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Board and Management

Board Of Directors

The organisation is guided by a robust governance structure comprising our board of directors, an advisory council and the management team

Managing Director, PHI Century Ltd. Founder, Legacy Girls College

Essie Anno Sackey
International Motivational Speaker

Albert Ocran
Practicing Clinical Psychologist, Cognitive Behaviour Specialist

Angela Lamensdorf Ofori-Atta

Managing Director, PHI Century Ltd. Founder, Legacy Girls College

Essie Anno Sackey

Essie is the Managing Director of PHI Century Ltd, a joint venture between PHI Aviation. and Century Aviation Company Ltd to provide helicopter support services to the Oil and Gas as well as Mining industry in West Africa. She is a Director and shareholder in Century Aviation. As well as managing PHI Century, she also manages RS Travel & Logistics set up in 2009. Essie is proud to be a co-founder of Legacy Girls College, the first private girls senior secondary boarding school in Ghana. The school opened its doors to the first girls in September 2015 and currently has over 400 students.

Essie formerly worked as Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company from 2007 to 2009. Before then, she worked with British Airways as a Sales Specialist, rose to become Sales and Distribution Manager, and was the first Ghanaian to be appointed as Country Manager; a position she held until 2007.

She obtained a BA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Ghana and an MBA from the Graduate School of Management, Brigham Young University, Utah, USA.

Leadership Venture
ISSUE AREA: Education
LOCATION: Accra, Ghana
STATUS: Active

 

International Motivational Speaker

Albert Ocran

Albert Ocran is an international motivational speaker, author and minister with a passion for challenging people to reach their full potential and live out their God-given dreams. He serves as Executive Pastor at ICGC Christ Temple. He is the Co-Founder of Combert Impressions and Lead Consultant and Chairman of Legacy & Legacy, a human capital development firm.

Albert has a diverse range of media education platforms including Springboard, the Virtual University, which airs weekly on Joy FM and daily to millions on radio networks across Ghana. Together with his wife, Comfort, he has authored 20 bestselling books. The couple travel extensively every year with the Springboard Road Show, a series of personal development conferences that reaches across Ghana and into Africa.

Rev. Albert Ocran has won a number of notable awards including being voted as Ghana’s 7th Most Respected CEO for 2009. He also received the “Millennium Excellence Award 2010” for his Inspirational and Motivational Work.

 

 

Practicing Clinical Psychologist, Cognitive Behaviour Specialist

Angela Lamensdorf Ofori-Atta

Prof. Angela Ofori-Atta is a practicing clinical psychologist, a cognitive behavior specialist, an academic and researcher. She heads the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ghana Medical School and is the Chairperson of the Ghana Psychology Council. She founded and directs the Psych Corps, an NGO which delivers psychological first aid. She is an accomplished author of several research articles and a book on Trends in Mental Health Research in Ghana. She researches mental health and faith healing camps and is part of the Escaping Poverty Randomized Control Trial where her cognitive behavioural intervention is being tested against conventional economic interventions. She serves on the boards of The Enterprise Group and Databank.

 

Director, Former Chairman, The Development Initiative of West Africa (DIWA)

Bashir Mundi
Co-Founder, Teach for Nigeria

Olanike K. Akerele-De Souza
Head, Corporate Development - African Capital Alliance

Uwa Osa-Oboh

Director, Former Chairman, The Development Initiative of West Africa (DIWA)

Bashir Mundi

Bashir Mundi is a Director, and former Chairman, of the Development Initiative of West Africa (DIWA), and a Director of Inspire Academy, Abuja. He has served as Assistant Director of the Da’wah Institute of Nigeria, Imam for the Al-Huda Islamic Center, Athens, Georgia, Director of Education and Training for the Institute of Islamic Information and Education, Chicago, and Director of External Relations and Training for the International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education, Abuja.

Bashir has made several presentations at interfaith conferences, universities, mosques, and churches, and conducted training seminars on Islam and Dialogue for Peaceful coexistence, Personal Development, and Leadership in the USA, Malaysia, Bahrain, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria. Bashir has hosted the program, “Your American Muslim Neighbor” on Chicago’s CAN-TV, anchored the “Interfaith Forum” on the African Independent Television, and presented the 30-part series, “Qur’anic Reflections: A Synoptic Commentary on the Muslim Sacred Scripture” on the Nigerian Television Authority.

Bashir holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria, and currently pursues a graduate degree in Religion at the University of Georgia, where he is also an Instructor of Record.

