Ayo Olajiga (KSM '04) is the Chief Representative Officer for FirstRand Bank of South Africa in Nigeria. FirstRand Limited, listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange,  is one of the largest financial services group in South Africa. Prior to taking up his role in Nigeria, Ayo was in the corporate finance team of the group focused on transactions in M&A, valuation and corporate restructuring advisory.

Prior to joining FirstRand, Ayo was a management consultant with Mckinsey &Co based in Johannesburg with focus on operations and strategy engagements for both the private and public sectors.
Ayo has a degree in Electronics/Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and earned his MBA in 2004 from the Kellogg School of Management. He also has a Masters in Telecommunications from New Jersey Institute of Technology.

B. J. Rewane is a seasoned and experienced economist and financial analyst.  He is a respected opinion leader and commentator on the West African economy, and particularly, the Nigerian macro-economy.

His experience as a practicing economist and professional banker spans the last three decades.  He worked at Barclays Bank in the U.K.  He also worked for an extended period for the First National Bank of Chicago in the U.S. and Africa.  He is a co-founder of the Financial Derivatives Company Limited which is reputed as the leading source of Economic and Financial Research in Nigeria and an Asset Management Company.

Mr. Rewane facilitates as a Resource person at the Lagos Business School of the Pan-African University.  He serves on the Board of Directors of several Companies ranging from Banks to fast moving consumer goods and the downstream petroleum industry.  Some of which are Guinness Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Modant Marine Limited and Oil Service Company, UBA Custodian Limited, UNIC Insurance Plc, Delta Packaging Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Economic Summit Gropu, and Navgas (A Vitol Subsidiary).

Benét DeBerry-Spence is a marketing professor in the Liautaud Graduate School of Business at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).  Her current research interests are retailing, cultural consumption, social entrepreneurship and subsistence markets, and her work appears in such publications as the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 

She has significant managerial experience in marketing, strategy and business development, with a focus in global commercialization. She has worked with both Baxter and Monsanto/G.D. Searle and is the past President of StreetWise, a leading advocacy group for the homeless and the largest North American Street Newspaper.  In 2005, Dr. DeBerry-Spence founded MASAZI®, a social venture operating in Ghana, West Africa. Currently she is on the Board of Directors of Royal Neighbors of America and a member of the Executive Committee of the UIC Senate.  

Professor DeBerry-Spence received a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a Bachelors of Science from the University of Notre Dame.

Mr. Bisi Onasanya until his appointment as Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Plc was Executive Director, Banking Operations & Services. Prior to this, he was MD/CEO of First Pension Custodian Nigeria Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstBank, where he developed initiatives that drove best practices in the nation's pension custody industry.

A seasoned banker and chartered accountant with over 25 years diverse management and operational experience, Bisi is a highly respected and personable executive who has established a reputation at FirstBank for solid performance and sound judgment. As GMD/CEO, he is committed to continue the momentum of the Bank's ongoing growth and modernisation plans.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Taxation.

Prince Cedza Dlamini has a BSc degree in International Relations and Political Science from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA. He is an international public speaker (as a UN Millennium Development Goals spokesperson and activist), a humanitarian and a social entrepreneur.

He was born into the Royal Family in Swaziland and founded the Ubuntu Institute as an organization that would benefit youth and provide education on how the Millennium Development Goals could be achieved in Africa. His strategy was to focus on four key goals: eradication of poverty; gender and women empowerment; education; and eradication of HIV/AIDS. As the CEO of the Ubuntu Institute, he promotes a values-based approach (looking at the role of heritage, indigenous knowledge systems and culture) in achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals and is responsible for providing strategic direction for the organization.

In 2004, he was appointed spokesperson for UN Millennium Development Goals, and is a Board member of the South African Chamber of Commerce in America, Operation Hope Inc, USA , Taking IT Global, Canada, and Global Development for Peace and Leadership, Cape Town.

Cedza also has an International Business Degree, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and  a Masters in Philanthropy (currently pursuing) with Indiana State University. He is the grandson of Nelson Mandela.

Christian is a Partner in the Financial Services Competence Center of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
As Head of Sub-Saharan Africa he is responsible for expanding Roland Berger's cooperation with private and public institutions. Christian also leads Roland Berger's activities on innovative financial services with his work in banking for low-income segments.

