LEAP Africa has announced the appointment of Mr. Udeme Ufot MFR, the Co-founder and Group Managing Director of MD, SO&U as its Board Chair.
Before his appointment as the Board Chair, Ufot had served as a non-executive director on the board since 2012. He succeeds Dr. Nadu Denloye, Director at CDNet Ltd/Gte, Former Director, TELNET who served as the board Chair for two years.
Ufot holds a BA in Industrial Design from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Certificate in Management from Swedish Institute of Management and Chief Executive Programme from Lagos Business School (LBS).
He worked in Insight Communications from 1984 to 1989 where he left as Deputy Creative Director (Art) to join CASERS in 1989 as Creative Director.  He co-founded SO&U Group in 1990, one of Nigeria’s leading marketing communications groups with a strong reputation for professionalism and creativity. At SO&U, Udeme contributes to policy formulation and management. He is a member of the Leadership team of M&C Saatchi Africa.
In addition, Ufot has held several executive positions in the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN) including Vice President and President in 1997 and 1999 respectively. He serves as Board Member on Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Nigeria’s leading public/private sector economic think tank where he chairs the board communications & media subcommittee. He was a member of the Pioneer Advisory Board of School of Media & Communication, Pan African University (now Pan-Atlantic University).
He is a past President of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association, Chairman of the 6th Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), as well as member of the board of Special Olympics Nigeria.
In recognition of his services to the nation in the Corporate Sector, he was awarded Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in 2014,  by the federal government .
LEAP Africa also announced two non-executive directors who joined the non-profit organisation’s Board in 2017. They are Mr. Seyi Bickersteth, Former National Chairman, KPMG Africa and Mr. Chike Maduegbuna CEO, Afrinolly Ltd.
Bickersteth is an Economist (with Bachelor and Master’s Degree from University of Ibadan and York University in Toronto, Canada respectively) and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He was the Managing Partner of KPMG Professional Services (Formerly Arthur Andersen). He was also Chairman of KPMG Africa and a member of the Global Board of KPMG from January 2015 to September 2016.
On the other hand, Maduegbuna is a consummate entrepreneur and the CEO of Afrinolly Limited: a mobile app that enables African movie enthusiasts to watch movies and music videos mobile devices. The app won Google’s Android Developers Challenge for Sub-Saharan Africa in
Also, he is the founder of FansConnectOnline (FCO) Limited: a Mobile Application,
Digital Marketing and Social Media start-up. The company built one of the largest football-based social networking website in Nigeria and also developed a geo-location application that won Samsung Mobile Application Developers contest in 2010.
In addition, the organisation celebrated the exit of Mr. Folu Ayeni, Vice Chairman from the Board of Directors who served full tenure since his re-appointment as a member of the board in 2014. The appointments of these new directors will deepen the impact of LEAP Africa’s work across Nigeria through their vast experiences, creativity and vision for social development in Nigeria and Africa.
