SPEAKERS

Paul is the Group Chief Executive Officer and founder of The Landmark Group. He began his career in the ‘built environment’ with a formal education in Architecture, Property Development and Construction Management, together with a London Business School MBA merit in “Value Engineering”.

Paul has over 25 years of professional experience of design and execution of projects in Africa, USA and Europe. He served as Development Director with Beacon Housing, in UK. Paul was the Executive with responsibility for the Property and Logistics team of Regus Plc during its rapid expansion years, which oversaw the opening of 190 business centers globally. He has expert knowledge of commercial property and workplace management and led Landmark’s expansion into America, Europe and Africa, has raised in excess of $100m of funding for Landmark and grown the company to achieve a PWC endorsed book valuation in excess of $300M. Paul is an African business leader, with a deep and passionate interest in real estate in Africa driven by his goal to create the first pan African real estate and service organization themed on his live, work and play philosophy. Landmark Lagos was endorsed by the BBC, Euromoney and African Property Investment Summit as the most visited business, leisure, and lifestyle destination on the West African coastline.

He sits on the Board of several institutions in Europe, America and Africa including MTN’s subsidiary Fintech Yellow Digital, Cancer Care Federation for West Africa, Lakeshore Medical Centre, Brookstone Properties, Kimberly Ryan, Carbon Micro Finance Bank & Stanmore Real Estate and has significant charitable interests in Health and Education as well as mentors a young leadership group operating in 3 continents. Paul is focused on adding value to the region through imaginative world-class mixed-use developments and the creation of job opportunities in several African cities for the youth.

Paul has been married for over 27 years with two children.

Olatomiwa Williams is an award-winning business leader with 20+ years’ experience in Information Technology Industry helping organization leverage the power of technology to achieve their business objectives with experience spanning consulting, support, channel and people management.

Ola is currently the Country Manager for Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana. Ola is known for building strong teams, helping customers adopt new technologies for transformation business outcome and for supporting channel strategic growth across emerging markets.

She is committed to the cause of seeing more women succeed in Information Technology field, she leads female focused initiatives to support and encourage women and girls in her region to develop interest in Information Technology and a mentor to a couple of aspiring female leaders.

Linda is the Managing Partner/Co-founder of Maurice Xandra Solutions, an HR consulting firm with clients such as General Electric (Healthcare), NestOil, African Capital Alliance (ACA), Addax, Transcorp Group, Energy Quest, Genesis Group, Obasanjo Farms, Elizade, and others. Before joining Maurice Xandra Solutions, she worked with Environmental Accord, an Environmental and Sustainability Company as the Human Resource Manager; and MTN Nigeria in the Finance Department. She has also acted in the capacity of Head, Human Resources for various clients including VFD Group and UnoTelos. She is also the convener of Doing Business in Nigeria Conference, a platform created to encourage experience sharing on the business environment in Nigeria with an aim to attract more investors as well as enlighten entrepreneurs and other business leaders.

Linda has an MBA from Manchester Business School and a B.A from Anambra State University where she graduated with First Class Honours. She is a certified Human Resource Professional with HRCI, USA and a full member of Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (MCIPM). She also has the Human Resources Practitioner’s License as well as a professional diploma in Human Resource Management, both from CIPM.

Linda is also passionate about solving real-life issues. In this regard, she was a member of the Institutional Development Committee, CIPM for three years and is a certified Transformational Coach (Coach Masters Academy). She has coached business leaders, youths and individuals who had the interest to challenge their status quo.

Dr Ayo Adegboye was appointed Managing Director of BCX Nigeria (now Arravo) in August 2016; where he recorded a landmark achievement of over 250% YoY growth within the first 18 months and overwhelming employee engagement. He subsequently championed management buyout (MBO) and the divestment of West Africa investment of BCX South Africa Group by attracting both local and foreign investors to acquire 100% stake and subsequent regional expansion to Ghana and Cote d’ivoire. Prior to joining BCX, he was a Vice President ITB at Schneider Electric West & East Africa and a Director at SAMSUNG Electronic West Africa. He graduated from the prestigious University of Ilorin where he read Geology and Mineral Science. Ayo later proceeded to the United Kingdom where he obtained Global Executive MBA from Manchester Business School, and additional MBA in Telecommunications from Informal Telecom Academy, UK.

Dr Ayo has won several international accolades and awards for global best practices and notable achievement which include successful launch of first APC By Schneider Electric Experience center in Middle East and Africa, Conceptualized and implemented Bank of the Future for Union Bank on behalf of SAMSUNG Electronics – another first in Sub-Sahara Africa, Conceptualized and implemented Winning At Retail (WAR) strategy for Schneider Electric West Africa; the effort which lead to double digit market growth within a year. Ayo seats on board of business corporations and non for profit organisations and was recently ranked top 1% of overall Nigerian executives.

Jane Egerton-Idehen is the Head of Sales at Meta (Facebook) for Europe, Middle East and Africa. She completed her first degree at the University of Nigeria, where she studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering. She then went to Warwick Business School in the UK, Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management in the United States. Before working at Facebook, she was the country manager in Nigeria and the Regional Sales Director for West Africa for Avanti Communications Group PLC. She also worked at Nokia and Ericsson.

Jane is an author of the bestseller, Be Fearless: Give Yourself Permission To Be You. She is passionate about encouraging and promoting girls in STEM and wants people to have a successful career. She does this through her book, talks, articles, videos, and her NGO, Women and Career. She has spoken at TEDx programs, the African Science Academy, Asheshi University in Ghana, and CFA’s Startups Hangout, to mention a few.