As part of Roland Berger's corporate responsibility agenda he works on new ways of empowering developing countries.
Before joining Roland Berger, Christian worked for a leading American management consultancy, pioneering their work in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a Director at Barclays he supported the retail expansion and integration of acquisitions across 12 Sub-Saharan countries out of Johannesburg.

His areas of competence include innovative financial services, bank strategy and large transformation programs as well as post-merger integrations. Christian holds a master degree in business administration from the University of Cologne, Germany.

Ebenezer Essoka assumed his role as Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank South Africa in November 2008. Prior to this appointment, he was Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Central and West Africa. Ebenezer holds a BSc. and MBA in Finance as well as a Diploma in International Business. Furthermore, he has attended senior development programmes at INSEAD, London Business School, Templeton College, Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Ebenezer's banking career began in the USA with the Bank of Boston and his African professional experience began with Bank of Boston, Cameroon. He later joined Standard Chartered Bank in 1986. Ebenezer has successfully managed several of the Group's strategic/core subsidiaries in Southern, East, Central, and West Africa. Furthermore, he has had broad business experiences ranging from the establishment of greenfield operations to restructuring and repositioning mature operations for sustainable growth across the Group's network in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Ebenezer has served on twelve SCB subsidiary Boards, currently as chairman of SCB Cameroon, previously Côte d'Ivoire and Non Executive Director of ten others including Nigeria and Pakistan.

Ebenezer plays an active role as a member of various business associations. He serves as Director on the Main Board of the Banking Association of South Africa and is also a member of the Global Advisory Council of the London Business School. In addition he is a founding member and trustee of the Global Reach Network Foundation – an organisation focused on bridging opportunity gaps for individuals and communities worldwide.

Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia (KSM '03) is a legal services entrepreneur. Oxford & Beaumont, the firm he founded in 2006, is internationally recognized as one of Ghana’s leading law firms, and has advised on over eleven billion dollars ($11b) worth of deals for clients such as Citibank, International Finance Corporation, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and Vodafone.

Elikem received his B.A from the University of Oxford, and his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. After Kellogg, he worked at Diageo as Associate Brand Manager for Captain Morgan before moving home in 2004 to play a pivotal role in setting up Standard Trust Bank Ghana (now United Bank for Africa). 

Elikem previously worked at Linklaters LLP, where he advised Goldman Sachs on the restructure of Ashanti’s $540m hedge portfolio (Legal Business Restructuring deal of 1999).

In 2010, Elikem was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and one of ‘Africa’s 40 under-40 Achievers by The Network Journal. He also received the Millennium Excellence Awards' Young Professional of the Year Award in 2006, and, at Kellogg, the 2002 Business Leadership Award.

Elikem is an adjunct lecturer in entrepreneurship at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, where he is a particular favorite of the students because of the original, unconventional but effective methods he adopts. He has published articles on venture capital in Ghana, and is currently writing a textbook on Ghanaian entrepreneurship.

Elikem serves on the boards of Metropolitan Insurance, Google Ghana Limited, CreativeHUB and the Akua Kuenyehia Foundation and is a former member of the Chase Petroleum Ghana Limited board.

 An avid collector of contemporary Ghanaian art, Elikem is in the process of establishing a gallery.

A native of Cote d’Ivoire, Eric Kacou is co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), a firm providing entrepreneurs and leaders with the right mix of insight and capital needed to generate prosperity. He is also the author of Entrepreneurial Solutions for Prosperity in BoP Markets, which has already received coverage from international media such as FT, CNBC, and SABC.

Prior to starting this venture, he served as Managing Director of OTF Group, a competitiveness consultancy focused on emerging markets. An expert in business strategy and economic reconstruction, he led the Rwanda National Innovation and Competitiveness (RNIC) Program. Eric also served CEOs and leaders of over a dozen developing countries and international development partners.

Eric started his career as a strategy consultant with Monitor Company advising Fortune 500 executives. A Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Eric earned his MBA at the Wharton School, and serves on the Wharton Executive Board for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The World Economic Forum honored Eric Kacou as a Young Global Leader.

In 2009, Femi resigned his position as Senior Finance Manager at Microsoft: to create a company that would apply mobile technology for social impact in his native Africa. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company he founded, SlimTrader (www.SlimTrader.com), provides local businesses and consumers with a mobile phone service that facilitates effortless transactions.

