Vinayak Mahbubani joined The Afara Initiative in July 2021 as Chief of Staff. Having built his career in investment banking, he joins our team to drive and support key strategic initiatives, including a specific focus on our for-profit endeavours around funding transitions and investing in ventures that accelerate our work.
At Deutsche Bank, he was part of the Europe Prime Finance desk responsible for carrying out risk and pricing analysis for hedge fund clients. More recently, he worked with DC Advisory India, advising clients on fundraising and M&A transactions in the Technology (Education, Logistics, Marketplace) and Industrials group.
Vinayak holds an M.Sc in Economics and a minor in Mathematics, and he has successfully passed all three levels of the CFA examinations. He served as President for AIESEC in IIT Kharagpur (India) in 2016 and has served in a consulting capacity to various non-profits across India.
Akintunde Oyebode is an economist and finance professional, with experience across strategy, investment banking, investor relations, research and retail banking.
He was the pioneer Head of SME Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank, where he led the team that built the Bank’s SME portfolio to a client base of over 120,000 and a loan book of over $100 million.
In January 2016, he was appointed as the Executive Secretary and CEO of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund with a mandate to deliver a set of programmes to support job creation in Lagos State. In this role, he has managed an MSME Loan Programme that supported 10,000 small businesses with loans totalling $25 million; the largest technical and vocational training programme in the State, which trained over 3,000 unemployed residents and successfully placed 1,500 of them in jobs; and implemented Lagos Innovates, a programme that has supported over 100 start-ups in Lagos, and seeks to develop a deep talent pool to make Lagos the technology capital of Africa. By February 2019, LSETF was credited with creating over 90,000 jobs, and enrolling over 40,000 new taxpayers in Lagos State, through its interventions.
Akintunde voluntarily left his role at the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund in March 2019, to take up a role as Special Adviser: Investment, Trade and Innovation with the Ekiti State Government. In this role, he led the State Government’s investment promotion drive by setting up the Ekiti State Development and Investment Promotion Agency, while attracting investments of over $100 million within 18 months. In September 2020, he was appointed Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, the role he currently holds.
Wadzi is a sustainable finance specialist with over a decade of experience in private equity, government and international development. She is a strategic problem solver and engaged thought partner for leaders and organisations considering their next steps in sustainable development, accessing finance and expanding into new markets. Wadzi is the founder and Managing Director at Taumba Advisory a strategy consultancy advising businesses, governments and special interest groups on growth and investment aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Taumba has team members based in Australia, Kenya, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Prior to founding Taumba, Wadzi was a Vice President at Greenoaks, a London based emerging markets private equity firm specialised in insurance and fintech. The Greenoaks portfolio included companies in Africa, Asia and North America. Here, she led post-merger integration of operations across all portfolio companies including alignment of strategy, executive compensation, performance targets, learning and development, and operating systems. She also supported deal sourcing and diligence for potential investments in new geographies and sectors.
She was previously a Director at African Leadership Academy, a leading education social enterprise that has mobilised over USD100 million in capital. At the Academy she led Marketing, Sales and Human Capital and was responsible for driving the earned revenue engine for the organisation in its key markets across Africa and major cities in the United States, Europe and China.
Wadzi began her career as a credit officer at BankWest (now a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank). She has previously worked at as a consultant at Bain and Company and as a policy officer in the Western Australian Treasury. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and undergraduate degrees in Commerce (with honours in Finance) and Science from the University of Western Australia.
Gbemi Disu is the Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University Africa. In her role, she engages closely with the Government of Rwanda, the MasterCard Foundation and other local, regional and global partners. Within CMU, Disu provides administrative, strategic, and operational leadership to drive the institution’s vision of educating the next generation of African technology leaders and supporting the acceleration of inclusive digital transformation of Africa.
A global citizen, Disu has 15 years of experience in higher education, financial services, and energy sectors in several countries across 4 continents. Prior to joining CMU-Africa, she served as the chief business officer at George Mason University Korea, where she was responsible for campus administrative, external relations, financial, and operations management and played a key role in achieving strategic growth and financial sustainability for the campus. At George Mason University, Disu held several leadership positions including Special Assistant to the President, Executive Director for Global Strategy and was also a faculty member in the Business School.
