It’s judgment day…

The Judges already made their decisions before we went to print, but the 7 Wonder Women Awards Winners will be revealed at tonight’s gala taking place at Federal Palace Hotel. Hosted by Investing In Women and powered by The Guardian

Our judges were carefully approved by The Guardian and the research committee of US-based Impeccable Collaboration for having expertise in the 7 awards categories, with every judge voting only on sectors which they were comfortable with making an informed decision on. Our judges also demonstrated some interest in wanting to drive the sustainable development of Nigeria and/or are already social impact champions. Our overseas judges in particular provided an independent international perspective (looking at Nigeria from the outside), which made the competition even more exciting and more competitive than we imagined. We are grateful for your time and consideration, and trust your judgment and decisions. Together, we arrived at the final 7 Wonder Women For Nigeria. 

Akudo Anyanwu
Dr. Akudo Anyanwu is an award-winning global health expert, public health innovator and social entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the field of international development. She is an Associate Dean at Johns Hopkins University and the Founder of Friends Africa, a pan-African organisation that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by mobilising African businesses, governments and NGOs. She has also served on the boards of Roll Back Malaria, the Global Health Council and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Anyanwu’s pioneering work on the Gift from Africa Campaign has been recognised by the Rockefeller Foundation as a top 100 next century innovation. She has also been recognized as Tufts University’s Distinguished Service Award (2015), a Harvard School of Public Health Innovator of the Year (2013), an Ogunte Social Leader of the Year (2013) and Stevie Innovator and Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2012).

Olatowun Candide-Johnson

Temi Awogboro
Temi Marcella Awogboro (MBA, Stanford Business) is a Director at the Abraaj Group and Co-founder of Kairos Angels, an investment club aiming to transform Africa by partnering with visionary entrepreneurs to build scalable and sustainable businesses in Africa. She has more than a decade of experience in finance across developed and growth markets. As an investment professional, Temi has committed nearly US$500 million in private capital across strategic sectors in a bid to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Temi commenced her career at Goldman Sachs International, where she was a recipient of the Goldman Sachs and Institute of International Education’s Global Leaders Award. Temi also has a First Class Honours degree in Economics from Christ’s College, Cambridge, where she was a matriculation scholar and is a Kauffman Venture Capital Fellow, an African Leadership Institute Tutu Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper (Lagos Hub) and Alumni Ambassador (London Hub). She is the recipient of the M&A Advisor’s European Emerging Leaders Award and has been recognised as the Female Lead’s Top 20 Women under 20 and Management Today and The Telegraph’s 35 Women Under 35 in the UK.

Dr Kemi Dasilva-Ibru

Mark Nwani
Mark is an MBA graduate with over 11 years work experience in risk operations, business development, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and project management, spanning several sectors in various countries. Furthermore, he has led successful mentoring-centric events, as well as high-level fraud risk projects that resulted in improvement of processes. Currently, he is a Senior Risk Analyst with JPMorgan, where the core of his job description includes evaluating existing policies and procedures to ascertain areas that need improvement, designing processes to mitigate potential risks, project supervision, and creating contingency plans to manage crisis among others. He is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and offers advisory services to companies looking to build an inclusive culture.

Aishetu Dozie
Aishetu Dozie (MBA, Harvard Business) recently completed her fellowship at Stanford University (The Distinguished Careers Institute) and just launched a beauty business, California-based Bossy Cosmetics on International Women’s Day this year. As well as being the founder, she holds the role of Chief Executive Officer. Her company is a mission-driven beauty brand that serves professional women who love the convenience of ecommerce, appreciate affordable prices and the mission to amplify the efforts of nonprofits that advocate for social change for women and girls around the world.  Aishetu is also a 20+ year investment banking and finance veteran and worked at leading financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, among others.  Aishetu also founded a first-of-its-kind children’s play and activity centre in Lagos and authored a children’s picture book entitled “Paloo & Friends in Imaginaria”, loves writing, and has been a contributing columnist for Business Day Newspaper. 

Anya Duroha
Anya Duroha is the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of Nova Merchant Bank Limited. Preceding this appointment, he was the Executive Director, Wholesale Bank responsible for development and management of the Bank’s corporate banking relationships. Prior to joining the Bank as a pioneer staff, he was the Head, Business Banking at Stanbic IBTC, where he was responsible for Commercial Banking and SME businesses in Nigeria. In that role, he had the responsibility for both relationship and portfolio management. In this capacity, he designed and implemented interventions and strategies that ensured the rapid growth and profitability of the business. He started his banking career in banking operations in Citibank and has 25 years banking experience spanning across many areas of banking. He was the Head Corporate Banking, United Bank for Africa Plc; Head Corporate Banking, Diamond Bank Plc and Head of Business Development (Designate), Diamond Bank, United Kingdom. In all these roles, he has managed portfolios in various sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, construction, oil & gas, infrastructure, aviation, power, maritime, telecommunications, FMCG and structured trade finance.

Mr Ladi Balogun, CEO First City Monument Bank<br />

Giles Peppiatt
Giles established the first international sale of Contemporary African Art, ‘Africa Now’, in April 2009. This sale and exhibition was critically acclaimed and brought this hitherto unknown but vibrant market to the attention of many collectors and institutions. The auction established Bonhams as the market leader in Contemporary African Art and also confirmed Bonhams credentials as the world leader in all matters relating to the art of Africa. Many believe that Giles was instrumental in making the record-breaking sale of Tutu happen (sold for £1.2m in February 2018), a huge milestone that will contribute positively to the rising interest in Nigerian and other African artwork for sale. As well as his engagement as an auctioneer, Giles also encourages the hosting of special preview events at Bonhams, sometimes in the form of charity fundraisers. For example, in partnership with The Malaika Foundation (a charity dedicated to empowering girls in DRC through education) and AMADE, Bonhams worked with the foundations’ two presidents Noella Coursaris Musunka and HRH Princess Caroline to host a special evening to help raise funds in aid of these two foundations. At the Africa Now Sale itself the proceeds of the works by Congolese artists Freddy Tsimba and Patrick Bongoy were donated to The Malaika Foundation.

Anita Kouassigan

Nike Sotade
Adenike  Sotade is a journalist with over two decades of experience in the print media.
She holds a BA (Hons) English degree from the University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria; Postgraduate Diploma (Mass Communication) and Masters degree in Mass Communication also from the University of Lagos. She is currently the Editor of The Guardian on Saturday. Adenike joined the reputable national newspaper as a reporter  where she has honed her skills, and by dint of hard work and diligence, has risen to the rank of a title editor. A renowned StyleWriter, prolific and versatile journalist, she was also at one time the Assistant Features Editor and Metro Editor of The Guardian. In her current position as a female title editor, she has utilised the opportunity to espouse the cause of women. This is evident in the 8-page GuardianWoman pullout on Saturdays dedicated to promoting gender advocacy while also projecting female role models and their immense contributions to nation-building .