Under Femi’s leadership, SlimTrader has begun operating in four African nations and has had a string of early successes. For example, SlimTrader recently teamed with EarthWise Ferry Service to help reignite the long-dormant yet economically vital waterway transportation system along Lake Victoria and, in turn, strengthen the social fabric of the three countries that border it. This is the kind of change Femi set out to make.

Before founding SlimTrader, Femi worked in a variety of high-level capacities at some of the most respected telecommunications and software firms in the world, including as a Subject Matter Expert for T-Mobile’s mobile data platforms and a Consultant Team Leader for AT&T Wireless. After receiving his MBA from the University of Chicago, he switched careers and joined Microsoft as a Senior Finance Manager on the TV, Video & Music Finance team, where he managed a $45M P&L.

Jonathan Bloom, Deputy Vice President, West Africa in the Department of Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), is responsible for MCC’s support to implementation of Compact programs in Africa. Previously, Mr. Bloom was Deputy Vice President for Africa, Managing Director for Francophone Africa, Managing Director for Agriculture, Finance and Private Sector Development for the Department of Operations, responsible for program components investing in agricultural production, processing, and marketing, rural development, property rights and land policy, financial systems and institutions, and private sector development. From December 2004 to November 2005, Mr. Bloom also served as MCC’s Vice President for Administration and Finance, and Senior Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to MCC, Mr. Bloom worked for several years as a consultant to international development banks and corporations ranging from Fortune 50 multinationals to private family businesses, as well as teaching international development management at the New School University’s Graduate Program in International Affairs. He was previously Director, Strategic Initiatives for International Paper working on global investments and strategic initiatives in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, which he joined after growing a family paper business to revenues of $100 million and selling it to IP. Prior to that, Mr. Bloom worked at the World Bank Group, including the International Finance Corporation, on capital markets, financial institutions and agro-industrial development. He also has experience as a software product developer with IBM and a 6th grade teacher.

Mr. Bloom received an A.B. from Princeton University—Woodrow Wilson School, and an M.B.A. (Highest Distinction) from the Harvard Business School. He speaks Spanish and French.

Lola Masha obtained her PhD in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was also actively involved in student government as the President of the Graduate Assembly, representing over 10,000 graduate students on campus. She worked with the global consulting firm, McKinsey and Company, out of the Chicago office on engagements that span a breadth of industries including technology and financial services. She moved back to Nigeria after over 10 years in the United States and joined BankPHB as Head of Corporate Strategy.

Lola Masha is currently the Business Development Manager for English-Speaking West Africa at Google Inc. where she is responsible for all Google's strategic partnerships and business relationships with partners in Nigeria including mobile operators. Lola is happily married and received her Bachelor's of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Michael Wallach (KSM '06) has recently joined Sachs Capital Group and long time investor and hedge fund portfolio manager Gregory H. Sachs, as a Director of Strategic Investments. Prior to Sachs Capital Group, Wallach worked in the research department of Leavitt Capital Management, a multi-family investment office.  Mr. Wallach’s responsibilities included sourcing, evaluating and monitoring alternative investments across the globe. His primary areas of investment focus included global water, clean energy, Africa and cyber security investments. In pursuit of such deals, Mr. Wallach evaluated opportunities in sixteen countries spread over four continents including Nigeria, India, Ukraine, Australia and China. Mr. Wallach has been a lecturer on these subjects, most recently at the International Water Technologies, Renewable Energy and Environmental Control Exhibition and Conference (WATEC) in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has contributed to multiple articles about water and cyber security investments that have been published in Marc Faber’s The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.

Prior to joining Leavitt Capital Management, Mr. Wallach served as an Assistant Treasurer at Bank Hapoalim, an international bank. At Bank Hapoalim, Mr. Wallach was responsible for analyzing, structuring and monitoring an international portfolio of credits including off-balance sheet lending, securitization of assets, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate financing.

Mr. Wallach holds an M.B.A from Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.A. degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Nicolas Clerc is Chief Economist for Europe, Africa, Middle East and the CIS in the Business Economics Division of Caterpillar.  His responsibilities include preparing and communicating economic and machine industry outlooks for the regions under coverage.

Nicolas joined Caterpillar in 2003 as an economist, initially covering North America and exchange rates.  Prior to joining Caterpillar, he co-founded a company in 2000 delivering short-term forecasting services to hedge funds and pension funds in Switzerland.  He holds a Ph. D. in finance from Lausanne University, Switzerland and was a visiting scholar at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.