Disu’s global career includes working for fortune 500 companies such as HSBC Bank and Chevron Texaco. She is multilingual and has lived, worked and travelled to over 100 countries. Her eclectic background also includes organizing high level symposiums and events for notable global leaders such as President Joe Biden, H.E. Aisha Buhari, U.N. DSG Amina Mohammed, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Justice Sandra Day O’ Connor, Condoleeza Rice, President Mikhail Gorbachev, the World Economic Forum to name a few.
Disu is a passionate advocate of global prosperity and gender equality and actively participates in programs that improve the plight of women and children as well as support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She has served as a mentor for participants in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women initiative and also is one of the founding members of the University Global Coalition which aims to increase the awareness and role of higher education institutions on the SDGs. Disu founded the award winning CSR program ThunderCares, sits on several non-profit boards and is actively mentors many at risk youths and women. She is also a speaker and presenter at conferences and publishes articles on education and gender related issues globally.
Disu received her Bachelor of Science in economics and international business from W.P. Carey School of Business and the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. She received her MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, where she was the recipient of the Barton Kyle Yount Outstanding Graduate Award. Disu also holds executive certificates from Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School and Oxford Said Business School and is a Crans Montana New Leaders for Tomorrow Fellow.
Eniola Mafe, is a strategist and international development leader to accelerate Africa’s transformation and inclusive growth agenda. Eniola is the Co-Founder of #TheNewNigerian, an online community born out of #Endsars movement, now with a community of over 26,000 to reimagine, redefine and shape a New Nigerian future.
Eniola currently leads the growth and development of 2030 Vision Initiative, focused on harnessing 4IR technologies to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals within the next decade. In partnership with UNDP, Arm and more than 20 top technology companies, this platform provides a focal point to mobilize more concerted and cooperative efforts by technology companies, government, civil society and international organization. In addition, Eniola leads the Forum’s engagement in Digital Earth Africa focused on leveraging earth observation to inform policy and decision making and address key challenges. Eniola has also guided the adaptation of the global Internet for All methodology across multiple countries, helping government to align these country-level projects with their national development plans.
Prior to the Forum, Eniola led a $90 million corporate social enterprise for Chevron in Nigeria, served as a Technical advisor on Social Investment for the Government of Nigeria, and program manager on Africa at Vital Voices Global Partnership. In 2018 Eniola was named one of OkayAfrica 100 Women in Africa in 2018. She holds a M.A. from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. and a B.A from Spelman College (Phi Beta Kappa).
Obinna Ukwuani joined the bank as Chief Digital Officer in June 2020. As CDO he is responsible for leading the Digital Factory bank division as a center of excellence for tech product development in digital banking. He brings intuition for and relevant experience in product development, an entrepreneur’s business acumen, and a passion for customer experience into the role.
Obinna has seven years of experience leading entrepreneurial ventures spanning the areas of software, agricultural processing, and education. During these years he has directly created economic opportunity for hundreds of people, and has often implemented projects in challenging environments. A few of his companies continue to operate today, and, over the years, the initiatives have been recognised by international press and forums.
Before joining Bank of Kigali, Obinna worked with Paystack, one of Africa’s foremost payment technology startups, in the areas of business operations and product management.
Before leaving the United States, where he was born and raised, Obinna earned a degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Adejoke is the co-founder of the Bridge Program (the flagship program of The Afara Initiative) and lead creative at BDS.
Adejoke is passionate about national and international development and currently leads an indigenous brand challenging the reliance on imported products and creating superior products that can compete in international markets. She is an astute commercial lawyer and general counsel, with two decades of broad-based and cross-geographical experience. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, leading the management and delivery of legal services across multiple projects and companies in West Africa.
Adejoke holds an LLB from the University of Warwick, an LLM in International Business Law from the London School of Economics and is admitted to the Nigerian Bar.
Elom is excited about Afara’s mission to enable and support Nigeria’s youth to achieve their full potential. In his day-job Elom manages early-stage fintech investments in Africa with IFC. Before IFC Elom worked on projects in the K-12 and tertiary education sector across Africa for over 2 years, and previously was in the investment banking / private equity industries focusing on Africa for over 10 years.
Elom has a BSc in Economics from University College London and an MBA from Instead. Elom has mentored /supported several young students both in the UK and in Ghana including via SEO London and informal networks.
Leslie is an entrepreneurial marketing leader that has spent over 18 years building some of the most successful and relevant brands. Innovation and Creativity have been at the forefront of his approach coupled with a relentless commitment to staying connected to youth culture. His experience leading marketing teams has spanned three countries and nearly 10 years giving him a very diverse perspective on brands and consumers. He has embraced both the art and science of marketing and will continue to solve complex problems with simple strategic solutions.
