Following the conclusion of Parminder Vir’s 5-year tenure as CEO, today April 1 2019, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu assumes position as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). She becomes the 3rd CEO and the first African to lead the Foundation. Former CEO, Parminder Vir, OBE has been appointed to serve on the Foundation’s Advisory Board.
Ifeyinwa previously held the position of Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Foundation, spearheading major partnership accomplishments.
She is a proven leader with business vision, emotional intelligence and the ability to bring people together. Her vision for how the Foundation should position, partner and engage with the wider development ecosystem (including agencies, governments, academia, private sector and other Foundations) is exactly what TEF needs as it enters its next chapter of scale, expanded impact, close monitoring and evaluation, and intelligent mining of its proprietary data on African entrepreneurship.
“Indeed, I am confident that the Foundation will benefit from Ifeyinwa’s insights and global perspective as we continue to focus on executing our strategy to transform Africa through entrepreneurship, and delivering value for Africa and Africans through the thousands of entrepreneurs we have already empowered and the many more thousands to come” Tony Elumelu, Founder- The Tony Elumelu Foundation said.
Ifeyinwa holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Wales, Cardiff and is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She holds a post graduate degree in Business and Executive Coaching from the Integral Africa Institute, Cape Town.
She possesses significant expertise in youth entrepreneurship development and has recorded great achievements in negotiating and closing partnerships between the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and global partners including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German development agency – Deutsche Gesellschaft für InternationaleZusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
In March 2019, she was listed by Leading Ladies Africa as one of Nigeria’s Most Inspiring Women.
