout on Saturdays dedicated to promoting gender advocacy while also projecting female role models and their immense contributions to nation-building .
Be the first to comment