Leading African philanthropy committed to empowering African entrepreneurs, Tony Elumelu Foundation, on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu as its chief executive officer from Monday, April 1, 2019.
Ugochukwu, who replaces Parminder Vir, was Director of Partnerships and Evaluation, at the foundation before her new role, is the third occupant of the position, but first African.
Appointment of the new CEO was earlier announced in December, following the transition of her predecessor to the Advisory board of the foundation.
Mrs. Ugochukwu is expected to 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, the foundation said in a statement.
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, Tony O. Elumelu, founder of TEF expressed confidence that the new CEO “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.”