Robert Wolcott is the Executive Director of the Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) and a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He teaches corporate innovation and entrepreneurship for Kellogg in Evanston, Miami and Hong Kong (with HKUST). Formerly a Visiting Professor at the Keio Business School (Tokyo, Japan). Advisor to NORDEN, the Nordic Innovation Center, Nordic Council of Ministers, Oslo, Norway, and a member of the Global Technology Council of Kraft Foods, Inc.

His new book, with Dr. Michael Lippitz, Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (McGraw-Hill) launched in October, 2009. Wolcott's work has appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review, The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, BusinessWeek, The Financial Times (UK/European Edition) and The New York Times. He is a frequent speaker at events worldwide.

In 2003, Wolcott began leading the Kellogg Innovation Network, created as a key program within Professor Mohan Sawhney's Center for Research in Technology and Innovation. The KIN's annual summit, KIN Global, takes place in late Spring and includes leaders from around the world from business, government, academia, non-profits and the arts who collaborate around issues of significance for their organizations and for humanity. www.kinglobal.org

Wolcott also co-founded and serves as Managing Partner of Clareo Partners LLC, a corporate strategy and innovation management consultancy specializing in new business creation and growth (www.clareopartners.com). Subsidiary Clareo Capital owns equity in companies in social enterprise and luxury markets. Clareo's headquarters, Clareo Studio, created in partnership with Herman Miller, Inc., serves as a collaboration space for special events, corporate off-sites and performances dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, social awareness and general inspiration.

Wolcott received a BA, European and Chinese History; and an MS and Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He and his wife, Ada Yung, have a young daughter, Jolie, and reside in Chicago, Illinois.

Adjudged one of the world’s leading Africa frontier markets analysts, and voted among the ‘Top 30 under 30 Analysts’ by the New York’s Institutional Investor Magazine in 2006, Sebastian helped establish the multimillion dollar Africa risk advisory, consulting, and research practice at leading global risk consultancy firm, Eurasia Group. 

Sebastian Spio-Garbrah has been called by some MEAF investors the “Meredith Whitney” of the recent Nigerian banking crisis where his controversial prescient analysis exactly forecasted the scope of the country's toxic bank assets and pending bank insolvencies – even at a time when the country’s central bank governor gave the country’s banks a clean bill of health. Sebastian was between 2005 and 2010 the sovereign risk analyst on Sub-Saharan Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa for a global Stability Index developed by Eurasia Group and Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and CitiGroup. Sebastian has been quoted extensively by the international media and is renowned for his accurate ahead of-the-market “calls” on major political, legislative and socio-economic events in Africa. Sebastian’s keen insights, analyses and counsel have been widely sought by global multinationals, governments and many financial intermediaries.

Sebastian is currently the Managing Director for Damina Advisors, LLP (New York - London - Accra). Previously, Sebastian was head of the energy unit within Thompson Financials Capital Markets Strategic Intelligence Group and has informally advised UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa. A Fellow of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington DC, Sebastian is a former intern to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Sebastian is advisory board member for Jewish Heart for Africa Inc, an international NGO which has provided solar technology and water purification services to over 150,000 African villagers. Sebastian holds a BA (double major) in Economics and Political Science from Middlebury College, Vermont and a JD in law from Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Suzanne Iroche (KSM '88) serves as the appointed Group Managing Director and CEO of FinBank PLC in Nigeria. In this role, she is focused on strengthening risk management practices and instituting stronger corporate governance structures to ensure a transparent, disciplined, and business driven environment.

Prior to this role, Suzanne was responsible for expanding the United Bank of Africa’s franchise outside Nigeria to other African countries and for supervising existing offshore operations both in Ghana and in New York. Her success in managing global relationships with strategic partners, global investors, and multilateral institutions such as the International Finance Corporation, African Development Bank, and Kingdom Zephyr, speak to Suzanne’s experience in effectively managing cross-border and cross-cultural transactions.   

Suzanne serves on the University of Lagos’ Advancement Board and assists the school in its overall strategy for growth and impact. She is also an advisory board member of WISCAR; an NGO set up to assist professional women to succeed in their chosen careers through formal mentorship; she currently serves as a mentor. 

Suzanne is a results oriented leader with a strong track record of performance in turnaround and start up businesses. She is a married mother of three who lives with her husband in Nigeria.

