Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, former Director of Partnerships and Evaluation, Tony Elumelu Foundation, assumed her new role as the Foundation’s CEO on April 1. She has thus become the third CEO and the first African to occupy the position.

In December 2018, the Foundation, the leading African philanthropy committed to empowering African entrepreneurs, announced Mrs. Ugochukwu’s 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 $100 million 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.

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.

Speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees, TEF Founder Tony O. Elumelu, CON, said: “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.”

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