LEAP Africa Appoints New Board Members

LEAP Africa Appoints New Board Members

LEAP Africa, one of Nigeria’s foremost non-profit leadership development organisations has announced the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors.

Coming from diverse backgrounds and sectors, the new board members – Adesola Sotande-Peters, Micheline Ntiru and Amal Hassan – are expected to bring their years of experience and leadership to the work that LEAP Africa does across the continent.

In addition, a statement revealed that the organisation has created a seat on the Board that will be occupied by the President of the LEAP Africa Alumni Network (LAAN), and welcomed David Lanre Messan, the President of LAAN to the Board.

Sotande-Peters is a seasoned finance executive with over two decades of experience leading global organisations including the BBC UK, Diageo and Unilever, in multinational markets.

She is currently the first Nigerian and first female Vice President, Finance in the almost 100 years of Unilever Nigeria and Ghana.

She oversees the Controls and Governance agenda in Unilever Africa, providing strategic finance leadership. She is the Executive Board Director of Unilever Nigeria; Non-Executive Board Director of Unilever Ghana, LONADEK Nigeria, Sygen Pharmaceutical, among others.

She has a Business Administration and Economics degree from the American International University, London and an MBA for Finance Professionals from Manchester Business School; a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA). She is also an alumna of the IE Business School, Lagos Business School and INSEAD programmes.

Also, Ntiru is a business advisor at the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (Stanford Seed).

She has extensive working experience spanning two decades with private sector, international NGOs, and development finance leaders such as Care International, the International Finance Corporation, and Nokia.

Her roles have included leading and managing teams worldwide. She has also led policy development and programme design and evaluation in agribusiness, education, health, and youth empowerment.

She has an MBA from the University of Cambridge (UK), a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Public from Tufts University, Boston (USA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Mount Holyoke College (USA).

Similarly, Hassan is the founder and CEO of Outsource Global, Nigeria’s leading business process outsourcing giant, servicing countries in Africa, the United States, UK and Japan.

Her passion to unlock Nigeria’s developmental potentials through technology-driven innovation and value addition led her to build, capitalise and restructure a series of technology-related businesses that succeed in developing talents and creating employment for young Nigerians.

She has a first degree and a master’s degree in Business Administrations from Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. Over the years, she has participated in local and international business missions and attended various professional and leadership courses, conferences and seminars both locally and abroad. She is a partner in Bluetag Group, the holding company for Parkway Projects, HealthStation, Bluetag Technologies, Bluetag Synergy and Outsource Global. Amal’s

Messan is a multiple award-winning idea strategist, entrepreneur and investor with key interest in entrepreneurship and technology.

He is highly skilled in start-up development, brand strategy, disruptive strategy and fundraising.

He has developed over 250 thriving business ideas and raised over $7million investment for small businesses. His works have been recognized by the World Economic Forum, World Bank, Global Shapers Community, African Business Leadership Forum and European Research Council.

Commenting on the appointment, Executive Director, LEAP Africa, Femi Taiwo said: “We are pleased to welcome our new Board members. They are joining us at an opportune time in our history as we continue to drive our 5-year strategy plan from a more systems-level approach with focus on two big bets: making secondary education work for young people and raising talents for the actualisation of the SDGs.

“We believe their wealth of experience and working with other members of the Board will further enrich our work and position the organisation for the opportunities ahead”.

With over one million direct and indirect beneficiaries; footprints in about 26 states in Nigeria and 8 African countries, 11 published books, LEAP Africa is committed to its mission of raising leaders and empowering the youth agency across the continent to transform the Africa of our dreams.

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