Steven Rogers is the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. Professor Rogers teaches Entrepreneurial Finance at Kellogg and is the Director of the Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice. Before joining the Kellogg Faculty, he owned and operated two manufacturing firms and one retail operation. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Professor Rogers worked at Bain and Company Consulting firm, Cummins Engine Company and UNC Ventures, a venture capital firm.
Professor Rogers has been named to the Faculty Honor Roll in every quarter he has taught at Kellogg. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the 1996 and 2005 Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year. He was the first of two professors in Kellogg's history to have received this award more than once. In 1996, BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 entrepreneurship professors at graduate business schools in the U.S. In 1997, BusinessWeek named him one of 14 "New Stars of Finance." In 1998, he was selected as Entrepreneur Of The Year ® (supporter category) by Ernst & Young.

In addition to the regular MBA program, Professor Rogers teaches in many Kellogg executive programs in the U.S., Toronto and Hong Kong. He has received the Outstanding Professor Award for the Executive Program 24 times.

Professor Rogers currently serves on the Advisory Board of Private Equity firm OCA Ventures. He also serves on the Board of Directors of SC Johnson Wax, W.S. Darley & Company, SuperValu (NYSE) and Oakmark Mutual Funds. He is a member of JP Morgan Chase's Capital Investment Committee. His non-profit work includes board membership for The A Better Chance Program and Urban Prep High School. Professor Rogers is also a former Trustee of Williams College and a former member of the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee.

In 2000, he received the "Bicentennial Medal for Distinguished Achievement" by an alum from Williams College. In 2005, he received the "Bert King Award for Service" from the African American Student Union of Harvard Business School. In 2005, he also was selected as "Chicago United's Business Leader of Color." In 2006, he was selected as one of the "100 Men Impacting Supplier Diversity." In 2007, he was inducted into his alma mater, Radnor High School's, Hall of Fame. In 2008 he was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame. Governor Pat Quinn appointed him to be a trustee of the Illinois State Universities Retirement System Pension Board in 2009. In 2009 Ebony Magazine named him one of the top 150 influential people in America.

He has been often quoted in many publications, including Black Enterprise, Crain's Business Journal, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Fortune, Monarch and BusinessWeek. In 2002 Professor Rogers published his first book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Finance and Business. The second edition was published in 2008.

Todd Neuman was recently appointed as Head of North America for South African Airways (SAA).  Based at the carrier’s North American headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Neuman oversees functions for passenger sales, marketing, reservations sales and airport operations for SAA in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.   Neuman joined South African Airways in 2006, as vice president of sales, responsible for passenger sales strategies and business development.

An airline industry veteran with more than 30 years experience, Neuman has held senior management positions with National Leisure Group, a leisure travel company based in Woburn, Massachusetts.  Prior to his engagement National Leisure Group, Neuman served 22 years with US Airways in several management positions in the sales and marketing departments.  During his tenure there, he was instrumental in business development to support the airline’s aggressive expansion into the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.

Neuman began his career in the airline industry in 1979 in Chicago, working for Delta Air Lines while also attending college and earning certification as a private pilot.  He is a graduate of the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa, with a degree in Business and Aviation Administration.  Neuman currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Yinka Johnson (KSM '99) is currently Head of Project Implementation at FirstBank of Nigeria Plc, where she is responsible for driving the implementation of large strategic projects. She worked for many years for leading companies in the UK and USA before relocating to Nigeria in 2002 to co-found Integrated Business Strategies, a management consulting firm.

Yinka has consulted in areas including strategy development, organisation transformation, new ventures, learning and development and performance management. She has led engagements for leading Nigerian organisations including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, Law Union & Rock Insurance, Guaranty Trust Assurance, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency/ Management Sciences for Health and the Ford Foundation
Prior to Integrated Business Strategies,

Yinka was a management consultant with Cap Gemini, a leading global management consulting firm. Based in Chicago, she consulted with major US companies including Coca-Cola and United Airlines. Her industry experience includes financial services, consumer products, transportation & logistics, pharmaceutical and publishing industries.

Prior to becoming a management consultant, she had a successful career with Abbott Laboratories in the United Kingdom and the United States as a Development Engineer, gaining experience in areas including new product development, product commercialisation and manufacturing.

Ms. Johnson holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. She also holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), in Chemical Engineering from South Bank University, London, UK.