A quintessential extrovert and physical fitness proponent, Jane enjoys golf, cycling, and salsa. She also writes a regular telecoms column for Business and Financial Times Ghana. She and her husband, Egerton Idehen, have a son, Asher, and a daughter, Sarah, who inspire Jane to continue to push for diversity in male-dominated fields.”

Olu Akanmu is a seasoned commercial executive with over with him 20 years of corporate leadership experience. He has a wide range of expertise at high levels in consumer products, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services and technology. He is currently the President and Co-CEO of OPay. Before Opay, he worked as executive director, Retail Banking at FCMB. As Chief Marketing Officer at Airtel Nigeria where he was responsible for leading commercial strategy and achieving yearly revenue targets of more than USD 1.5 billion. Prior to working at Airtel, Akanmu operated as Managing Director for Retail and Consumer Banking at the now-defunct Bank PHB. He also worked in MTN Nigeria as General Manager, Consumer Marketing and was the chief architect of MTN’s amazing brand and consumer marketing strategy in Nigeria.

Akanmu has a diverse educational background within and outside Nigeria. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife with a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy. He also holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Lagos State University. He also studied at the University of Witwatersrand and Edinburgh Business School, earning a distinction in the Management Advancement Program and a post-graduate certificate in Business Research, respectively.

Ann C. Ukadike leads the People and Office Resources function at Terragon Group with business operations in Nigeria, India, Kenya and South Africa. In this role, she oversees the talent management initiatives, drives diversity and culture initiatives as well as capacity development. Prior to joining Terragon, Ann worked with Nestoil Limited where she led the Human Resources function for five Strategic Business Units. Before this, she was the Talent and Acquisition Manager for the Group. Ann worked in Banking Sector across two different banks. At Zenith, she worked in one of the Group’s Subsidiary, Zenith Pensions Custodian as a Custody Associate. She was involved in investment settlement for Financial Institutions on behalf of PFA/PFC. Ann also worked as a Management Consultant at PwC Nigeria and Deloitte West Africa at different times of her career where she provided advisory services to clients in the Financial Services, Consumer Market, Telecommunications and Oil & Gas Industries and Insurance.

Ann holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Benin, Edo State. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from University of Lagos. She is also a member of Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, a certified Professional in Human Resources International (PHRi) and certified Talent Development Manager from London School of Business & Finance.

Ugo is the Founder/ Chief Analyst at Nairametrics Financial Advocates, owners of Nairametrics.com. Ugo is a chartered accountant with over 18 years working experience covering Accounting, Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Corporate Strategy, Business development, Change Management, and Personal Finance. He is also a certified Investor Relations Practitioner and registered member of the UK IR Society. Ugo is a respected personal finance advocate, financial analyst and blogger and has written several articles including financial literacy, Nigerian stock market and the economy. He is one of the pioneers of personal finance advocacy in Nigeria and has created several personal finance and small business shows on radio, podcast, social media, and YouTube where is content is highly regarded. His content is widely used by several other excellent personal finance advocates, an achievement he is very proud of.

He is also a respected public speaker and participates in several financial and economic related events either as a guest speaker, panelist, or host. His insights and deep knowledge of the workings of the Nigerian economy is appreciated by dozens of founders of successful startups, boards, and management of financial institutions, quoted companies, multinationals, HNIs etc. where he is regularly invited to make presentations and commentary. His unique way of breaking down complex macro-economic policies, data and financial markets has made him a household name in the Nigerian economic space. As part of his goals of spreading financial literacy, investor advocacy and economic literacy, Ugodre continues to host several online and offline programs. His Everyday Money Matters on Lagos Talks, 91.3FM is the leading investment and personal finance show on the airwaves. He is also the lead anchor of Business Half-Hour, a weekly show targeted at giving founders of up-and-coming Nigerian Startups visibility and connection to millions of Lagosians commuting to work every Monday morning. Ugo is married with kids and loves to spend time with his family. In his free time, he likes to read, socialize, and listen to music over a bottle of premium whiskey.

Adesola Sotande-Peters is a seasoned finance executive with over two decades of experience leading global organisations including the BBC UK, Diageo, Unilever and Godrey in Nigeria and multinational markets. She is currently the Chief Financial Officer, Godrej Africa, USA & Middle East where she leads a diverse team of finance professionals. She was the first Nigerian and first female Vice President, Finance in the almost 100 years of Unilever Nigeria and Ghana where she oversaw the Controls and Governance agenda in Unilever Africa, providing strategic financial leadership. She was the Executive Board Director of Unilever Nigeria; Non-Executive Board Director of Unilever Ghana, LONADEK Nigeria, Sygen Pharmaceutical, among others. Adesola has a Business Administration and Economics degree from the American International University, London and an MBA for Finance Professionals from Manchester Business School; a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA). She is also an alumna of the IE Business School, Lagos Business School and INSEAD programmes.

She has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Great Place to Work Exceptional Female Leader Award 2019, CFO Awards – CFO of the Year (FMCG Category) 2017, and Unilever Finance Recognition Award 2016. She was an Advisory Board Member of Women on Boards (WIMBOARD) and Women in Manufacturing, Africa (WIMAFRICA) and was the Chairperson at Women Empowered for Leadership Advancement and Development (WELEAD).

Dr. Teddy Ngu was the Group Head of Corporate Development and Investment at Honeywell Group.

Before joining Honeywell, he served as a Director and Head of Strategy and Operations Consulting at the Lagos office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Prior to PWC, he was part of the Corporate Strategy and Development Group at Pepsico, New York. Previously, he was a Consultant with the New York Office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

He currently is an Executive Director with GB Foods, maker of Gino, Bama and Jago mayonnaise.