 

 

Co-Founder, Teach for Nigeria

Olanike K. Akerele-De Souza

Olanike K. Akerele-De Souza is a global Executive with more than thirty years combined experience in varied industries including the consulting and not for profit (NGO) sectors in the United States, Nigeria and Ghana, Nike possesses expertise in external & internal auditing, compliance, risk management, accounting, financial consulting, human capital development, as well as program design and management. She is also the Co-founder of “Teach for Nigeria” and currently sits on the Board where she provides strategic direction.

Nike is also a member of various human capital related committees in Nigeria. She is passionate about issues concerning equity, access and quality of education, skills development, youth employment and the role of private sector/non state actors in education across the African continent.

 

 

 

 

Head, Corporate Development - African Capital Alliance

Uwa Osa-Oboh

Uwa is currently the Head, Corporate Development at Capital Alliance Nigeria, a member of the African Capital Alliance group.

Prior to joining the ACA group in 2013, she had worked for close to seventeen years with ReStraL Limited, a management consulting firm delivering strategy and organisational development solutions, including managing the Franklin Covey franchise for the West African region. She served as CEO of the firm, from 2004 to 2012.

Uwa is a Lawyer by qualification and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1988, receiving both her B.L. and the honour of graduating as the best law student that year. The following year, she won a NYSC State Honour for her work as Chair of the Legal Aid Council Benue State. She holds an MBA qualification from her AlmaMata, the University of Benin, Nigeria and also holds a post graduate diploma in Economics from the University of London.

 

 

Executive Director

Ayo Maji

Executive Director

Ayo Maji

Ayo has responsibility for the overall implementation of the organisation’s strategy, as well as day to day management of the country secretariats in Lagos and Accra. Prior to joining the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa, Ayo handled Business Development and Commercial Operations first in the Vigeo Group and subsequently with EIIS Ltd, as an Executive Director on the companies’ Boards respectively. She is an alumna of the University of Lagos, as well as the Lagos Business School’s Senior Management Programme (SMP) and Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme (AMP).

 

 

Advisory Council

To further strengthen governance and support the Board of Directors, ALIWA has an Advisory Council consisting of 7 members, including the Founder Ken Ofori-Atta, a seasoned investment banker and current Finance Minister of Ghana, and six (6) others which are made up of three (3) members each from Ghana and Nigeria.

The Advisory Council provides moral and material support to the Board and Fellows, in pursuit of the organisation’s strategic goals and objectives through exemplary mentorship, guidance and commitment to the ALIWA vision.

The Advisory Council provides support to the Board of Directors. It comprises highly esteemed leaders of good standing, experience and insight drawn from Ghana and Nigeria.

Ghana

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta
Nigeria

Mrs. Amina Oyagbola
Nigeria

Ambassador Chris Okeke

Ghana

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta

Ken Ofori-Atta, assumed office as Ghana’s Finance Minister on January 27, 2017. He brings to the Ministry over 30 years’ experience in Ghanaian and international financial sector.
He was a Co-Founder and former Chairman of the Databank Group (an investment banking firm) in Ghana. He was the Executive Chairman from 1990 until his retirement on February 14, 2012.
Prior to co-founding Databank in 1990, the Hon Minister was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in New York. He has other business interests in Insurance, Retail Banking, Private Equity, Micro finance, Pharmaceuticals and Real Estate.

Hon. Ofori-Atta was the first African to be honoured as a Donaldson Fellow at Yale University in 2010, a John Jay Fellow at Columbia University in 2011 and also a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is a Co-Founder of the Aspen African Leadership Initiative.

He was also the first African to testify at the US Congress Ways and Means Committee to support the AGOA law. He was twice honoured by PriceWaterHouse Ghana as one of the Top 5 Most Respected CEOs in Ghana.
He went to Achimota School in Accra, Ghana; received a BA in Economics from Columbia University in New York and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
He is married with four children.

 

 

Nigeria

Mrs. Amina Oyagbola

Amina Oyagbola is a Corporate Director and former Human Resources and Corporate Services Executive at MTN Nigeria Communications Limited. She is the Managing Consultant of AKMS Consulting (Business Advisory and management Consultants), a partner in Oyagbola Chambers and founder of WISCAR (Women in Successful Careers).

With over 35 years’ experience, her career spans strategic HR management, legal consulting, governance and ethics, leadership development,  banking and finance, oil and gas and telecommunications in notable organisations like UBA, Shell Petroleum Development Company and MTN Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading telecommunications provider in Africa.

During her 12-year tenure as a member of MTN Nigeria’s leadership team, she contributed notably to the company’s extraordinary growth and development. She was pioneer Director of the MTN Foundation where she led a strategic transformation in the HR Function to improve business performance as HR Executive, with the company becoming the 1st company in Nigeria to be accredited with the International Investors in People Gold Standard in May 2015 and winning several other awards.

