Meet Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, The New CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has appointed Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). She replaces retiring CEO, Parminder Vir who has been elevated to the Foundation’s Advisory Board.

Prior to this new appointment, Ifeyinwa was the foundation’s Director of Partnerships and Evaluation (since November 2017). Under her leadership, TEF secured major partnerships that scaled the impact of the Foundation beyond its targeted 10,000 entrepreneurs.

Upon her resumption in April 2019, she will lead the team in scaling the impact of the $100m TEF Entrepreneurship Programme across Africa and expectedly lead the Foundation into its next phase of growth.

A Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Ifeyinwa holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Wales. She is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and holds a post graduate degree in Business and Executive Coaching from the Integral Africa Institute, Cape Town, South Africa.

She is no novice to company scaling as she had co-founded Sleek Nigeria, a cosmetics company, and was its Managing Director until 2014. She transformed the business into a top company with an annual turnover of N400million within its first three years of operation.

She had also practiced law in 2000 before moving on to becoming the company secretary at Romi Oil and Gas Ltd in 2003. Before joining the TEF in 2017, she had served as a management consultant for the Enterprise Development Centre at the Pan-Atlantic University and a member of the Board of Women Empowerment and Children Relief in Africa.

Speaking on her appointment, Ifeyinwa said, “in my former role within the Foundation, I witnessed first-hand the potential of entrepreneurship in tackling Africa’s key challenges – unemployment and poverty. I am honoured by the opportunity to build on Parminder’s legacy and launch the Tony Elumelu Foundation into its next phase of growth.”