Leslie was part of the Nike brand marketing organization for over 10 years, most recently serving as the Senior Marketing Director for Nike By You. In his previous roles as Senior Marketing Director for Nike Mexico and Nike Africa Marketing Director, he led the teams that created all the Nike marketing initiatives across those regions.
Before joining Nike Africa, Les held the position of Global Brand Director for Nike Sportswear, where he helped lead all the marketing efforts around the overall reset of the apparel business fueling the now long-standing global athleisure trend. In 2012, Les was part of the London Olympics brand team, tasked with leading the efforts of the overall Nike brand during this global sport moment.
Before Nike Les had a short stint at Wieden + Kennedy as a Strategic Planner helping to develop large-scale brand campaigns for various brands including Nike. Les holds a Master’s Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University´s Brandcenter and before attending graduate school worked as a brand manager for the non-profit tobacco prevention brand, truth.
Chris brings a hybrid background in business and education to his work designing and building institutions of excellence. Chris previously worked in brand management at The Procter and Gamble Company and as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He has also consulted to the Broad Foundation, one of the leading educational foundations in the United States, and taught economics and physics at Oundle School, one of the leading coeducational boarding schools in England. At Oundle, Chris developed a keen interest in the design of educational institutions, and in the potential for educational institutions to shape societies.
As a graduate student at Stanford University, Chris and colleague Fred Swaniker began to build African Leadership Academy, a pan-African institution that sought to address what they saw as the most important factor in Africa’s future development: the supply of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders across the continent. This work was validated in 2006, when Chris and Fred were named Echoing Green Fellows as two of the “leading emerging social entrepreneurs in the world” – selected from over 900 organizations worldwide.
Chris led the design of African Leadership Academy’s innovative curriculum, which merges rigorous academics with powerful courses in Entrepreneurial Leadership and African Studies. He also shaped the Academy’s admissions process, which has selected outstanding young leaders from numerous applicants in countries across Africa since 2008. With its unique focus and pan-African reach, the Academy is unlike any other school in the world.
Chris holds a BA degree summa cum laude in Economics from Yale University and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University. At Yale, Chris won the Delaney Kiphuth Scholar-Athlete Award as the graduating varsity athlete ranking highest in scholarship. At Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, he was named a Siebel Scholar, a distinction given to five students for academic excellence and extracurricular leadership. In 2011, he won the inaugural Siebel Scholars Impact Award for his work developing African Leadership Academy.
Dr Adetunji Adegbesan is the Founder & CEO of Gidi Mobile, creators of gidimo, the developing world’s leading personal mastery & learning-for-livelihoods platform (www.gidimo.com).
Tunji has a First Class Honours degree in Electronic Engineering, and a PhD in Strategic Management from the IESE Business School. He is globally respected as one of Africa’s top scholars of competitive strategy, as well as one of her leading experts on the mobile telecommunications industry. A recipient of multiple awards, he has been invited to speak at knowledge events in more than 20 countries across four continents.
Prior to founding Gidi Mobile, he was Director of the Centre for Competitiveness & Strategy at the Lagos Business School (LBS), where he was responsible for all the School’s teaching in the areas of Competitive Strategy & Innovation. During his 14 years at LBS, his consulting experience spanned the software, telecommunications, banking, oil and gas, identity management and electronic payments sectors; while prior to LBS, his work experience spanned software development, consulting, information systems management, and electrical engineering, in both manufacturing and service sectors.
Tunji is a startup mentor for the Google for Startups Accelerator, as well as for the Founder Institute. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Businessday Newspapers, a member of the Advisory Board of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre, and a peer reviewer for several of the world’s top strategy research journals.
He is a past member of the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Review, (the world’s leading conceptual journal in the field of strategic management), and of the Executive Committee of the Strategy Division of the global Academy of Management, as well as a past Global Representative for Africa of the Division. He has been a Representative-at-Large for the Competitive Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society, and a member of the Research and Strategic Planning Committee of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is also a former Visiting Scholar & Associate Researcher at the Center for Globalisation and Strategy at the IESE Business School in Barcelona.
An amateur historian, philosopher, and student of culture and geo-politics, Tunji has native fluency in English and Spanish, and basic literacy in French, Yoruba and Catalan.