She has received a host of Awards including; ALTON Award, 2019 HR People Magazine: HR Person of the Year Award 2015 and Life time Achievement Award 2019, British Chevening Scholarship Award 2000, Chief FRA Williams- Life time Achievement Award, 2015 Numerous CSR Awards for work done as pioneer director of the MTN Foundation. She sits on the board of prestigious organisations e.g. ALIWA, WISCAR, Afrobarometer and Chevening Association of Nigeria.

She is a Fellow and Chair of The Africa Leadership Initiative – West Africa Class, A Member of the Nigerian Bar association, Member International Bar Association, Member CIPM and Chartered Fellow, CIPD UK. She is a Fellow and member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Directors, a Certified Ethics Officer, Chair, IoD Ethics Committee and former Vice Chair of the IoD Women Directors Development Committee.

 

 

 

 

Nigeria

Ambassador Chris Okeke

Dr. Christopher Nonyelum Okeke is Nigeria’s ambassador to Brazil. Dr. Okeke was Founding Partner at Ajumogobia & Okeke. In this position he was responsible for general corporate, commercial, oil and gas law and the project financing and privatization group. He also managed banking and financial matters at Ajumogobia & Okeke. Dr. Okeke has served as Honorary Legal Adviser to the British High Commissioner in Nigeria since 1988.

He was a non-executive director of Nigerian Starch Mills Limited, Asset & Resource Management Holding Company (ARM) Limited and Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, amongst other public and private companies. Dr. Okeke has also served as a director of Cadbury Nigeria Plc. since July 19, 2003. He is a board member of the Nigerian Bar Association (since 1980), the International Bar Association, American Bar Association and the American Society of International Law.

 

 

Ghana

Prof. Stephen Adei
Ghana

Dr. Mrs. Joyce Aryee
Ghana

Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah

Ghana

Prof. Stephen Adei

Stephen Adei (born 14 December 1948) is a Ghanaian educationist, writer, economist and motivational speaker. He was a former Director General and Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He has contributed to several institutions at the Board level including chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority,and Chairman of Accra College of Medicine.

He is Professor Emeritus at Ashesi University having served as a Professor, and Dean of Business, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Prior to that he had a distinguished career spanning 27 years with Capital Investment Board of Ghana (now GIPC), Commonwealth Secretariat in London and the United Nations Devrlopment Programme.

Stephen Adei (born 14 December 1948) is a Ghanaian educationist, writer, economist and motivational speaker. He was a former Director General and Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He has contributed to several institutions at the Board level including chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority,and Chairman of Accra College of Medicine.

He is Professor Emeritus at Ashesi University having served as a Professor, and Dean of Business, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Prior to that he had a distinguished career spanning 27 years with Capital Investment Board of Ghana (now GIPC), Commonwealth Secretariat in London and the United Nations Devrlopment Programme.

 

Ghana

Dr. Mrs. Joyce Aryee

Rev. Dr. Joyce Rosalind Aryee is the Founder and Executive Director of Salt & Light Ministries, a Christian para-church organisation that motivates and encourages Christians to be the best that God has created them to be.

A Management & Communication Consultant, she serves on the boards of diverse organisations including College of Education – University of Ghana, The Roman Ridge School, DataBank ArkFund, Chirano Gold Mines Limited, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited and Newmont Golden Ridge Limited, Global Media Alliance. She is the former President of Bible Society Ghana and the Pro – Chancellor of Central University to mention a few. Rev. Dr. Aryee is also a Senior Mentor of Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), and the Moremi Initiative for Women in Leadership for African Development (MILEAD), both mentorship institutions for young Africans. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, Fellow-Ghana Institute of Management, and an Honorary Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Engineers.

In recognition of her immense contributions to the growth of the mining industry, the University of Mines & Technology (UMaT) conferred a Doctor of Letters degree (Honoris Causa) on Ms. Aryee in July 2009. She has also received many prestigious awards including Ghana’s second highest national award, the Companion of the Order of the Volta in 2006, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana’s (CIMG) “Marketing Woman of the Year” for 2007 and the African Leadership on Centre for Economic Development’s “African Female Business Leader of the Year” for 2009. She received the Inspirational Woman Award at the Ghana UK Based Achievement (GUBA) Awards 2015 for creating change, paving the way for women as well as being the first female to head an African Chamber of Mines and was named the Public Relations Personality of the Year 2014. Dr. Aryee was adjudged 9th out of 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining 2016.

Rev. Dr. Joyce Rosalind Aryee is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines where she served for ten years. She is also the first woman to head an African Chamber of Mines. Rev. Dr. Aryee has dedicated well over forty years service to the public and private sectors in Ghana.

