Mrs Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, former Director of Partnerships and Evaluation, Tony Elumelu Foundation has become the new CEO of the Foundation.

The Foundation announced today in a statement made available to Technology Times that Mrs. Ugochukwu, its third CEO is the first African to assume the role starting from April 1, this year.

The Foundation says that in December 2018 announced Mrs. Ugochukwu’s new appointment as CEO and the transition of her predecessor, Parminder Vir, OBE to the Advisory Board of the Foundation.

In her role, Mrs. Ugochukwu “will focus on scaling the impact of the 10-year $100million Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme and strengthening relationships between the African and the global entrepreneurship ecosystem, to empower African entrepreneurs with the result of creating jobs and wealth on the continent.”  

She will also take responsibility for positioning TEFConnect – the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs – as the go-to hub for forging business relationships, sharing experiences and distributing knowledge across Africa, according to the Foundation.

She will also take responsibility for positioning TEFConnect – the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs – as the go-to hub for forging business relationships, sharing experiences and distributing knowledge across Africa, according to the Foundation.

Mrs. Ugochukwu brings almost two decades of corporate experience, including her most recent role as the Director of Partnerships and Evaluation, to her new position.  She is a proven leader with business vision, emotional intelligence and the ability to bring people together. Her ability to shape how the Foundation should position, partner and engage with the wider, development ecosystem is what the Foundation needs as it enters its next stage of scale, expanded impact, monitoring and evaluation, and intelligent mining of its proprietary data on African entrepreneurship, according to the statement.

Speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation adds that “we are confident that Ifeyinwa is the right person to launch the Foundation into its new growth phase. Her appointment as CEO strengthens our resolve to scale the impact of our commitment and unlock opportunities in the entrepreneurship ecosystem across the continent. I have always said that no one but us will develop the African continent, and this is a further demonstration of this resolve.”