LEAP Africa appoints new board members

LEAP Africa, a youth-focused leadership development organisation, has announced the appointment of three new members to its board of directors.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by Omolara Shitu, its spokesperson, on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the three new board members are Adesola Sotande-Peters, Micheline Ntiru, and Amal Hassan.

Shitu noted that the new appointees come from diverse backgrounds and bring years of experience to the work that LEAP Africa does across the continent.

“Adesola 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. Adesola oversees the Controls and Governance agenda in Unilever Africa, providing strategic finance leadership,” the statement reads.

“Micheline 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.

“Amal 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.”

The spokesperson also said the organisation has created a seat on the board that will be occupied by David Lanre Messan, president of the LEAP Africa alumni network (LAAN).

Femi Taiwo, the executive director of LEAP, is said to have welcomed the new members on board.

He added that he believed their work and experience will benefit the organisation and help in achieving its goals.

“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,” Taiwo was quoted to have said.

“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.”