She is the Executive Chairman of Harmonious Chorale and an avid promoter of Ghanaian sacred classical and choral compositions. She is a member of the Beach Chapter of Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship International and a preacher and teacher of the word of God.

 

 

Ghana

Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah

Ivan Addae-Mensah: PhD FGA COV. Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana. After his retirement as Vice Chancellor he returned to the classroom to continue to teach and do research and extension work.

Educated at Achimota School (1956-1962) the University of Ghana Legon, (1962-67) and Churchill College, Cambridge University, U.K.(1967-1970) He has worked and done research in universities in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Germany (Institute of Pharmacy and Food Chemistry University of Erlangen) where he was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a Chartered Chemist, Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (was Vice President for the Sciences for four years), and Fellow of the Ghana Chemical Society.

Professor Addae-Mensah has served on several national and international Boards and Committees. He was the first Board Chairman of the National Petroleum Tender Board/National Petroleum Authority, (2003-2009), the first Chairman of the Petroleum Commission (2011-2017). Prior to this appointment he was a member and Vice Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee. He was the Chairman of the Volta River Authority from 1980 to 1982, the youngest ever to hold that position. At age 30, he became the youngest ever Board Member of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. He served two terms as a member of the National Council for Tertiary Education, and the Council of the University of Mines and Technology Tarkwa.

He has carried out several expert assignments for the World Health Organization (HQ, TDR and Afro Region), UNESCO, UNFPA, the European Union (EU), the Ghana Statistical Services, The National Development Planning Commission of which he was a Commissioner for two terms, and several other national and international organisations. For over 30 years, he was a member of the WHO Expert Committee on the International Pharmacopoeia and Pharmaceutical Preparations and Quality Assurance of Medicines and chaired meetings of the Committee on a number of occasions. Served as a member of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee of the WHO/TDR/EU- funded malaria drug development initiative and the TDR-ANDI Drug and Diagnostics Development Initiative. He served for ten years as a member of the WHO-AFRO African Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development (AACHRD) whose meetings he sometimes chaired.
Emeritus Professor Addae-Mensah is a strong advocate for the underprivileged and gender equity in education and social mobility. Member, Education Committee of Achimota School Board (2017 to-date) and current Chairman of the Achimota School Endowment Fund.

He has received several honours and awards including honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Ghana (DSc), New York University (HLD) and Soka University, Japan (Highest Honour). He was awarded the State Honour of Companion of the Order of the Volta (COV) by the State of Ghana in 2006 for his contribution to education and public service.

 

 

Nigeria

Mr. Tunde Folawiyo

Nigeria

Mr. Tunde Folawiyo

Tunde Folawiyo is Chairman of the Yinka Folawiyo Group, an organisation with interests in energy, agriculture, shipping, and real estate. A conglomerate that was founded by his father, Wahab Folawiyo, Tunde took over the organisation in 2008 when his father passed. He also serves as Director of MTN Nigeria Ltd, Executive Director of Yinka Folawiyo Group of Companies.[1] Tunde also founded Folawiyo Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of the Yinka Folawiyo Group of Companies.
Tunde was previously a non-executive director of Access Bank plc (formerly Access Bank Nigeria) from 11 October 2005 to January 29, 2014. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985, where he started his law practice in Nigeria with the firm Ogunsanya, but resigned from law in 1989.Since 1996, Tunde has also served as the Vice President of Nigeria Association of Indigenous Petroleum Explorers & Productions (NAIPEC). He is currently the Chairman of Enyo Retail, A Nigerian downstream Oil and Gas Company, and Chairman of Coronation Merchant Bank; an investment banking firm in Nigeria.

 

 

 

The Secretariat

The organisation’s operations are overseen by the Executive Director, supported by a Senior Program Manager in Ghana and a Program Manager in Nigeria, respectively.

Executive Director

Ayo Maji
Program Manager

Pebbles Parkes
Program Manager

Opeyemi Michael Jacob
Programs & Communications Coordinator

Francisca Ofoliwah Sabbah

Executive Director

Ayo Maji

Ayo has responsibility for the overall implementation of the organisation’s strategy, as well as day to day management of the country secretariats in Lagos and Accra. Prior to joining the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa, Ayo handled Business Development and Commercial Operations first in the Vigeo Group and subsequently with EIIS Ltd, as an Executive Director on the companies’ Boards respectively. She is an alumna of the University of Lagos, as well as the Lagos Business School’s Senior Management Programme (SMP) and Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme (AMP).

 

 

Program Manager

Pebbles Parkes

 

 

 

Program Manager

Opeyemi Michael Jacob

Programs & Communications Coordinator

Francisca Ofoliwah Sabbah